Armed with garbage bags, masks and plastic gloves, the Zimmedar Shehris met up to clean a small area of Boat Basin on Sunday in Karachi, hoping to take their mission forward in other areas of the city and the country.

When asked about the selection of the location, one of the vice-presidents of the group replied, “we have to start from somewhere and we are a group of friends from Lahore who don’t know much of Karachi, so we thought we should start with an area at the major food street of the city.”

It was an experience on its own to see young people joining hands together for the betterment of the city. Groups were excited and competing with each other over filling up the most garbage bags.

Formed just over a year ago, the group is a brain-child of five friends from Lahore who believe in standing up and taking a challenge. They said the blame game has to stop somewhere and "we as Pakistani citizens should make it happen and take responsibility."

The five stood up in their own small way by cleaning up their neighbourhood in Gulberg, Lahore as they felt that charity should always begin at home.

The first “take up trash” initiative was scheduled for April 25, 2010 at Icharaa in Lahore. In the following week the group plans to go to Raja Bazaar in Rawalpindi and then end their drive with the last clean up event again in Lahore. - Eefa Khalid / Dawn.com

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