Role of American Sindhis in Development of Sindh

Saifullah Shaikh Dear Munwar and Friends,
I agree---and you stated in your last sentence-----"itis time to act and contribute".
1.According to one source inSANA------we have more than 300 Sindhi Physicians ,andmore than 300 other professionals in addition tobusiness men + others with good earnings eachyear-----belonging to Sindhi community OR SANA here inthe USA.
2.I have a lot of Christian /and few Jewish friendsalong with people belonging to Agha khan community ofSindh i-e Agha khanis---------it came to myinformation that all those individuals r contributing5-10 % of their income on regular basis to theircommunities/community centres/businesscommittees/schools/legal associations to protect theirrights/religious or worship centers/and theircommunity libraries------here in the USA in citieswhere they live. Now we can imagine why they r wellorganised,mature and strong----day by day.
3.On the scaleof 1------10,---------they r between 5 to 10----justfor example,( to convey my point and message in properand effective manner). They r collecting millions eachmonth very easily from their ownpeople/individuals/communities voluntarily andhappily. In addition they have already prepared a widerange of workers and volunteers for their communitywork/devolpment.
4.We Sindhis r wasting more than 10%(of our income)each year on useless items/things--------IN THE NAMEOF fAMILY,Children and other personalactivities----and many times very proud of thislavishly life style?!!!Why, because we r NorthAmerican Sindhis! better than our own brothers andsisters back home in Sindh!!?.
5.Now as a comparison,------onthe scale of 1-----10--where we sindhis stand today??Are we even at level 1 or 2 ? in terms ofcontribution,community work and force,volunteerorganization.
6.According to initial preliminary estimate-----if westart today (all professionals and business people ofSANA) TO CONTRIBUTE FINANCIALLY only 1% of theiryearly income and divert our wasted income/resourcesto permanent cause and project/s of SANA (TO BEDISCUSSED LATER ON)--------i m more than 100% surethat we can collect 500,000 dollars each year as apermanent Fund for SANA-----in order tolaunch/initiate new useful projects inside Sindh veryeffectively with speedy results.
7. Are we Sindhis ready andwilling to achieve even this level 1(low level on thescale of 1---10) while comparing ourselves e.g to Aghakhanis belonging to our own Sindh where they r moreeffective and more organized than us(they r notconsidering themselves Sindhis any more!!!!!).
8.I m requestingall my Seniors/members/well wishers(all SANAcommunity)----please come forward and start thismovement of 1% pledge for our Homeland and poorSindhis--------in this way we will prepare veryeffective force of volunteers/community workers asother non-Sindhi communities r functioning in Sindhand here in the USA.In this manner we may influenceeven Political Parties inside Sindh when we get strongfinancially.
9.After this(Phase one)discussions-------we may startdiscussions for different project/s inside Sindh(Phasetwo)later on,if we can agree on Phase one.Even thesedifferent projects would make us(SANA) more strongfinancially each year(profitable projects).
THIS SHOULD BEOUR (PRAGMATIC)APPROACH instead of talking useless,time-consuming and dividing issues for nothing butpersonal hidden motives. I think,it is time to get rid ofempty slogans and to say good-bye(forever)to thisself-imposed culture of KECHEHRI(wasting oftime)-----in order to make Sindhi-community/SANAfinancially sound and prosperous so that in nearfuture we may have network of communitycenters,volunteers force,centers for woman and adulteducation back-home(i-e inside Sindh).
At the same time,weneed to realize that time is very precious for Sindhisnow----therefore I appeal allsincere/seniors/well-established North-AmericanSindhis to come forward and stop this process ofPersonal Glorification/Egoism -------we need toinitiate a movement now ,and I would like to call/termthis 1% Pledge(as solemn promise)and 1% movement formotherland Sindh.
May Allah Bless our Sindh.
Saifullah Shaikh.
--- munwar soomro wrote: Dear friends, During my 7 years with SANA i have seen that we have been able to do very little for our Sindh. Given the alarming political and economic situation of Sindhi people we need to do more. Lets see why we have been unable to do that and how we can do it.
The main reasons why we have been unable to make it :
1- Lack of unity and - which is due to some folks who unfortunately aim at that and as people dont want to get involved in useless and irritating discussions they shy away.
2- lack of proper planning and proactiveness We can definitely address the first issue by tightening up the rope. The other issue of planning is very important. What we have been doing is creating too many committees for too many things, education, human rights, language, cultural, son on... Sindhis are few in number and active people are even limited.
What we need to do is, identify a potential area/project and work on it proactively. That should be the main task of the EC. The main body should concentrate on that project and may get help from others when needed. So that the fruit of the effort could be achieved soon and that builds confidence and you get more help and funding. We know that even though we are few in number but still there are good people who want to help given that there is a credible organizaiton working in sindh. We need to create that with the help of SANA or may be sana itself involved in projects.
For example we can select one or two of these fields to start with: Schools, Lobbying , Awareness, Improving atmosphere in Universities etc. Now i give details.
We can open primary schools teaching sindhi and english together establishing high standards. Every one know education is basic for everything. Lobbying, is that we talk to the sindhi and pakistani politicians, organize seminars, make leaders at all the levels feel that they should not think sindhis are not alone, and eventually getting more for sindhis in all areas ( i am glad SANA has already started that and we need to formalize its objectives).
By awareness i mean creating awareness among the masses that why the problems are piling up, what is the solution and who is who what is what. This is no surprise that even many educated people back home dont have clear sight and solution in mind. Of course we should tell them by working with newspapers (especially sindhi news papers) that all these sardars, waders, and selfish leaders have taken them to this point where there is no help for them. And create awareness that we can solve or get our problems solved by voting properly and also correcting ourselves.
Lastly we can target and visit universities by ourselves and talk to students, parties, administration and try to forge a unity among the student organizations. Also telling them that how we are harming ourselves by destroying educational institutions and standards and that how we can get jobs and what is the world trend.
We should start with one or max two projects and whole of SANA and EC should work proactively on the agenda. I dont see why we can not contribute to it moraly, financially and technically, if all sana leadership starts working proactively on that and produce results.
I think we have wasted lots of precious time on discussions this is time to act and contribute. regards, Munwar Soomro