William King Jackson-Deseret International & The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Rescue of Saba Trust Once again Come
By M. A. Asim

 
Mr William King Jackson with Mr Saghir Aslam and Saba Home children during his visit to Saba Trust. On extreme right is a section of the offices destroyed by the recent fire

William King Jackson from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took time out of his busy schedule to apprise himself of the destruction caused to Saba Trust Head Office building by fire in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and made a generous donation by hand-delivering a check.

While visiting the Saba Trust Head Office, William King Jackson, a lifetime humanitarian family member, also brought with him some young officials and members of the Church who volunteered to come and help clean and paint Saba Trust – Saba Homes.

Mr. Sajjad, a local representative of the LDS Church, appeared enthusiastic about the clean-up initiative and indicated he would form a large team from his Church and come to clean Saba Trust Head Office.

The Jackson family from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been working with the Trust for many years. Dr. William Jackson has been providing eye lenses and equipment to the Railway Hospital and Dr. Usman Saeed through Saba Trust. Thanks to his efforts spanning several years, today there are 1 to 2 million people who can see in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Pakistan.

Dr. William Jackson visits Pakistan regularly: he made a special effort to work with Saba Trust during the 2005 earthquake, the worst to hit the country. Accompanied by the Chairman of the Saba Trust he visited some of the remotest villages to help earthquake victims, generously donating clothes, blankets, and toys. He spent a good amount of time to help the earthquake victims.

More recently, Br. Leishman, Incharge of Relief, extended help to the displaced people of Swat, Boner and Malakand of NWFP through the Saba Trust. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wire-transferred the funds to help the less fortunate, the refugees in Mardan where they were camped out or had taken shelter in other peoples’ homes. Br. Leishman’s generosity enabled the Saba Trust staff to provide many refugee families with dry food for a month.

Later, Saba Trust’s Chairman and staff, with the help of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, decided to provide the displaced people cooked food as it was difficult for them to prepare meals.

Br. Saghir Aslam’s association with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints goes back over half a century when in 1957 he first met young people who had joined his first-ever International Cosmopolitan Club where more than 25 countries representing every major religion on earth joined hands to promote love, peace and harmony between people of different faiths. Br. Aslam has been working for the promotion of interfaith understanding for over half a century, while most people started talking about interfaith only after 9/11. Br. Aslam has been a great believer in interfaith harmony all his life and has been promoting it since 1957. He holds an interfaith conference in America and Pakistan.

One of the interfaith conferences that Br. Aslam had organized at the Marriot in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attended by Bishop Tom Tholkerson, his wife Sheila, the first female Rotarian in her town, and John Jones, an intern from Ronald Regan Presidency. They all belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and especially flew to Pakistan to speak at the World Interfaith Conference. Bishop Tom Tholkerson greatly commended the spirit of understanding and mutual respect vividly demonstrated at the conference. The trio spent almost 2 weeks in Pakistan, speaking at different colleges, universities, and clubs from Karachi to Islamabad.

Br. Saghir Aslam has contacted Br. Leishman, in-charge of Humanitarian Aid and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which spends million of dollars helping the less fortunate all over the world.

Br. Aslam is confident that his best supporters from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more specifically Br. Leishman, would help the Saba Trust when needed.

Earlier, Br. Jerry Flake, who was in-charge of the Worldwide Humanitarian Aid, too had unreservedly extended help to Saba Trust.

Br. Aslam has appealed to Br. Leishman and other higher officials and individuals from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to please help ‘us this time when we need help the most to rebuild the Saba Trust Head Office after the recent fire and to bring it back in operation. They have been most helpful in the last 44 years.’

Saba Trust this time badly needs the help of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to rebuild so that the Trust can be fully operational again. The cost to rebuild will run in excess of one hundred thousand dollars and Br. Aslam is counting on the generosity of Br. Leishman, in-charge of the Humanitarian Services of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is also hoping some of the individual members of The Church would help.

Others in the USA who wish to help the Saba Trust at this critical juncture can mail their checks to:

International Education & Welfare Society, 15568 Brookhurst St, Suite 359, Westminster, CA-92683

Telephone: (949) 654-3944

International Education & Welfare Society (IEWS) is 501C registered in America Tax ID No.33-0716944. Checks should not be issued in the name of Saba Trust.

For online donations please go to

www.sabatrust.com

and donate now.

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