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Can You Give a Hand Up?

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WHEN HUMAN BEINGS ARE NO LONGER A NUMBER:

THE PAKISTAN FLOOD AND WHAT CAN YOU DO

Here are the statistics you see on news: Pakistan is drowning; 33 million people have no homes; 33% of Pakistan’s agricultural land is submerged; 33% of the livestock that supports life in Pakistan and abroad has drowned. Should I go on?

What happens when human beings are no longer a number on an Instagram statistic or a Tik Tok clip?

What happens when they have faces and emotions?

Suddenly you see that they are your neighbors, your friends, your cousins, your sister and brother from another mother, and your soulmates.

What happens when you not only see but experience the grief when their home falls into the raging river and their trout business submerges under the water, when their children’s school is nowhere to be seen and all that meets the eye is the surface of the muddy waters flooding their city, town, and village?

What happens when you feel the slimy mud sticking to their bodies and their clothes barely cover their nakedness as they struggle to wade out of the rushing river where brambles and debris pulls at their threadbare, mud-washed clothes?

Do you feel like them when they stand at the banks or on the road bereft of all their worldly belongings and their life savings, left to rebuild life as they knew it.

It is then when true empathy enters your heart and it urges you to help.

It is only then that you find yourself digging into your savings, selling your electronics, working overtime because someone you have a heart connection with is standing on the road waiting for a hand up. They are not begging, they who have helped feed so many all over the world, who are now destitute and speechless.

This is Pakistan at this time and yet they are not begging.

Can we maintain their dignity by walking in their shoes on November 6, crossing the Istanbul Bridge for the Istanbul Marathon and donating from the heart before, on, and after the Marathon?

Mahmudah Institute of Wellness and Mindful living is a non-profit organization accepting donations at this time from all over the world and enrolling walkers and runners for the Istanbul Marathon to join them in raising awareness and funds to help those in Pakistan who do not ask but are in dire need.

My question to you is: CAN YOU GIVE A HAND UP?

How to do it:

· If you are in Istanbul and can run or walk in the Istanbul Marathon on November 6, 2022, please join the WhatsApp group titled “RUNNING FOR PAKISTAN”. Both actual and virtual walkers can be participants.

· If you are unable to participate in the Istanbul Marathon, you can walk virtually anywhere in the world and let us know by donating any amount your heart calls for to assist flood victims in Pakistan before November 9, 2022 via the Mahmudah Institute donate button: https://www.mahmudahinstitute.org/donations/

· If you are in Istanbul or anywhere in the world please donate via the Mahmudah Institute donate button: https://www.mahmudahinstitute.org/donations/

· All donations made to Mahmudah Institute using this donate button up until the 9th of November will exclusively go towards trusted organizations on the ground in Pakistan assisting Pakistanis with flood survival.

May you be blessed by The Divine in helping from your heart, and may you be protected from all calamities.