The concept of walking for causes is a popular practice in Europe where huge events are planned in aid of various charities. In Chicago, 2002, it happened that on a pleasant Autumn afternoon, so many people turned up to walk for the causes of The Lung Association, AIDS, and the Diabetes Association, that people were bumping into each other.
In England, beauty spots such as Devon and Cornwall are famously popular for charity walks. They are planned well in advance, advertised and often whole families participate. Recently a four mile walk in Devon was organised for the Cystic Fibrosis Fund; another three mile circular walk that took place in the hills of Cornwall, was advertised as the Feet on Fire walk, an event to raise hinds for the Fire Service National Benevolent Fund, an organisation that takes care of fire fighters and their families.
In Pakistan too, walks are staged for a number of causes but unlike the professional organisations planning such event abroad, here the words 'walking for a cause' are synonymous with the name of one man, the artist and social activist Jimmy Engineer.
A tall, bearded, energetic man, Jimmy has the capacity to deal with numerous projects at one time and appears to be energized by his own efforts. He is well known in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi where he visits schools to speak to children on health issues and topical events; is a regular hospital and hospice visitor, and involved with numerous problems of street people and those without recourse. Mediating, writing notes of introduction to doctors, speaking upon people's behalf at 'thanas' his day encompasses countless lives, 'it is not always money that is needed', he says.
He started walking in 1990, and since then has organised and led numerous walks for charity and to highlight particular needs. In Sukkur and Hyderabad, he led public walks in aid of free health facilities for the poor and to raise the issue of building much needed hospitals. It is an irony of contrast to read of the crowded walks abroad and to visualise Jimmy Engineer's solitary, year long, epic walk from Karachi to the Khyber for health and medical related issues. One sees pictures of him en route, one man alone on a long, empty path.
Jimmy relates how he stopped at villages on the way and interacted with the local people. They were invariably reluctant to let him go; enjoying the interest he took in local affairs, their private problems and their children. Jimmy has a teen aged daughter of his own whom he speaks of with pride. He is there to guide her and advise whenever needed, and in every village child, he saw a reflection of his own.
In many places he had the satisfaction of initiating community projects believing in the strength of combined energy. He sat with the children under the trees during the efforts of the people to bring literacy to their villages, and was able to help them in many ways. "People are aware of what is lacking," he says, through the media they know what is happening in the world and feel the lack of schools, medical facilities and basic amenities. Being able to air their views was a rare happening and after each of these episodes, they waved the stranger off on a continuation of his journey, often accompanying him for several miles. That was not the end of the matter either, on his return to Karachi; he began to put people in a position to help in touch with the villages.
Born in Balochistan to a Parsi family, Jimmy Engineer grew up in Lahore where he completed his formal education before joining the National College of Art, Lahore, and then settled in Karachi. With a gift for languages, communication is no problem, he speaks several dialects comfortably. Striding purposefully along the streets in his starched, white Shalwar Kamiz, Jimmy is hailed by those he has helped and those who need help. No problem is too big or too small for his consideration; he is a first class organiser who, as he says, "Puts people together."
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