Wular Foundation provides medical support, PPE Kits, daily meals to COVID19 patients
Malik Nisar
Sopore: While the coronavirus has indiscriminately wreaked havoc across the globe, it has also paralysed already tottering the health system. In Kashmir, the COVID19 outbreak is believed to have caused a huge dent in the already sinking economy due to continuous lockdowns from the last few years.
Over the years, local charities in Kashmir have played a key role in helping the needy by providing meals, medical assistance, and other key services to low-income groups. Started by some local residents, Wular Foundation is one such organisation operating from apple town Sopore. Over the last 40 days of the lockdown in Kashmir, Wular Foundation is providing meals to COVID19 patients in SDH Sopore, besides its regular charity work. The organization is feeding 124 families for the last 5 years.
“We are operating for the last 5 years, but most of our members want to remain low key. After the outbreak of the second wave of COVID19 we started to provide meals to the coronavirus patients in SDH Sopore due to which our organisation was noticed by the public,” said Shanawaz Nabi Marazi, general secretary of the Wular Foundation. “Initially, we had identified 87 needy families and provided them food items on monthly basis. Now, we are feeding 124 families on monthly basis, we do it just for the sake of Allah, on a humanitarian basis.”
Since the consecutive lockdowns affected the livelihood of a huge number of people on one side and on the other side there was a surge in daily cases of COVID19 cases. The death and the discrimination faced by the people who were suspected to have the virus added to their struggle. It was only due to the public support that needy people could get some support to sustain themselves and their families. With this spirit, Wular Foundation provides daily 150 meals to COVID19 affected people and their attendants.
“People from the marginalised sections and far-flung areas face immense hardships in difficult situations like the current pandemic. A similar situation we witnessed at the SDH Sopore. It would be very difficult for the people, who would come for the treatment from various far-off areas, to arrange food and other basic needs during the lockdown in the town,” said chairman Wular Foundation, Khursheed Ahmad. “That is why we decided to help such people, besides supporting the needy families. Now we are also providing medicines, PPE kits, medical equipment and ambulance services to help people come out of this pandemic.”
“The most wonderful thing was how the community around us responded,” said Mehraj-ud-Din Patni, Vice president of the Foundation. “Initially people would be reluctant to donate to our organisation, but that changed when we started to work in the hospitals and provide the basic aids. People came out to support and the whole thing became a community effort rather than an organisation.”
Wular Foundation is based in Sopore but is now expanding to other parts of the Baramulla district with each passing day volunteers and donors continuously joining hands. The organization acts upon calls they receive on daily basis.
“From last two months we have spent good amount for distributing meals, PPE kits, medical equipment and ambulance services, all this was not possible without the passion, determination and drive of the hundreds of volunteers who came from different corners to lend a hand to the forgotten, the ignored and the marginalized,” said a member of the foundation, Waseem Beigh.
The foundation is now providing free dialysis to patients, as well as, organising blood donation camps and cleanness drive in Sopore city. Last month, the Wular Foundation with Dia Foundation arranged money for the surgery of a girl in Khyber Hospital, Srinagar.
“Wular Foundation mostly deals with marginalized people. So, in whatever way we can, we provide help. Last month a girl from Sopore was suffering from chronic heart disease. We tried our best in whatever way we could. However, we need the support of the people so that we can help more and more needy ones,” said Shanawaz.
At the age of 20, talented and fearless Naveeda Hassan is creating a niche in the field of art and setting an example for the young generations of Kashmir. Naveeda is a self-taught female artist from Delina, Baramulla, who has been inclined towards art since her childhood. Self-taught female artist from Baramulla.
“I have been drawing people for a long. As a self-taught artist whenever I pick up a paintbrush or sit down to draw, my heart draws me towards portraits. Over the years, I have drawn portraits of many famous personalities of India as well as the world,” says Naveeda Hassan, a fifth-semester student at Government Women’s College Baramulla.
For Naveeda, art is a way of storytelling, giving life to her creativity. Over the years art has become her identity and she has done remarkably well and produced some eloquent work. The location of the artist’s studio is the key to finding a perfect harmony between inspiration and peace. In Naveeda’s studio that peace and inspiration are visible from every corner through the work that, she has maintained over the years. The portrait of Baghat Singh, Virat Kohli, and Nelson Mandela, besides the painting of lush green mountains and various calligraphy works are all eye-catching.
Everything in her studio has a deep message hidden behind it, one can consider this studio as her world of dreams, every small thing has meaning for her.
“Apple craved on the stone is my favourite because it’s the identity of Kashmir, Ranjeet Singh, when I read about the history of Jammu and Kashmir, I got inspired, I draw his painting my wish was to present it in Amer Mahal. The painting depicts the message of care same care as parents care for their children’s
“I usually do portraits, calligraphy, wall painting, watercolours painting and stone art. Although, I have also worked on various other themes as well like nature, entertainment, and drug abuse. Presently I am trying to work on the social issues faced by women in our society like domestic violence and dowry. I will try to do a series on it,” says Naveeda while showing her artworks.
