The Inspiration
Doing community service and contributing to making the world a better place to live in, is something we have always looked for opportunities for. This time, the team wanted to help the health sector in Pakistan, with a focus on cancer patients. Fighting cancer for a child is hard and being surrounded by bleak bare walls makes it even harder. Therefore, they aimed to improve the ward by painting the walls and adding furniture and toys to make it more aesthetically pleasing for the children. Cancer is a devastating disease that causes immense pain and heartbreak for families, and the team wanted to contribute to making the world a better place by helping those in need.
The Journey
During our summer holidays, Team Newlands began their search for public hospitals in Islamabad that would give them the opportunity to help out in any way possible. During the search, they contacted Nori Cancer Hospital and met with Dr. Faheem who approved their plan and allocated Dr. Sana for assistance. The team evenly divided the responsibilities amongst themselves. They also successfully raised Rs 266,000 through word-of-mouth and social media. It took them five visits to complete the paintwork. Afterwards, it took them one final visit to set up all the purchased items along with installing the TVs, smoothly pasting the wall stickers, and putting up the decoration frames. The entire process took us around 6 to 7 weeks.
Key Learnings
Experiences such as these hold innumerable value. This initiative helped the team play their part in giving back to the community. It taught them the importance of teamwork and problem-solving while putting their heads together and coming up with better solutions. Despite COVID-19, the team took precautions and worked for the cause. Taking this step, despite the fear, taught them the value of selflessness; all that fear melted away when they knew that they were working for a good cause. So, in essence, there were two beneficiaries, the children that were going to be admitted to that ward, and the team itself: the lessons they learned through this experience can certainly not be replaced.
The Impact
Team Newlands aimed at making the place aesthetically pleasing for the suffering children and wanted to provide them with an environment that temporarily helped release some of their stress. Even though the hospital was taking care of every patient's needs, our team members wanted to go the extra mile. While they were painting the walls, they felt that they were doing some good, and in some little way, making the world a better place to live in. Thinking about the children who would already be under great stress due to cancer, and thinking about how perhaps the toys and burst of colours, added to the ward, would bring a smile to their faces, made it all worth the effort.
Way Forward
The team aspires to gather volunteers from different local schools and assign specific areas of different hospitals to different groups. It would spread the message of compassion, empathy, care, and kindness towards physically and emotionally challenged fellows, for whom little deeds of generosity can bring huge amounts of happiness.
The Inspiration
Doing community service and contributing to making the world a better place to live in, is something we have always looked for opportunities for. This time, the team wanted to help the health sector in Pakistan, with a focus on cancer patients. Fighting cancer for a child is hard and being surrounded by bleak bare walls makes it even harder. Therefore, they aimed to improve the ward by painting the walls and adding furniture and toys to make it more aesthetically pleasing for the children. Cancer is a devastating disease that causes immense pain and heartbreak for families, and the team wanted to contribute to making the world a better place by helping those in need.
The Journey
During our summer holidays, Team Newlands began their search for public hospitals in Islamabad that would give them the opportunity to help out in any way possible. During the search, they contacted Nori Cancer Hospital and met with Dr. Faheem who approved their plan and allocated Dr. Sana for assistance. The team evenly divided the responsibilities amongst themselves. They also successfully raised Rs 266,000 through word-of-mouth and social media. It took them five visits to complete the paintwork. Afterwards, it took them one final visit to set up all the purchased items along with installing the TVs, smoothly pasting the wall stickers, and putting up the decoration frames. The entire process took us around 6 to 7 weeks.
Key Learnings
Experiences such as these hold innumerable value. This initiative helped the team play their part in giving back to the community. It taught them the importance of teamwork and problem-solving while putting their heads together and coming up with better solutions. Despite COVID-19, the team took precautions and worked for the cause. Taking this step, despite the fear, taught them the value of selflessness; all that fear melted away when they knew that they were working for a good cause. So, in essence, there were two beneficiaries, the children that were going to be admitted to that ward, and the team itself: the lessons they learned through this experience can certainly not be replaced.
The Impact
Team Newlands aimed at making the place aesthetically pleasing for the suffering children and wanted to provide them with an environment that temporarily helped release some of their stress. Even though the hospital was taking care of every patient's needs, our team members wanted to go the extra mile. While they were painting the walls, they felt that they were doing some good, and in some little way, making the world a better place to live in. Thinking about the children who would already be under great stress due to cancer, and thinking about how perhaps the toys and burst of colours, added to the ward, would bring a smile to their faces, made it all worth the effort.
Way Forward
The team aspires to gather volunteers from different local schools and assign specific areas of different hospitals to different groups. It would spread the message of compassion, empathy, care, and kindness towards physically and emotionally challenged fellows, for whom little deeds of generosity can bring huge amounts of happiness.
