MOHAMMAD HANIEF & ASIF IQBAL
Azhar Showkat Malik and Sheikh Rizwana of Srinagar through their charitable groups ‘Hyemath Kashmir’ and ‘Nuqoosh-e-Rah’ are doing all sort of efforts to get the required items for the victims of Turkiye & Syria earthquake victims and coordinating with all other local NGOs of Kashmir valley for the required items from different areas of valley as the death tolls has increased to 46,000 after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 06, 20223.
Turkish rescuers pulled four people alive from the rubble at two different places after 12 days survival which includes two men, woman and 12-year-old child were transferred to ambulances after spending 296 hours buried. The total number of people killed in Turkey so far is 39,672, while the Syrian government and United Nations said more than 5,800 people have died there. Teams have been finding survivors all week despite them being stuck for so long under the rubble in freezing weather, but their numbers have dropped to just a handful in the past few days.
Azhar Malik is 24 year old law student and is vice president of ‘Hyemath Kashmir’ charitable organization is following twitter posts of Turkiye embassy of India about the requirement of the items and in immediate response, he starts sending message to all his ‘Hyemath Kashmir’ team members first than coordinating with all other NGOs of Kashmir valley and always gets overwhelming response from the people of the valley.
So far Azhar and his team have sent two fully loaded trucks to Turkiye embassy of India with blankets, sleeping bags and other required items as it is the immediate requirements in the earthquake devastating areas of Turkiye which includes two hundred blankets, over 300 sleeping bags, over a hundred jackets, three boxes of sanitary pads, four large-sized boxes full of dry fruits, two large sized boxes of dry milk, over four hundred pairs of socks and other commodities.
Sheikh Rizwana, a 32-year-old female from Saida Kadal Srinagar, despite being at odds with life, also contributed money and good number of electric blankets, sleeping bags, water bottles etc for the survivors of the earthquake survivors in Turkey through his charitable group ‘Nuqoosh-e-Rah’.
“Being myself bed-ridden I was clueless as how to make it possible the aid reaches to the intended place – and it was then a social-worker Asif Mushtaq (Huzaif) introduced ‘Hyemath Kashmir’ to me and I donated the collectibles to them,” she said.
Rizwana has been enduring protracted illness from 2006, however it has not held her back from carrying out philanthropic activities, whenever the situation arose as she spent her day time as an online Quran tutor for over 250 (female students) in Kashmir and other parts of the India and abroad, but at the same time has completed her DFSM (Dietetics & Food Service Management) degree and is currently working as a Biochemistry teacher at RP School (Boys) at Alamdar Colony, Lal Bazar.
“I have been unwell for last 17 years now owing to which I remain bed-ridden for most of the time”, says Rizwana adding I braved the odds and mustered courage and joined RP School where I would collect donations from my fellow teachers and donate it among the needy people in the community.
“I underwent a surgery in the year 2019, following which my locomotory issues aggravated, resulting in to remain bed-ridden for most of the time. A year later i.e. 2020, I formally started my online classes for teaching the Quran,” she says. Azhar Wani further says, “We are currently on standby as the embassy is yet to make any further requisition and once we receive any (requisition), we’ll go back to collect more donations as and when sought”, says Azhar.
It was in the year 2020, when the Covid pandemic was at its peak and they in a bid to help out the people Azhar and his team came on ground and provided help in sort of oxygen cylinders, every once and helped out anyone, he/she would cheer us saying ‘Rab Dinow Himmat’ (May Allah be on your side) and this ‘Himmat’ is our strength, courage and more apt to say our ‘Hyemath’ is all about about the team.
“From 2020 onwards, Himmat team have been assisting the needful families in weddings and empowering the underprivileged sections of society in any way possible besides holding mass Iftari during holy month of Ramadhan, and we as a team believe that more empowerment of our people, will ultimately help us to donate more and make our society self-sufficient” Azhar said.
In a very human gesture to a new born baby girl in Syria, thousands of people have offered to adopt the baby girl who was born under the rubble of a collapsed building in north-west Syria earthquake hit area. According to a news report of BBC, when she was rescued, baby Aya – meaning miracle in Arabic – was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord.
Her mother, father and all four of her siblings died after the quake hit the town of Jindayris. “She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing,” said Hani Marouf , the pediatrician looking after her in a media report.
As Turkey tries to manage its worst modern disaster, concerns were growing over the victims of the tragedy in Syria, with the World Food Programme (WFP) pressuring authorities in the northwest to stop blocking access to the area as it seeks to help hundreds of thousands of people ravaged by earthquakes.
(The authors can be mailed at [email protected] and [email protected])
