At a time when Pakistan is facing countless problems, there are people who are silently working for the betterment of the motherland. These devoted Pakistanis are working towards accomplishment of their goal to bring Pakistan out of the shadows. These are the people who are striving to change perceptions regarding Pakistan from a terrorism stricken Pakistan to an inspiring Pakistan. Despite of all the pessimism prevailing there are some Pakistanis that are still highly motivated and are contributing towards welfare of the state in their individual capacity. Their spirits are high and they are certain that they can be the positive change agents for the country.

Parveen Saeed is the founder of Khana Ghar, an outfit that provides heavily subsidised meals to the city’s poor.

The three-rupee meal served at Khana Ghar includes one roti and a plate of curry.

Essentially a housewife, Saeed was drawn to feeding the poor when she read the story of a local woman who killed her two children because she could not afford to feed them. She set up Khana Ghar in January 2002 and gradually drew in family, friends and others to help set up food houses and distribution points.

Saeed plans to continue devoting her life to this initiative and dreams of being able to feed everyone everywhere.

A soft-spoken, humble woman, who is usually seen wearing old, faded clothes, 52-year-old Saeed rarely ventures out without covering her head. She speaks in Urdu, and strains hard to understand English, answering the most difficult queries with a smile and a nod.

Saeed is reluctant to admit that she has done anything worthy of praise and recognition but, only recently, she was honoured by Timberland Pakistan’s Green Awards for her meritorious service.

We are citizens of a third-world country where hunger is undoubtedly the worst weapon of mass destruction and is the cause of most evils. It doesn’t seem so to many of us because majority reading this have been blessed and never experienced the harsh atrocities of life. Good news is that we now posses the resources at hand to defeat this cruel enemy at a very reasonable cost and provide food for the hungry but sadly, no one comes forward to end this scourge of poverty.

In January 2002, amid the usual stories about political crises and terrorism, appeared a news item about a mother who, in sheer desperation borne of poverty, choked two of her children to death because she could not afford to feed them. Most of us probably read it. Many would have felt sorry for the victims and some will have expressed anger over the state’s negligence in providing for its citizens. Almost all of us then turned the page.
One woman, Parveen Saeed from Karachi’s Surjani Town, however, refused to let it go. “The incident with the mother killing her children had a major impact on my life,” she says. “The children had been starving for three days. Isn’t that just terrible?”