Daily Times

The lockdown enforcement locked a lot of sources of employments for the people already on the verge of maintaining a day to day life, it’s not only the daily wagers but the white collared, the sales staff who got laid off, the waiters who are no more serving, the cab and rickshaw drivers who have no passengers and even the teachers now short of tuition deals. List is endless but the light at the end of tunnel we see is the relief and support activities generated on self-initiatives base by a lot of socially responsible citizens, one such candle of relief is “Prints for Pandemic’ by three girls – Seher Qayyum, an artist pursuing master’s degree at New York Pratt University, Zunera Shah, a gender and development consultant at CGAP and a Harvard graduate, and Neeha Rashid, a public policy professional at Harvard Ash center. The girls have initiated a cause where the chain of sharing social responsibility goes on, as the artists are donating the original prints of their work, photographs and digital art that is sold online and will be delivered via courier after the lockdown. There is a standard size and price for all the prints. This type of charity work stimulates not only the fundraising but it has a manifold effect. The art buyers get the satisfaction of buying for a cause and an otherwise unaffordable piece of art becomes accessible. The art doesn’t die or fade out this way as the artist keeps on conversing with the society.

A consumerist mentality keeps on pushing us to wish for more and buy more

The web page WWW.PRINTSFORPANDEMICRELIEF.COM displays work of more than 60 artists, including some very upcoming visual artists Komail Aijazdun, Rahim Balouch, Aleena Naqvi, Zulfikar Bhutto-Junior and Haya Zaidi. The list is long and more and more artists are donating their work. The fixed price i.e Rs6,000 with 9in/12in size makes the sorting out work much straight, easier and pocket friendly.

This relief fund generating campaign is unique in its way as it reaches out to heterogeneous grass root level organizations ranging from working class of laborers and daily wagers: One of the organizations is the Karachi Bachao Tehreek that is simultaneously working to provide safety kits for healthcare staff. The other organization Slummabad working with gypsy community, Islamabad based Corona Solidarity Campaign, providing assistance to slum area residents, personally reaching out to transgender community this covers a lot of under privileged population who are not even registered with the government social welfare department or NADRA based data.

Such initiatives are ventilators for the effected ones but theses ventilators require a lot of community support. Cliché saying but one cost cutting of a lavish iftar spread can serve the purpose. Pakistan despite a bare minimum coverage of social welfare expenditure in its governmental policies yet cops up with poverty to some extent. Pakistanis are the second most charity giving nation in the world. One of the organizers, Zunera explained, “The response of the artists was so encouraging considering the fact that artists are struggling with their own financial management, it was overwhelming to see their commitment towards pandemic relief funds generation.” She added that personally reaching out to transgender communities, accessing them was the toughest task. Unfortunately, people living below the poverty line lack basic life needs such as place to live or provision of a meal to eat. The situation is gruesome but willingness of people to help out is the only hope. The organizers sounded very hopeful and mentioned how art selling as used worldwide to support charity, in Pakistan its comparatively not much frequent but they hoped that this project will boost and motivate all three in the loop the seller, buyer and the beneficiaries of charity.

A consumerist mentality keeps on pushing us to wish for more and buy more; this creates a perpetual conflict of dissatisfaction keeps on widening the income gap indirectly. A charitable giving when delayed is like denying the need. it always results in a square where one keeps on bouncing in all four corners leading back to own self-centered needs. Giving to a cause not only supports the organization, propagate the aim and mission of organization. Educated lot knows the importance of art as it keeps the enlightened factors alive. Art not only influences society, throws light to another perspective and keeps various cultures and ideologies alive and breathing. A piece of art hanging is not only a beautiful hanging but it stimulates and leads to lot of ideas based discussion. This quarantine gave an altogether new perspective of life, undid many of our socializing and normalized the new norms. What else could be a better charity than providing food for thought for one’s own intellectual appetite, helping the under privileged and encouraging the artists by letting them know that their work is appreciated.

The artists have offered their work and the fund directly going to six relief-providing parties working within communities. By providing all images online and keeping the prices fixed this charity fund is transparent. The fund raising campaign will end on May 22. Providing relief in an undocumented economy is a very challenging task but the support of donors keeps one going ahead. Somehow positivity has a pull once when we think of helping the ideas and the path opens up before us. The words of Imam Ali a.s are worth mentioning here: “Charity enhances prestige and position; courtesy will draw benevolence and service of mankind will secure leadership”. It’s the essence of empathy that makes a society civilized.

The writer teaches gender studies at a university, and is researcher and PhD scholar