Friday, June 15, 2007

share-a-smile.org

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, 'A good deed is one which brings a smile of joy on someones face'. I love this. It is better than anything good I could ever imagine. It makes my heart swell with happiness. Dale Carnegie, in his book, 'Stop worrying and start living' mentioned this hadith. Mr. Carnegie encouraged his readers to do atleast one good deed everyday and his definition of a good deed was what Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the above hadith and the source was acknowledged in the book.
We want to see a happy kashmir. A kashmir where smiles greet you in every direction you look in. Is it achievable? I believe it is. My shirt, that I got from a recent leadershape camp that I attended, says, "Don't wait for the world to change, take action." I love this too.
I want to take action. Asif and I have been talking about starting a group. A group that would share a smile. Share smiles with those who are less privileged. The group of people that we thought of helping out would be those who cannot afford a treatment at a medical facility because of lack of money. If all of our friends, reading this blog, come forward to help us, we could bring lots of smiles on peoples' faces. It would help us as Asif put it, "to keep our inner self alive".
The plan is to seek help from the doctors we personally know in Kashmir, to identify those who need help. We could open a bank account in Kashmir, operated by our trusted friends there. Whenever someone would need help, our friends would deposit the money directly to the medical center for the treatment.
Even if we could help only a single person I would consider our efforts a success. Let us share a smile and try to bring a smile of joy on someones face for the sake of ALLAH. Please share your opinions, advises and suggestions. May ALLAH bless you all.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

bhai...assalamualaikum although i could ask you the question through other media but i still preferred this blog in the hope that other people may also like to share ideas... i wanted to know the mode of operations of the group.. you want to help the downtrodden/ the needy may be by providing them coupons for medical facilities to begin with (which as a concept is good.)...and later on it may be extended to provide education coupons also...but for this probably we need to have a campaign and also identify the service providers who will honour the coupon...i mean u need to have efficient people in your service providers list and they must be willing to cooperate.... secondly what is the mechanism for auditing and accounting in the plan...

Nayeem said...

Dear Firoz,
Wa' alikumsalaam.
Thanks for taking time to read this and for the thoughtful questions.
You are right we will have to work with people who have dedication and have an efficient approach.
We thought people we already know over there could become our contact points. These people will be depositing money directly at the medical facility. Ofcourse, we will need a common bank account.
In order to identify the people who might need help, we shall have to rely on our friends in the medical profession. People like bhaijan and others can help identify those in need.

As far as accounting is concerned we shall mostly keep track through our bank account statements and the receipts we get from the medical center or some pharmacy if we are paying for medicines etc. The most important job is that of the people in Kashmir associated with this effort.

Thanks again for raising these questions. The more we plan the better we can manage it. Also, one important point that you raised is that of the education. If the person earning for the family is sick we shall have to find ways of supporting his/her kids education. We do not want to create a generation of dependents rather a generation of contributors, InshaALLAH.

Be good. Looking forward to seeing you in July. Love you.

-Nayeem

Asif said...

Just to add what Nayeem already mentioned . I do believe all of us feel sad seeing the state of affairs in kashmir & do want to contribute in some way but feel helpless in doing anything & endup blaming someone or the other for all this turmoil & get on with our lives.
I really appreciate Nayeem for taking this up . we probably cannot turn the things around
but we within our limitations can try to lend some help to few . There are so many issues
I recently read in newspaper there are more then 50000 orphans in kashmir . we can hear
stories everyday for people not going for treatment for a lack of little money . The list
of issues can be endless . I feel we should target one or at the most 2 things to work
on .

There can be argument that this can be done indiviually as well and few of us may already
be doing it . But i do believe if we can think & plan collectively we can use our resources
in a much more efficient way & inshallah this group will become big enough to contribute
something substantial .

For starters we should look for ideas & increase the strength of our group . we probably
dont have any well defined concrete plan as of now . but once we get ideas of different people we can reach to some concensus we can start plan of action .

Looking forward to hearing from more people

Abid said...

Dear Nayeem,
Thanks for sharing your idea,the idea really needs to be backed up by a well planned project report to give clarity about functional and other roles .My green flag is up for this idea.

Nayeem said...

Dear Abid,

Assalamualikum.

