WHILE THE WHOLE WORLD IS SUPPORTING LADAKH FOR ICE STUPA, LET US LADAKHIS DO SOMETHING TOO: PAGIR is one of Ladakh’s most active organisations with some amazingly active people. What makes them very special is that they are an organization of very special people; people who have much bigger hearts and fighting spirit than the rest of us. People who have risen above the challenges that nature tried to put in their way. Yes they are an organization of very specially-abled people, who some of us might ignorantly call disabled people. Their leader is Mohamed Iqbal. Clinically he would be labeled 100% disabled because all his limbs are totally dysfunctional. But nothing would be farther from the truth. He writes, he uses his mobile phone and even draws and paints using his mouth. He does not only get by in life, but leads an organization of dozens of people. How many of us do that? Why I am suddenly writing about PAGIR today? Well this morning I saw them shifting their office. They were renting few rooms at the SECMOL office in Housing Colony and now they are shifting to a one room office they have built on their own land. Great news, except that the new plot is virtually in the middle of the desert 5 km away from Leh, just above the JNV school on Sabu thang. This has become a big problem for them as they fear losing half of their staff. Most of their staff are physically challenged in one way or another and work for very small salaries (around 3K). So several of them have said that they would not be able to continue due to the distance and the 40 rupees that commuting from Leh will cost them daily. This morning as the SECMOL students were helping them pack and move things I got an idea that I would like to share with you all here. If some of us get together to buy them an electric Rikshaw (the kind that you see at Metro stations in Delhi) then not only can they provide free transport to their workers but… But also start a Green Transport revolution in Leh city. They can provide employment to a partly disabled person to run the same Rikshaw during the day, for local commuters between SNM Hospital Leh and Housing Colony (Tiari Rong) which is perfectly suitable for an electric Rikshaw. Apart from employing a person and solving their staff problems this will actually earn the organization roughly 15,000 rupees per month. So please join hands to donate what you can for this cause... 1,000 or 10,000 its the spirit that counts. I will happily bear the gap between the collection and the final cost of the Rikshaw, which is roughly 150,000 rupees. And if the whole amount is raised from your collections then I will pay for another Rikshaw, so that they could move towards running a fleet of clean and green electric Rikshaws in Leh. Now I would call this a Win-win-win-win solution. Win by helping Leh city with some clean air, Win by helping PAGIR retain the staff and their jobs) Win by creating new jobs for (partially) challenged people (as drivers), And win by ensuring a steady income for their organization. LETS ALL WIN TOGETHER You can directly contribute into PAGIR’s Bank account No: 4566000100012979 in Punjab National Bank, Leh. Or hand it over to the office administrator at the SECMOL office in Housing Colony. In this case call Ms. Phuntsog at 9906264641.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:42:12 +0000
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