Naveeda considers Raja Ravi Varma as an inspiration because she feels his work depicts a story and inspires the common man. Raja Ravi Varma, an artist and painter, is considered a legend in the history of Indian art.
“There are many great artists, but I follow Raja Ravi Varma because his work has a unique attraction and message,” she says.
Apart from being an artist, Allah has bestowed Naveeda with a melodious voice. She recently won the first position in the online Naat competition organised by Indian Broadcasting and News Network (IBANN) and in the past, she has also won various Naat competitions held at zonal and district levels.
“Naat recitation is the God-given talent. I started reciting naats from Class 11. The more I tried it, the more I got better at it. It brought me more accolades and recognition. It’s all Allah’s blessing and nothing else,” she says.
Naveeda feels Kashmir is a big canvas for artists due to its unique culture, history, and picturesque beauty, but the government should come forward and provide them with a platform so that their talent won’t go waste.
In Kashmir, there is no dearth of talent be it art or anything else, but it goes unnoticed and overlooked because of the apathetic policies of the government. They should groom the young talent and encourage them for a better future and peaceful Kashmir,” says Naveeda.
Daughter of a farmer, Naveeda aspires to achieve ‘big’ in life and wants to see women of Kashmir gleaming in every field as she feels over the years women of Kashmir have faced a lot of discrimination on various fronts.
“In Kashmir, an artist is bound to many restrictions and when it is a woman, it becomes more challenging due to socio-political taboos. But I want to change this because everyone must have the right to express her or himself,” says Naveeda.
“Well informed and well-educated women play an important role in society. Their thoughts, ways of working and value systems lead to faster growth and development of the society. In the stability of women the society is stable,” says Naveeda.
“My message to the womenfolk of Kashmir is that if you have talent don’t hide it. Express it,” she concludes.
The use of social media is growing at an unprecedented rate globally, and Kashmir is no exception. Over the years lots of faces from Kashmir have come into the limelight through social media, that are motivating the young generation in every aspect of life.
Latest to the addition are Kinza Aasif and Hareem Aasif from Bijbehara, Anantnag. The three-year-old twin sisters have become Kashmir’s youngest social media stars.
The adorable twin sisters amuse one and all on social media. These small videos are popular, and some have gone even viral.
Born on August 24, 2019, the twin sisters, Kinza and Hareem have grown up in a world where technology is advancing around them every single day. They do not know a world without social media, mobile phones or computers; they are well-tuned into the digital world.
“We Are (Twin Sister’s ) Kinza Hareem. In a World of Hatred, We are Trying To Spread Love,” read the description of their YouTube Channel Kina Hazreem, which has more than 11300 followers. However, it was their Instagram page that was more popular with 84,000 followers but that was hacked recently by some turkey-based hackers. Their new Instagram page has reached about 8,000 followers again.
Kinza and Hareem have turned into celebrities. Every weekend, people, mostly children, from different areas visit and click with them. Many influencers and YouTubers like Bandook029, Kashmiri Talenters and Funny Kashmir of south Kashmir. The content on their YouTube channel mostly focuses on their travel to tourist places, birthday celebrations and festival celebrations.
Born on August 24, 2019, the sisters went on their first trip to Saudi Arabia when they were just one and a half years old with their father, who was working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as a doctor, but have to come back due to the second wave of COVID19. The twin sisters have almost visited all the tourist places of Kashmir. Their YouTube and Instagram account Kinza_Hareem (@kinzahareem_twinsisters) are run by their maternal uncle Jahangir Vaid, a teacher by profession.
“Initially, I used to capture their video just for entertainment purposes, but once a friend of mine told me to give it a try on YouTube channel. That was the time the idea struck me, and it worked. Presently, the channel is growing fast, and the response is very good,” said Jahangir Vaid, who has regularly managed their account since July 2021.
“We usually focus on the travel videos, although we have videos on birthdays and other things because it makes our content unique and attractive. Whenever we visit any place, people there love to meet and click with them. We only create short videos but are now planning to create large ones so that our viewership will increase more,” said Jahangir.
“They have the novelty factor attached to their content and cuteness quotient, and because of that people are more influenced by their videos,” says Altaf Khursheed, who regularly follows the twin sisters on YouTube.
“Kinza and Hareem are a complete package for us, if we didn’t have the girls, we can’t imagine having such a wonderful life. They have turned our world into heaven,” said another family member.
In coming November, Kashmir’s youngest social media stars, Kinza and Hareem, will travel abroad with their father, who has recently got a new posting in Germany. That place will provide a different kind of experience and exposure to the twin sisters, says the family.
