Helping Pakistan one zahir at a time

Many Pakistanis I meet are fed up, frustrated and pissed off at their lives being incomplete because even though they make enough they aren’t fulfilled. The chief reason they usually give for this un fulfillment is that they want to help their country but do not know how to. Obviously in a place where the system is morally and ethically bankrupt, everyone’s  out to make a quick buck and no checks and balances its hard to  contribute.

However if one is look hard enough there are many many opportunities out there for us to make a difference. I met such an opportunity last Saturday when I attended an event organized by Mera passion pakistan.  a localized version of TED lets call it, without the elitism or the androids reading qcodes on invites and all. A forum which picks up ordinary Pakistanis who have really done some extra ordinary things and show cases them. Its here that I met zahir shah.

Now everyone knows this nation has a serious power problem. Many people are often seen on social medila lamenting load shedding and cursing their respective  electric supply company and so on. What of people though who live in areas where there is no electricity at all? Zahir shah hails from such an area in buner. I cant even pronounce its name properly but you get the idea. So what does he do? He starts out on a project to build a power plant from scratch with Rs 180 in 2005 using the waterfall close by. Now obviously with such a swades like undertaking people make fun of you, as do people often enough in Pakistan of anyone with any real talent so  they did, until with the limited resources he had and the sale of his lands he managed to on his own  complete this plant in 2011. He  is now providing electricity to 120-165 homes in this village. Amazed yet?  He only charges 250 rs a month and that too is voluntary since when I asked him as to what he does if they cant pay he laughed and said “so what we cant cut their electric off can we”

Now to the first part of my post on how we can help. Zahir shah had two requests he needs a dynamo and a transformer to enable him to provide electricity to these homes in the day time as well. The dynamo was promised by the Mera Passion Pakistan team. I promised that we would spread word of his effort and collect enough funds for him to buy a transformer.

The cost Rs 125,000

All we need is 25 people from among  us contributing  Rs 5000 each. May be a hefty sum for some people but we all know how we spend it in the course of a week here in Karachi, Lahore or Isloo.

So if you want to help be a part of a 165 home village getting electricity in an area of Pakistan which is remote to say the least? Pledge on the comments here and as soon as I have an account from the mera passion Pakistan team we can all send our 5 k there and know we did something other than stand by and chatter.

I will be the first one to volunteer my five thousand…24 more to go.. over to you Pakistan.

17/1/2012

Just spoke with Mera passion Pakistan team. They are thrilled to hear of our interest and pledges and have contacted zahir shah for a list of equipment he needs, transformer, dynamo, distribution wire etc. Once they have that list they will give us an account no we can put our donations in and then they will not only buy and send the equipment themselves but will visit the plant and take current pictures of it, hence ensuring complete transparency.