By Aroosa Masroor
Karachi

A journalist-turned-social worker, Parveen Saeed, is the proud owner of the Khana Ghar (soup kitchen) in Surjani Town for the past 19 years that provides meals to over 300 people daily. She recently inaugurated another branch of Khana Ghar in Korangi 1, another low-income neighbourhood of Karachi, where a complete meal of Roti and Salan is sold at the nominal cost of three rupees. “The basic problem of our country is poverty because of which the poor can’t afford two square meals a day. We want to work towards eliminating this hunger that is the root cause of all crimes,” says 49-year-old Saeed, who is the founder of soup-kitchens in Karachi. “The idea was adopted by Saylani Welfare and Edhi Welfare much later,” she adds.

Born to a middle-class family in Karachi, Parveen graduated from the PECHS Government College for Women and later did her Masters in Journalism from the University of Karachi. “I enjoyed writing on social issues and read a lot on current affairs so decided to turn my passion into my profession.” She was also the founding member of a magazine society at her college. However, things changed after her marriage when she shifted to a far flung low-income neighbourhood – Surjani Town – where poverty compelled her to do something for the unfortunate.

“When I got married, my husband had rented a house in Federal B. Area. The house that he owned was in Surjani Town, where the family did not shift as it was quite far from the city centre. But I had always been against paying rents if one had a house and compelled him to move to Surjani Town even if that meant travelling a long distance to our workplaces everyday.”

Now she feels that God had sent her there for a reason. Once she shifted, every day in the morning one of her neighbours would knock at her door and ask for Rs10 for breakfast. “I found it hard to believe how any one could have proper breakfast with just Rs10.” This was the norm in the area where the less privileged would request for some money from their neighbours who were financially better off.

A few months later, the news of a mother who murdered her two children in the neighbourhood after being unable to feed them for three days, was what moved Saeed the most. “She choked both of them to death,” recalls Parveen, adding that the incident still sends a chill down her spine.

Just one visit to the woman’s house made Saeed decide that she should establish a soup kitchen to cater to facilitated food-insecure population in her locality. She then shared the idea with her husband, also a journalist and her two daughters who decided to generate the initial money for investment themselves instead of going to a donor. “We decided to budget our expenses, stopped dining out and spent less on shopping etc. Within a few months were able to save Rs12,000.”

With this money, Saeed set up her first Khana Ghar in 1989 in Sector 5-D of the town, where a whole meal of roti and daal was sold for two rupees, however, due to the shortage of wheat she recently raised the rate to three rupees. “The idea was to discourage the poor from being dependent on free food. We want them to fight for those three rupees.” The menu varies between daal, vegetable, kabab and chanay every day and today, is being run with the help of private donations from within the country.

Saeed added that within a few years, her first Khana Ghar had to be shifted from Sector 5-D owing to some development work by the CDGK in the area. But soon after, she was approached by Tasneem Siddiqui, Chairperson SAIBAN – an NGO – that manages Khuda ki Basti (a squatter settlement) in Surjani Town who provided her with space in the Basti.

Apart from running this soup kitchen, with a hired staff of three people, Parveen also set up a health facility ‘Saeed Medical Centre’ for residents of the squatter. “The state of maternal health was very poor in the area and incidence of Hepatitis B and C is also high. When Tasneem suggested I take charge, I immediately agreed and we hired doctors while I assisted in the awareness raising sessions on various health issues.”

Meanwhile, Parveen occasionally writes columns for an Urdu newspaper. “I always wanted to do something that had an impact. Writing provides me with the opportunity to vent and point out the mistakes of the government while social work gives me peace of mind.”

She is of the opinion that more than spending millions on infrastructural development of the city, the government should work towards combating poverty and providing them with basic essentials such as food and housing. “With soaring inflation and subsequent poverty, our food-insecure population has doubled, but not much is being done for the poorest of the poor, which is the working class of our nation.” She believes the solution to all our problems lies with only those politicians who have the two S’s – Sincerity and Sensitivity. “Only when they start empathising with the poor and become sincere with their jobs and the country, can we see the country prosper,” she concludes.