12 minute read
A Helping Hand
MAKING A DIFFERENCE A Helping Hand
Temple University student Syed Waseem launches a nonprofit foundation, The Muzaffar Brain Trust, in honor of his late father to assist local families caring for loved ones
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BY HABEEBA HUSAIN
About an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, a family spent the past year and a half recovering from the loss of their father to Stage Four brain cancer. The pandemic, oddly enough, helped.
“That was kind of like a blessing in disguise, keeping us all together,” says Syed Waseem, 20, the eldest of three siblings. “After an event like this, it’s nice to stay home, recuperate ... before everybody actually returns back to normal life.”
Waseem, along with his mother, brother and sister, is trying to turn his family’s space into a home again after his father succumbed to glioblastoma — an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord — in the fall of 2019.
“It was almost like being in a warzone because you’re hearing cries of pain at night, you’re barely sleeping, you’re giving morphine around the clock,” Waseem says.
After his father’s diagnosis, Waseem knew there would be a lot to juggle in terms of college, finances and of course caring for his father, but he didn’t realize to what extent.
“Everything became top priority. There was a list — this has to get done first, this has to get done first, this has to get done first,” he says.
Soon enough, the to-do list became overwhelming. Real fears set in about the cost of living from groceries to bills, from medications to hospice care.
“I saw the bill for the chemo pills. My dad only took them five days out of the month, and it was upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars that the insurance would pay,” Waseem relates. “Someone losing their insurance — it’s pretty scary.”
He took on three jobs to help out financially. While at home, he cared for his father when his mother worked a night shift.
“My brother and I were lifting [my father] to the point where I was [taking] Advil every day because of my back pain,”
Syed Waseem wearing the foundation’s shirt he sells to raise money
Waseem explains. “I would work throughout the day, study at night, getting maybe two to four hours of sleep. That’s how it was for almost a year and a half.”
Although he had a full course load as a math, computer science, and neuroscience triple-major at Temple University, Waseem limited his schooldays to only once or twice a week due to everything going on at home.
“I was teaching myself organic chemistry, theoretical math, and complex data structures for comp sci while sitting at my dad’s bedside,” he says.
One Saturday morning, Waseem had an organic chemistry exam scheduled. It started at 6:30 a.m. He looked at the clock — 4:30. He had to leave in an hour if he wanted to make it on time, but he hadn’t studied for it. Three jobs, three majors, bills, lack of sleep, a terminally ill parent — when do you cope?
“The emotional aspect was there, but you’re always expected to push that down for the greater good, for your future,” he states. “But at that point, does this future even matter?”
He wondered why the empathy from professors, bosses and healthcare providers was nowhere to be found.
“No one is willing to show anybody any humanity in this situation, except for family of course,” he says. “My dad always taught us to never take a helping hand … but at some point in life, everybody needs help.”
That’s when Waseem decided he would do anything possible to ensure that others wouldn’t feel the same stresses and strains he and his family did while caring for a loved one. He wanted to be that help, share that humanity and show that empathy he so desperately needed.
“No one else should have to go through that. It’s a type of thing when someone says, ‘I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy ever.’ I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, period — past, present or future,” he says.
Thus, last summer, Waseem founded a nonprofit organization named after his father, The Muzaffar Brain Trust (www. muzaffarbraintrust.org). The organization aims to assist struggling local families in small ways, whether that be buying groceries for a week, paying an internet bill or hiring a nurse for a few extra hours on the weekend.
It works through collecting donations and selling merchandise like shirts and their newly launched hoodies via an online store, muzaffarbraintrust.org.
Waseem recruited his friends, all of them skilled in different fields, as his board of directors. A designer and calligraphist friend created the logo, an accountant friend handles taxes, while he and others manage the website. It’s a team effort for a greater cause.
Once Covid-19 restrictions lift, Waseem plans to hold in-person events, like fundraisers at mosques, 5K runs and small marathons to raise money for families in need.
The Muzaffar Brain Trust, though launched during the pandemic, has already helped a few families with its limited pool of resources. Eventually, the goal is to expand this pool and share stories online to nurture understanding among the greater community.
“Keep an eye out on your neighbors,” Waseem says. “It’s not too hard to ask people how their day is going.”
Something as simple as that can go a long way. Waseem says if the conversation develops further, offering a helping hand within the home doesn’t hurt either.
Essentially, his advice encourages acting on multiple practices of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), like treating neighbors with kindness, visiting the sick and giving charity to those in need.
The Muzaffar Brain Trust’s mission is part and parcel of Islam, as well as an opportunity for the rest of us to fulfill what is already expected by our religion.
“The day we [as an organization] don’t have to be here ... that means that people are helping each other out without any push — that would be an amazing thing to see,” Waseem says. “The day I get to dissolve the foundation, I think, will be a great day.”
The Muzaffar Brain Trust is still very much in its infancy, but Waseem and his team are quietly working behind-the-scenes until they can get to that point.
“You never know when someone who sleeps in the next room is going to need something,” he says.
In the case they do (may God protect us all), Syed Waseem hopes to be there, offering a helping hand. ih
Habeeba Husain is a freelance journalist based in the New York tri-state area. She helps manage Muslim-run businesses WuduGear and Kamani. Her work has appeared in SLAM Magazine, WhyIslam. org and Narrative.ly, among other online and print publications.
Making Wishes Come True
Three Texan Muslim American teens giving people the water they need faster
BY RABIYAH SYED
Zunaira Farooq, Samar Siddiqui, Raisa Gire (l-r) fundraising at Al-Noor Masjid in Houston
After the February 2021 snowstorm, Texans had to boil water for a whole week because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said that it was potentially “unsafe for consumption or may pose an acute health risk.” This is something no one could imagine happening in the U.S., an advanced country.
