Behbud’s Spring Fiesta 2019

Stakeholders, guests & First Lady Samina Alvi made it a real success

Behbud Association – Karachi had its annual famous Spring Fiesta at Beach Park, Clifton, which is a family-based festival which hosts not just shopping, but entertainment and food stalls for the citizens of Karachi.  Due to last year’s fiesta’s immense success, this year the event was at a much larger scale and was even more triumphant. Mrs. Samina Alvi, First Lady of Pakistan, was the Guest of Honour.

Anum is a visual artist and a researcher, apart from working as an Assistant Professor at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA), in Karachi. She has done her MA in Contemporary Arts from Coventry University, UK and her Bachelors in Fine Art from IVSAA, Karachi. Apart from making artworks, she loves to travel and pen down her experiences with the newly visited cities and its people.

Rehana Alam, a long-time member of Behbud Association, remarked about the organisation’s legacy “Behbud Association, Karachi has been working for more than 4 decades. The aim of the volunteer women who run it, is to empower underprivileged women and children. Behbud’s approach is holistic. Quality education, health care and vocational training for income generation is provided at minimal cost to the nearly 200, 000 beneficiaries every year. The Behbud Spring Fiesta is organized annually to raise funds for all these projects.”

Bushra Pervaiz Kausar, President of Behbud Association-Karachi branch, worked tirelessly with members and volunteers to manifest this breath-taking event. She mentioned that “Behbud Spring Fiesta is held every year to raise awareness and generate funds for Behbud’s cause, which is to empower women and children. It showcases products, skills of women trained by Behbud”.

The ambiance of this year’s Festival was a spectrum of colours, with over a hundred stalls of innumerable items and activities. The highlight of these stalls was, without a doubt, Behbud’s clothing line which showcased the latest designs of female and children attire, apart from table linens, handmade bags and other related items. My personal favourites were the hand-made clothes for Barbie dolls, which truly brought my inner-child dreams of dressing my old dolls with these unique ‘miniature-scale hand woven couture’!

The food stalls had a wide array of desi and continental dishes, which the visitors enjoyed immensely. From Nutella churros to channa chat, one could satisfy their taste buds with any dish they wished for.

The hustle and bustle of the children is what made Spring Fiesta alive and extremely optimistic about the future. A designated Kids Activities area was full of young ones trying their aesthetic skills in a plethora of activities, such as Pottery Painting (which I was honoured to setup and manage!), Sand Art and Block Printing to name a few. Stalls such as Face Painting and Makeovers were also amongst the kids’ favourites.

Nabila Khawaja, also a member of Behbud, remarked “When you walk into the Fiesta venue & see the full barrage of Behbud ladies busy carrying out tasks, duties with such responsibility & zest, it inspires one with exhilarating energy and drive to do same. There’s an enthusiasm unmatched starting from months before the event. Volunteering for Behbud echoes our own Islamic religious philosophy ‘The right hand must not know what the left hand gives’. The post-event feeling is of total contentment and all went smoothly by the grace of God.”

Saira Naqui and Shayma Raza Baig, who were the main organisers of this event, appreciated everyone’s participation as visitors, supporters and volunteers.  Overall, the Fiesta was an immense success in terms of welfare and the organisation is working tirelessly to help even more in need in the future. If you wish to find further information about how you can help Behbud financially or through volunteering, please visit their website http://behbudkarachi.org.pk/