“In the coming few months, they have to go to Germany with their mother. We are waiting for their visa in between I will try to monetise the channel, and then their father will operate it because I don’t want the channel to stop, I want the channel to grow more and more,” said Jahangir.
We should have a separate well-defined management science for doctors. One which will mentor them and teach them: how to manage themselves. How to manage their interactions and behaviour toward patients and society? And how to deal with the community around them
BY Mohammad Mutaher Zerger
We have a disciplined and scientific way to every field/discipline, which teaches us, mentors us and guides our trajectory throughout that particular field. We have human resource management, marketing management, general management, hospital management and so on. Very recently, I somehow felt we should have a separate well-defined management science for doctors. One which will mentor them and teach them: how to manage themselves. How to manage their interactions and behaviour toward patients and society. And how to deal with the community around them.
And that management science should have well-defined guidelines to teach our society as well. Our society needs awareness at different levels. How to behave with the doctors – the healers of humankind? How to treat them in day-to-day life. And how to manage them and make their social life better for them? They are the healers of our society. Round the clock, they do a great job of healing every wound and pain of our society. Let the society come together and help the doctors and offer them, even, a healing medium. To perform their job flawlessly, they need a conducive environment.
Let us look at it through two different dimensions: one glancing through and being in the shoes of a doctor and walking in the society they live or be part of, and another staying in the shoes of the society and visualising our day-to-day interactions with our doctors.
A Doctor from age 20 onwards sees pain around him. His day-to-day life starts with people and episodes which have intrinsic pain, and he is taught how to treat this pain of others. How to take this pain out of the situation? Managing pain and minimising the pain of others becomes the primary day-to-day activity of the doctor. How much pain he manages, how much pain of others he relieves, how much pain he deals with becomes a benchmark of his performance. One which measures his performance development index, on which his career growth depends. Others pain becomes the means of his livelihood and growth. He becomes a merchant who sells his skills to deal with the pain, and in the process, the pain of others becomes his associate. One he has willingly or unwillingly got married to since the time he plans to do his MBBS. So pain is rendered a toy in the hands of a doctor. He lacks the emotional feeling towards that pain. The pain of others no longer provides a stimulus to his endorphins, and they do not respond to the pain of others in a manner other members of society do.
Here we have an individual who, if we see from the perspective of society, is the one who behaves entirely different than another person of that society. Death, disease, pain is just another process to him; these things usually rattle other beings of the same society. One will tend to observe these individuals totally unresponsive towards the emotional outburst of their patients. They are on track and want their patients to be on that one straight track, to be exact and to the point. While on the other end, the patient, who is in pain, wants the doctor to be responsive to his pain on the same emotional intensity, as will the other members of the same society. Both these individuals forget the perspective of others. The process leads to noise, either of the nature of distrust or discomfort.
So, here we need our scientists, thinkers and educationist to step in and make some chapters of management science that will primarily teach our healer how to manage a patient. How to gauge the intensity of pain of his patient? And how to give it the due respect/ response it deserves. We need to take our healers through a regular process and make them balance their world full of pain and the society scared of pain. We need to teach them the intensity of responses they should give to the pain of others, and at the same time, treat this pain.
On the other end, when the doctor is out of his doctor’s chair and wants to immerse in society as another social being, society knowingly or unknowingly does not allow him to be one. We often treat him as a healer, even when he is in a different role in society. When he simply wants to relax and relieve himself from stress. We are ready with a number of complaints or episodes, which have to deal with his job rather than self. We are eager to seek his consultation for our various conditions, even if he is in the middle of dinner. Otherwise ready with the complaints that he did not attend to our calls the other day (by the way, that time he was in the middle of major surgery). In the process, we render him a being, which of course is elite but not a social being, which he sometimes or more often wants to be.
Here, our educationists and reformists need to devise some chapters, which will deal with this. That will teach our society how our healers should be responsible when on the healers’ chair. And how they need to be treated when they are off that chair.
Well, I strongly feel this branch of management needs to be devised and devised very soon. At least a beginning towards a continuous process for seeing the interaction between the society and healer reach a level, which will put both of them at comfortable places. A healer, knowing he is a part of the society and a similar social being as are others and a patient feels his healer has touched him with similar levels of the emotional quotient as he wants him to touch him with. To society, these lessons can be incorporated at different levels, at a school level, at the college level and even at a career level. And to a doctor, these teachings can be an integral subject (both theory and practical) of his professional course. One, he has to pass with good grades like he has to pass anatomy or biochemistry.
P.S: Very recently, for having an inner view for this article, I spent a day with one of my close doctor friends; in his OPD, ICU, emergency and in-patient ward and this one day, just one day only, made me visit a psychologist for the socio-psychology effects it had on me.
A corporate who’s who and renowned business consultant, the author has worked at top positions of a number of MNCs, including McDonald’s, Microsoft, Mumbai Airport, Zomato, LensKart, Yateem Group of GCC