In Flint, Mich., a water crisis began in 2014 when high levels of lead in the water made it harmful for consumption. The residents had to cook with bottled water. This crisis has been resolved, but the residents’ trust has yet to be regained.
While these incidents are exceptions in the U.S., water contamination and scarcity are common problems in many other countries. Three Texan Muslim American teens, Raisa Gire, 17, Zunaira Farooq, 17, and Samar Siddiqui, 16, decided to take action.
They founded R-Zu (https://www.r-zu. org/) to provide easily accessible wells and filtration systems in developing countries
RAISA, ZUNAIRA AND SAMAR HAVE WORKED TIRELESSLY TO RAISE MONEY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THESE THREE TEENS BELIEVED THAT THEY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THOSE LESS FORTUNATE — AND THEY DID. THE WELLS THAT WERE BUILT REPRESENT THE FIRST STEP THEY HAVE TAKEN, AND ONE CAN EASILY CONCLUDE THAT IT WON’T BE THEIR LAST.
that would enable the people to have access to clean water. Zunaira says their inspiration came from hearing stories about how hard it is for people living in Africa and Asia to get clean water.
Water contamination and scarce access to clean drinking water are common issues, especially in developing countries. Factories may discharge waste into lakes and rivers, while chemical run-off from fertilizers can contaminate groundwater as well. “Some 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is dumped — largely untreated — back into the environment, polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans. This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined,” reports The Natural Resources Defense Council (https://www.unwater.org/ water-facts/scarcity/).
In many developing countries, women and young girls have to walk miles to fetch water even before the sun comes up. “In Afar, Ethiopia, 13-year-old Aysha trudges eight hours, roundtrip, every day to collect water for herself and her family. Worldwide, women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours — daily — collecting water,” according to UNICEF, USA. Balancing clay pots brimming with water on their heads, they are often at risk of getting hit by passing traffic. For them, turning on a tap isn’t an option, let alone getting hot and cold running water at any time of the day or night. The little water they collect in the morning has to suffice for the whole day — for showers, drinking and cooking.
“We started to draw and sell greeting cards (to raise funds) and we thought it would be a small project at first,” Zunaira admits. However, their project grew as they received an overwhelming amount of support from their community. It led to the founding of R-Zu and sponsoring the building of 12 handpumps at central locations, including at four schools, in Jaurah and Karnana, Gujrat, Pakistan. R-Zu has also built a tubewell with an electric water pump in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
FUTURE WARS WILL BE OVER WATER According to Rajendra Singh, founder of Tarun Bharat Sangh (https://tarunbharatsangh.in [Young India Organization]), “The third world war is at our gate, and it will be about water, if we don’t do something about this crisis.”
For the past 32 years, Singh, known as the “water man of India,” has been working with communities in Rajasthan, India, to harvest and conserve water. Here there isn’t much rainfall, and the high temperatures cause the water to evaporate quickly. This is a problem in many places that have hot climates, and the people often don’t know what to do about it. Water is essential for survival, and yet many people have a problem accessing it. The world needs leaders who will lead the effort in conserving and purifying water (https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/ publications/archive/policy_innovations/ innovations/00308).
WHAT IS WATER SCARCITY? Water scarcity refers to not having clean water that is fit for consumption, whether due to a shortage (e.g., drought) or because it is located far away. Although 70% of our planet is covered with water, the fact that only 3% of it is reachable freshwater creates a problem for millions of people around the world. The water they have access to could be contaminated, and sources are usually not easily accessible. According to worldvision. org, “2.3 billion people live without access to basic sanitation.” In 2015, NASA’s satellite data revealed that 21 of the world’s 37 large aquifers are now severely water-stressed.
The wells that R-Zu has built can give people the water they need faster. Raisa says the cost of the well depends upon its location and type. For instance, in places where one has to dig deep in the ground, an electric well will be built. Its placement is also determined by the people’s needs.
Donors, too, play a role. A lot of times people will send money to sponsor a well in memory of a loved one or to support the community “that they are from,” says Raisa. “They will request that the well be built in a certain town.”
EVERY EFFORT COUNTS These young women have received heartwarming photos and letters from towns and villages that their wells have helped. “We got a letter from these girls in Baiwala, Pakistan. It was an all-girls school. We built a well there, and they were telling us that all these students could get water and not have to worry about it,” said Zunaira. These letters just go to show what a big impact a project that started small can have. While they have had successes, they have also faced challenges.
One of the biggest ones has been to balance their organization with schoolwork and other activities. Sometimes they would have to reschedule planned meetings if they had a test or a big assignment. The Covid-19 restrictions proved to be another problem.
Before the pandemic, they would have fundraisers and meet with people to explain what R-Zu was about. But when the pandemic hit, R-Zu had to brainstorm and pivot. To continue raising funds, they decided to sell their hand-made cards on Amazon.com. The teens were serious about their organization, and their drive allowed them to accomplish their goals and overcome their challenges.
Raisa advises people “to run with whatever you do,” for the society at large and “encourages people to fight for what they believe in and help in whatever way they can.”
Water scarcity is a global problem. Although one well doesn’t solve the crisis, even one single well makes a huge difference in the lives of the people it helps. Raisa, Zunaira and Samar have worked tirelessly to raise money to make a difference. These three teens believed that they could make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate — and they did. The wells that were built represent the first step they have taken, and one can easily conclude that it won’t be their last. ih
Rabiyah Syed,13, an eighth grader and student at Writers Studio (writersstudio.us), loves photography and baking and aspires to be a speech pathologist.
