Aman ki Asha

By
Khalid Shah
– April 11, 2011Posted in: Club News

The News

“We need some victories”

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Laleh Habib reports on an Aman ki Asha and Rotary International initiative that will help
children with heart defects, facilitate family and student exchanges, and more

‘There was an instantaneous meeting of minds,” commented Shahrukh Hasan, Group Managing
Director of the Jang Group of Pakistan, talking about the strategic partnership between Aman ki
Asha and the Rotary Clubs of Pakistan and India.

Some of the parameters of this newly formed partnership include setting up 30 state-of-the-art
eye hospitals in Pakistan, establishing family and student exchanges between India and Pakistan,
and developing Youth Leadership Awards. A major component of this project, the ‘Gift of Life’
programme, aims at facilitating 200 heart surgeries a year in India for underprivileged children
from Pakistan – totally free of cost.

“And 200 is just a conservative estimate, a launching pad,” said Kamal Sanghvi, trustee of the
Rotary Indian Humanitarian Fund (RIHF), who was in Karachi last week to sign the
Memorandum of Understanding. “There is no time to breathe,” he added, laughing.

Given Rotary and Aman ki Asha’s shared goals of bringing people and communities together
and promoting peace, this is a very natural partnership.

Rotary International has a proud legacy of promoting cultural exchanges, building ties and
promoting philanthropy that stretches over a century. Aman ki Asha, the peace initiative
launched by the Jang Group and the Times of India on January 1, 2010, seeks to promote peace
between India and Pakistan by creating an enabling environment for dialogue and developing
people-to-people contact at all levels.

There is tremendous affinity and goodwill between the people of the two countries, as evident
not only at many Aman ki Asha events but also at other Indo-Pak peace initiatives – an affinity
and goodwill that is constantly stymied by inertia or hostility at the government level, that
dampens the people’s aspirations and frustrates and thwarts many good intentions. ‘We need
some victories,’ goes the oft-repeated refrain.
This is what makes the Aman ki Asha and Rotary Club Partnership so significant – the
partnership leverages the respective strengths of both organisations and of the two countries to
benefit some of the most vulnerable in both societies. This is a partnership that will utilise the
extensive network of the Rotary Club and the reach of the Jang Group to the benefit of those who
need it the most.

Rotary International has been actively facilitating exchanges between India and Pakistan since
March 2000, when Rotarians from Pakistan and India came together to sign the Karachi
Declaration and discuss ways in which the countries can cooperate on all levels. Rotarians from
Pakistan and India have also signed friendship treaties that aim to promote peace through
community service. Additionally, Rotarians from Pakistan and India have implemented various
family exchanges, youth exchanges and many community service projects. Rotarians from India
have sponsored heart surgeries for over 150 children from Pakistan. Through matching grants,
Rotary Pakistan has supported surgeries for many children in India.

For just over a year now, Aman ki Asha has been highlighting the cost of the conflict through
various events, programmes and an intensive media campaign. The campaign has illustrated the
many social, economic, political and personals benefits of peace. In May 2010, Aman ki Asha
helped facilitate medical treatment for three-year old Rayyan, who had to go to India for a
cochlear implant.

Events such as these and the scores more that are to follow as a result of the Aman ki Asha and
Rotary Club partnership, constitute the real victories in a personal sense and in the context of
Indo-Pak relations. They will give hundreds the opportunity to lead a normal, healthy life, and
will restore hope to scores of families. This is a partnership that will tangibly show the
innumerable, immeasurable benefits of peace and of corporation.

‘This partnership will,” as Kamal Sanghvi put it smilingly, “bring the Aman into Aman ki Asha.”

Caption: Signing for a good cause: Shahab Balkhi, Rotary Club Pakistan, Shahrukh Hasan,
representing Aman ki Asha and Jang Group and Kamal Sanghvi, Director of Rotary Humanity
Foundation Club of India sign an MoU as MD Geo Azhar Abbas and others look on

Laleh Habib

Project Coordinator – Aman Ki Asha

+92332 366 6033

laleh.habib@janggroup.com.pk

lalehhabib@gmail.com