Blog 7-Future

Hello once again and I am back with another important story in my clutches. There is a boy called Mohammad Din (he is also Afghan) and he lives with his family and 4 siblings in a village called Sundgli, an agglomerate area that is near Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir. Nisat, his mother, is a housewife while his father, Ahmed Khan works as a rubbish picker along with his three sons and they all work everyday tirelessly despite the situation they are in and especially the lack of protein and nutrition. His father has asked Children First for help for his children even though this is something that very rarely happens with Afghan parents due to their strict cultural traditions. Mohammad Din is with Children First now and that is good news.

Mohammad Din has several marks on the skin of his face and is very thin. He is described as an intelligent boy who is lively and playful. He loves playing sports and simply dreams of going to school like all other children and just to focus on his studies rather than have to work. Not to work is a common dream amongst these children...this is something that shouldn’t be a dream. I, as still a child, could never imagine what it is truly like to work and I do not mean being a lawyer, doctor, librarian, writer etc. Basically anything that is not as dull and low paid as what these people AND children do because the jobs I have mentioned are in fact not as dull and low paid. I cannot imagine sweating and working and the true meaning of it, and not even because it is a passion of mine but just because the walls of life are closing in on me and I need to do something to pause that for a bit by placing something in between the harsh, sturdy walls.

Why do they work so hard? Why so much effort? Because their family is the only thing that truly matters to them and therefore by doing so much work they can somehow keep on letting it live if only just about. I am going to talk about futures today and how they can be mysterious things in our lives. Some of us have amazing futures set in the finest stone, or so it seems to us. Most of our futures and soon to be events as well as ideas seem exciting and make your fingers itchy to want to work in order to get as close to that vision in your head as possible. Other futures are impossible to figure out and so the empty template of them just linger in our minds. But what if I told you that someone out there was terrified of their future? Someone who is new to life is already intimidated by their own future. Why? Because they are already worried about their present and maybe as well as their past, they know that whatever they would do now wouldn't make much difference and that they don’t know how to tackle the beast of life or maybe are just scared of that too. Why is it that things don’t go my way and why is it that I can’t even have a good place to sleep in or good food to consume? They ask themselves, giving in return reasonable answers but no matter how rational they are, tears would not cease dripping down their cheeks.

It is the present that makes your future seem like what it may seem. And sometimes what your future may seem, whether that would be promising or a dream long ago lost, may be very close to reality to some. Your donations will help dry some tears away though...and help support these big little things. Mohammad Din also dreams of not fearing what is yet to come and Children First hope to make that happen. With your help.

Have a wonderful rest of the day/evening! And remember that you can ALWAYS help!

Blog 6- The reality

Hello, are we all still here? If so I am very pleased to know that you are!

How is everything going? I am once again, as usual, back writing on this very robust and old laptop and I will tell you about Khadija today, a girl whose father, Munir, is a seller on the streets and whose mother, Shaheen, cares for both her and her older brother called Zeshan and the whole house. They all live together in their village that is called Sund Ghali which is in fact in Muzaffarabad in Kashmir. Khadija is short and slim but her warm grin is neither of those two. You can tell that she is a very bright and eager girl who is fascinated by all the new things that she comes by. Her father does not provide enough for the family and so they live in conditions of severe poverty. She has hopes of becoming a doctor and a good one too. She has a curious mind in her and I imagine how happy she would be whenever she would learn something that always made her wonder about things.

The house in which she lives is not the best place for a child to grow up in but it is the best that the parents could do for their children. I wonder if she will ever get to be something like a doctor and if she does have the amazing chance, how she will carry out her plan to get there. Having hurdles placed almost everywhere in her path. Money in this world tells you where you are and our corrupt and unjust society takes it as a unit of measure to define you and your life.

