VOLUNTEERS Services Overseas is an NGO which registers volunteers, of all ages and irrespective of sex, from Canada, Britain and other European countries. These volunteers are picked on the basis of their skills and sent to serve in over fifty developing countries in various fields. Run with funding from the British Council, initially the NGO was designed for young graduates and those who passed out school level to develop a spirit of social work in them. But with the demands of time, the age barrier was relaxed and an amazing number of older people joined in.
One such person who has decided to lend her services to VSO is the British national Joan Atkinson. Living here in Pakistan, she served as principal at a public school in Rawalakote, Azad Kashmir. A widow and a retired teacher, Joan was part of VSO’s programme to help maintain the standard of education, where requested.
Volunteers at VSO are given three to four options with the details of the work according to their skills. A volunteer, when he or she opts for an assignment, has to serve a period of two years. While VSO pays for the fare, the host provides residence and a monthly fund for three decent meals a day, an amount calculated by VSO office of the host country.
Over the years many westerners have made it to Pakistan’s shores to help us in our educational, medical and many other faculties where we lack quality. It are the services of these selfless people, that has many of us thinking if only there were Pakistanis like them. Well, there are and I soon discovered them after my husband met with an accident.
With a broken hipbone, the next three months were of pain for him and ordeal for me. He was like a small baby so far as his requirements were concerned. But then he was very heavy to be picked up like a baby! All this suffering made me think of the thousands who were taking care of the aged, the sick, the retarded or terminally ill here in Pakistan.
They are not given an option to select a service they would have preferred to render. They cannot take a vacation or fall ill. A friend even advised me to hire the services of a nurse. I refused, because I would never be satisfied with her service. That nurse would not feel the pain as I did in my heart, for my husband’s agony. Somehow I felt that the touch of my hand would heal him sooner. Though he is not back to his normal self, he can walk with some help. And that makes me the happiest person on the planet.
Does our society need a VSO? When I look around the answer is hardly. I remember my mother who nursed my paternal grandmother, from the time she was paralysed till the day she passed away. Without facilities and a helping hand, she would clean her, give her a bath, cook special food for her and feed her. Besides looking after the household and her five children who were very young at that time. And of course my brother who tended his father when he was terminally ill. He was a commander in Bahrain’s navy but still did not allow his servants to change my father’s wet clothes or trim his nails and beard. He did all of those things by himself.
There are many such examples within my social circle. Jehanzeb’s mother remained in coma for three years. He brought her home from the hospital so that he could devote all his time to her after office hours. His wife Karn cooperated with her heart and soul. Shagafta is looking after her father who suffers from dementia. Her two sisters have also taken up residence close to each other so that in time of emergency they may help each other. My next door neighbour Mrs Waseem looks after her mother-in-law who is in her eighties. Mrs Jamil keeps rushing at odd hours to her mother’s house who is bed ridden. She makes it a point to give her a bath and change her wet clothes. Although she has a sister who is with her mother for 24 hours, she does the needful so that the sister does not feel alone. Mrs Jamil is a busy housewife with no help at all for her household chores. She tries to make life comfortable for her husband and daughters who are students.
A peep into every home reveals an old person is being taken care of. Hence when Eda Reu built an Old People Home at its premises, it could not muster old people and the place was converted into a home for destitute women. Many houses are nursing terminally ill and retarded persons. Our volunteer services are contained within our homes, but no one has taken notice of these volunteers whose services go unseen. Such is the family system.
Although our family system is notorious for the development of work culture (even if you don’t work, the family will feed you) and promoting corruption (one member earns to feed a family of ten), it provides social security to the old, sick, invalid and jobless leaving the government free from worries for this section of society.
VOLUNTEERS Services Overseas is an NGO which registers volunteers, of all ages and irrespective of sex, from Canada, Britain and other European countries. These volunteers are picked on the basis of their skills and sent to serve in over fifty developing countries in various fields. Run with funding from the British Council, initially the NGO was designed for young graduates and those who passed out school level to develop a spirit of social work in them. But with the demands of time, the age barrier was relaxed and an amazing number of older people joined in.
