KARACHI: With the Amjad Sabri image on a portion of the boundary wall of Memon Technical & Industrial Institute (MITI) in Korangi 5 going viral, the people behind it started work on Abdul Sattar Edhi’s portrait on Tuesday.

“Amjad Sabri’s mural was an emotional decision as we wanted to pay tribute to the slain qawwal. But we want to give back to our living legends too like Abdul Sattar Edhi. The Edhi mural will be our way of thanking Edhi sahab for his great contribution to humanity,” said Shuja Ghori, secretary general of Visionaries Welfare Organisation which is behind the project in collaboration with MITI.

Initially, there were no plans for any murals. “We were making a wall of kindness. We named it ‘Wall of gratitude’. Then the terrible incident happened last Wednesday and we suddenly thought of doing something for the qawwal, so loved and respected by all,” he said.

Amjad Sabri’s mural was done within three hours, from start to finish, on Sunday (June 26) by Akib Faiz, but Edhi’s is expected to take more time. “It is going to be a embossed work of art by another artiste, Hameedullah, though, like the Sabri mural it will also be a team effort with some students scrapping off the old paint of the wall, and some whitewashing it before Hameedullah gets down to the main work,” said Shuja.

“It will be about half an inch raised image of Edhi sahab, which will be weather proof, too,” said Hameedullah, who added that the process of the Edhi mural would take longer because the material used for making it also takes around two days to dry.

“We have been looking at several pictures of Edhi sahab to decide on which image would suit a mural here,” said Shuja. “I think we have decided on a very nice one of him,” he added, while exchanging a smile with their artiste.

Meanwhile, Tariq Khanzada of Visionaries said that they were a non-profit, non-religious youth initiative working with the aim of maximising human potential since 2007. “We promote positive activities and help train the underprivileged in their areas of interest, while stressing on teamwork, anger management, goal setting and using neuro-linguistic programming, mind sciences, etc., to their advantage. Of course, all this is done free of cost. In the past, our group of young people has also volunteered in flood relief,” he provided.

About Akib Faiz, the artist responsible for Amjad Sabri’s mural, Khanzada said that he joined Visionaries some three years back. “We noticed his talent and encouraged him to develop it further and use it whenever he feels that he can make a difference through it,” he said.

Following the murals, Visionaries have planned another project called ‘Re-tree’. “We plan to plant some 20 Neem trees as they are known to clean the environment besides offering a whole lot of other benefits,” Shuja said.

“But for this we have to carefully select a spot with available water and where we can give time to the trees and care for them,” he said, adding that whatever they do they do it as a team and by using their own resources.

“We pool in money and use our combined expertise to finish our projects,” he said.

“And after that we intend to visit various parks where we’ll be speaking to various people who go to these parks to know about their issues. Then we will see how we can help them realise their potential in helping others around them. It will create a ripple effect,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016