Amidst all the talks of donor fatigue, what I saw in Italy myself has made me very heartened.
Last week I was buying coke in a store in Rome. A radio in the shop was blaring a pop song. After the song finished I heard the words of ‘Pakistan’ and ‘Emergency’ on the radio. Hearing these two words together of-course got my attention. The short speech was in Italian which I didn’t understand so I asked the shopkeeper what it was and in her limited English capacity she told me it was an ad for collecting donations for Flood victims in Pakistan.
I was indeed heartened.
Then some time later we were traveling in Rome metro when I saw this visual ad on train’s TV screen showing flood victims of Pakistan and asking for texting a number to do a 2 Euros donation. I noticed the frequency of this visual ad was every few minutes. I took out my camera and took the photo that is with this post.
I was heartened again.
I write this post only to say, ‘Thank You, Italy. We appreciate the help and the humanity.’
It is imperative to help the flood victims of the country. This aid by other countries needs to be utilized with transparency so that we can get future aid as well for flood afectees.
The international aid is vital for rehabilitation of flood victims, however this aid needs to distributed to the deserving, corruption will dissuade the donors from stepping up to our assistance.
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “Thanks to Italy indeed”
– “Thanks Italy….”
– “Wonderful and thank you for sharing the story.”
Very nice to see this. With so much of the world and specially the Americans having abandoned Pakistan it is good to see that not everyone has.
So, we have become now international beggars. A good change indeed, better than that of a terrorist nation.