By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The Trust for Malnutrition and Stunted Growth (TMSG) organized an exceptional event here at the Zia Mohyeddin Auditorium of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) on October 23 to create awareness about the burning issue concerning the children, estimated to be causing 200,000 deaths annually.
The TMSG founder and chairman, Aziz Memon, in his welcome address, informed the packed auditorium about the initiatives to combat the menace since the inception of the trust in 2018. Urging the need to expand the services, he signed MoUs with the officials of the Al-Khidmat Foundation and the Saylani Welfare Trust on the occasion
He declared that the TMSG, which has been adopting clinics to serve food supplements to malnourished children with the support of donor agencies during the past six years, will now also focus to raise awareness and hold training sessions for furthering their objectives.
Aziz Memon, known and admired at the global level, for his services to humanity, did not mince words in highlighting the fact that malnourishment of children was the root cause of all evils. Early marriages, poverty and insufficient spacing between births of babies, in his opinion, were the reasons leading to the chaos.
Disclosing that the TMSG has adopted 85 clinics where it is providing ready to use therapeutic food and ready to use supplementary food sachets to the malnourished family, he looked forward to reaching out greater number of people with the help of the donors and partners.
It was shared that as many as 54,000 children have already benefitted from the TMSG initiatives. A video was screened on the occasion in which the aims and objectives of the trust were outlined, besides giving insight into their activities. Renewing the pledge to continue serving to the cause, the founders of the TMSG looked determined to meet the challenge.
Yeh bacha kis ka bacha hai was the name of the play which was presented to the captivated audience. Directed by Imran Shirvanee, the play was about a rights activist worried about the way people who matter react to the crisis of malnutrition.
Her close friend, an affluent socialite, is disturbed by this crisis but does not know what to do about it. This conflict between the committed and the evasive is the core of this drama. The socialite comes across a child who is so under nourished that he may die any moment.
He is disturbed by the childs presence but does not know whether to hate (fear?) the poverty or the poor. The socialites world is full of worldly wonders, so, he is angered when faced with abject insufficiency. The activist is saddened that her friend is so estranged from reality.
The play moved along the poem by Ibn-e-Insha, yeh bacha kis ka bacha hai. When the poem reaches the point where the poet questions whose world is this anyway, the activist is heartbroken. But then the poem moves to jo rub ka hai wo sub ka hai, leaving a message of hope for all.