It is funny to think about how a piece of paper will tell you who you are. Does it have magical fibers perhaps? Or maybe a mystical instinct buried in its thin surface? I would rather say not. Money was supposed to maintain order but not psychologically separate us in classes and discriminate. It has made good and bad changes to us and that is why it is a hard topic to talk about. We have used and abused this paper, this paper whose only significance lies in our minds. It is something that we all need to have in order to live a livable life and not everyone has a good quantity of it unfortunately. Many people may disregard others with less in their possession or with things that have less value according to them.

This is why it will be harder for these people, who do not choose to lead these lives, to obtain a stable, livable life in this society. Unfortunately we must come to realize that this life is very unfair and that how you get into it is unfair. I am not going to sugarcoat it. If you were born in a MDC country you are on the easier side of the spectrum while if you happened to be born in countries such as India, Congo or Pakistan or, in other words, LDC countries then you would just happen to have a really, really tough time. We just so happen to be there, not out of merit but just because of a form of destiny as some may call it. It is vital that we do not lose ourselves in less useful things and stop making excuses. We need to help the less fortunate. We have heard this phrase time and time again and it is used so much. People may get annoyed with it. But maybe there's a reason why people persist with the topic. If you think about it. Maybe there is a reason. Khadija is nevertheless happy whilst her feet are on the LDC soil. It doesn’t matter how gifted you are in countries facing war or famine or drought or great poverty. It doesn’t matter how passionate you may be. Because in this world of angry adults, there is a tough chance that someone will stop and listen. But other people are trying to make the chances better. People are trying and that is something that consoles me and hopefully some other children out there. I am trying. We will do it if we are committed because we have the paper and, hopefully, we have the will.

Thank you, have a pleasant rest of the day/evening and maybe tell me some of your views about the topic!

Day 5-Dreaming

Hello again!

I have someone else to talk about and he is an Afghan boy named Raheemullah. Raheemullah lives with his family and siblings in a little village called Sathra in the region of Muzaffarabad. His father is also a garbage picker with him and his brothers and sisters. While his mother works as a housewife. Raheemullah is a charming boy but he is quite timid and reserved. He is sick due to lack of nutrition like many other children in his conditions and tired of how he is living his life but he has to put up with it and just look forward to the House and his time there. People may say “oh, life is tough for all of us in some way or another” and that is right but we are part of life too. Isn’t life what we make it? Something doesn’t happen just because it does, it always gets triggered by something else whether it is good or bad. Everything has a source and everything in some way can be solved or has a solution, as my dad used to say.

This is part of a solution that I have for this problem, making this webdsite. This boy, like the previous children I have talked about, has his will clutched in his hand near his heart and he keeps it cautiously and delightedly, This is why Raheemullah, if he really wanted to, could become anything because he has something that some may not have so much of...will. But unfortunately, he does not have everything laid out for him as you or I may have. Unfortunately, he is in this condition that does not like him and he doesn’t like it. Fortunately, there are people like you, who read these blogs, hopefully donate to help these causes in our world and will at least try to make a difference to a child’s life. There was a story about a boy who threw starfish that were washed on the shore back into the sea. They were going to die if they didn’t get back into the water. So he threw them in the water each day and there was a man that came by and the man told him how it was hopeless and how he could not possibly save all of them. He should give up, the man said. The little boy remained silent and threw one starfish into the sea. After it splashed into the water the boy turned to face the man. “I saved that one”, he said.

Raheemullah is a boy that loves to play and walk around in the fresh, green grass. He is a boy that only knows the true essence of longing and then, the joy of maybe receiving. He knows it as crude and bare. He knows life without all its fancy clothes and decorations. It is not this that even a full grown adult must endure. At night, in his cold, small tin house as he lays in the hard bed, he dreams himself out of this world and into a better one. Why cannot we provide this better world? Or help provide it? You can even see in his eyes, the distorted wishes and desires swirling around, playing and chasing each other as he smiles at you with his young but worn face. Then, he will bend down and continue picking up the rest of the rubbish scattered on the floor, leaving them to spiral.

That is all for today. Life tip by the way: let your future self be grateful to you.

It has been something that I have been thinking a lot about lately.

Have an amazing rest of the day/evening!