Thanks for getting involved. You are right, we need to come up with a proper plan. This phase is a brain storming phase. We have read the comments over here and I have spoken to some people over the phone. I have heard some very good ideas which will help us frame a good plan. Once everyone gives his/her inputs I shall compile them together and we shall try to come up with the most comprehensive plan. The idea has started taking shape. Once everybody has expressed their opinion I will put forth what I have in mind based on everybody's inputs.

Thanks again.

The more brains put on their thinking caps the better our approach is gong to be InshaALLAH.

I urge everybody out there to share their thoughts.

Barakallahu Fik

-Nayeem

iShahnaz said...

Nayeem, Asif and others,

Assalam U Alaikum,

First of all let me congratulate you all on this noble initiative and wish Almighty bestows upon you all the success to turn this into a reality. May I mention that you can count me in. I would do all that I can to popularise this initiative among my acquaintances and also would love to being among those lucky few whose small contributions will surely go a long way in putting smiles on those faces. Faces, which have forgotten to know what a smile means. Faces which sport a forlorn look due to the conditions in our motherland. Faces which speak volumes about the apathy we have shown towards them.

We all should be ever thankful to Almighty that He has bestowed us with His blessings that today we are capable of helping those whose destiny was shaped differently.

I think without getting into the nitty gritty of how to achieve the goals it is important to first of all make this initiative popular among those who may be even more eager to help than most of us. Let us first assemble together and be resolute to make this dream a reality. Once we know that we all are together, we can think of where we want to be. Then comes the question How and When?

It is an age old saying "Well begun is half done", Kudos to you for showing your keen interest in these noble deeds. Let us now ensure that we all achieve what we want to. For a start, let us all ensure that this blog gets a lot of audience. And in today's age that should not be too difficult. For a start we can include a reference to this blog (post) in our email signature (We can surely afford that in our personal emails). We can also target Kashmiri communities in the social networking sites. And I am sure, you have countless similar ideas which can be put to practice.

Together we will make this happen, Insha Allah.

Allah Haafiz

Nayeem said...

Dear Shah-Naaz,

Thank you very much for your comments. It is really good to hear different views. I agree with your suggestions about making this popular, however, I think it would be better to make an initiative first so that those who want to help may be able to see some results. It is always easy for someone to join an existing set up rather than initiate one. The more people we have the better it would be. I am collecting some of the information from some people in Kashmir and I shall soon share it with all of you.
Your suggestion about the signature is also nice. I shall follow that.

Thank you very much for sharing your views with us.

Looking forward to work with all of you, InshaALLAH

-Nayeem

Unknown said...

Assalamualikum Dear Friends! May Allah accept this noble initiative taken by Nayeem and his friends. I would like to share with you experience about a similar initiative (though on a very small scale)taken by me and a few of my friends about a year and half ago.
We are helping a Cardiac patient, who is a young man of the age of 40 and is the head of a family of 10 persons. We help this person as follows:
1)Provide him medicine and medical supervision which costs about Rs.1000 per month.
2) Provide education to two of his kids which costs about Rs 2500 per month.
3) Provide some financial assistance which is a variable amount but always far less than his needs.

We have also sponsored another orphan in a Child home. This home provides hostel facility to orphans and provides education to them by admitting them in a nearby private school. The expenses per child are about Rs. 1500 per month.
Since you people are going to start(InshaAllah) in an organised way, I thought it better to tell you about our small efforts with an intention that it may be of some help to you. May Allah accept our efforts and may this all be with the sole intention to please Allah (SWT).

I am working in the valley and have no plans to move out. If my services can be of any help I am always ready. I may not be able to help financially but can devote some of my time.

Manzoor Ahmad Wani

Anonymous said...

AslamuAlykum All,
Jazakallah for taking this initiative.
Being part of a similar mission I have come across few things which I would like to share with you all.

People who are going to be part of this initiative should keep in mind that it is a very long journey; it should not turn out like most of other missions which start with great zeal and slowly fades away.
“There will be people who will be full of enthusiasm in the beginning but will withdraw later.”
Once in a while contributors should be welcome but such mission needs regular contributors.
E.g. we can’t admit a patient in hospital and after 5 months run out of funds, or have no one to coordinate or to take care.

There are many people who are ready to contribute but they are not comfortable in trusting the people who run the mission. So I think the first goal should be to rope in our close friends who know us and would trust us fully. Once a close group of trusted friends is made, each will work in his own friend circle to get in more contributors.

A few honest and trusted people in Kashmir who would identify the deserving
A common bank account which is very important as use of any personal account is not a good idea

I hope these points will be a help to you.