ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: In a lively atmosphere, women from different continents and countries of the world, but using English as a common means of communication, were gathered at different tables in sets of fours playing a word game.

‘A Scrabble Game’ was the title of the fund raiser organized to generate financial assistance for St Joseph’s Hospice in Islamabad.

A large number of diplomatic community, mostly wives of diplomats residing in Islamabad, gathered to play the game. Equipped with special Scrabble dictionaries and word count lists, the players kept changing after each game as more and more people poured in at the residence of Aaliyah Shaban, who had hosted the event followed by a lunch.

Some ladies were quoted as saying that they had been playing the game since kindergarten, while some of them were novice in the field. “It’s a mixture of both experienced and amateur players,” chief organiser of the event Ms Aurora Murabayashi, wife of a Japanese diplomat, encouraged the hesitant players.

It was a surprise to learn that this so popular word game had been translated in more than 29 languages all over the world. However, the game had only been there since half a century.

The game is brainchild of Alfred Butts, an architect who after losing his job in 1931 decided to explore his passion for games and words. The game is half luck and half skill.

Initially called Lexico, the game changed and developed over the years and it was not until the Second World War when James Brunot, an owner of first criss crosswords game became interested and made it a commercial venture. The modern game of scrabble was born and thus registered in December 1948.

James Brunot died in 1984, could not live to see the First Scrabble Championship, but Alfred Butts did. He lived to be 93, to see his game become a worldwide phenomenon, and played it with family and friends to the end of his life.

Aurora Murabayashi keeps organizing events to raise funds for St Joseph Hospice, which provides free medical facilities to the sick, and the destitute. The Hospice contains 60 beds for resident patients and provides an outpatient clinic, which treats approximately 100 patents daily.

There is also a nursery crowded with infants and toddlers, comprising the St Joseph family. Patients acquire skills such as embroidery, knitting, tailoring and other handicraft and many return home and are able to earn a little pocket money.

Franciscan Sisters of Mary from different countries around the world run the Hospice. The fully trained staff is composed of 50 Pakistani nurses, volunteer doctors and ward helpers.

Many patients at the Hospice are those who got injured permanently in the course of their work, women burnt in stove fire cases, people suffering from tuberculosis, meningitis, polio and typhoid fever. One can also find children with congenital deformities and malnutrition, often abandoned by the parents. Today the Hospice has 50 to 60 in-patients and they enjoy free medical services.—Huma Khawar