On Feb. 8 this year, Munnal Sohail Idris’ porch was flooded with bags full of relief supplies for the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey.
After hearing the news of the devastation, Munnal sent out texts and calls to her friends in Dublin, Columbus and beyond to drop off supplies at her house so she could fill care packages to send to the victims. Her son, Ibraheem – a freshman at Dublin Coffman High School – texted his friends and shared the information with student council.
“Seeing those children under the rubble. That could have been my son. That could have been me,” Munnal says.
What started with 20 cardboard boxes and a roll of tape turned into 116 boxes filled with essentials such as baby food, diapers, hygiene products, canned goods, clothing, blankets, tents, sleeping bags, flasks and flashlights.
“By the end of evening, on February 8, my mudroom was absolutely full of bags of winter coats, sweaters and boots,” Munnal says. “By the end of the 9th, I actually had to put out to all my groups that ‘I'm sorry, I feel bad about it, but we’re not accepting any more donations.’”
After this staggering response from the surrounding community, Munnal was then faced with the task of sorting the supplies and packing them away. Again, she received support from her community.
“I would not have been able to even pack those boxes myself,” Munnal says, “so I did reach out to friends and they came because the morning was so overwhelming and I was almost about to cry… so many of them came out to help.”
She initially planned to load both her car and her son’s with the supplies to drive them to the drop location in Springfield, but they quickly realized all of the boxes wouldn’t fit. They ended up renting a U-Haul truck and Munnal’s sons, Haashir and Ibraheem, loaded the packages with help from friends from Dublin Coffman and Jerome High School and Grizzell Middle School.
Although Munnal initiated the donation effort, she explains that the community is the reason why it was so successful.
“The credit goes to the community less to me, because I was the one who initiated and led it, but the way my friends reached out … I mean everybody wants to help,” Munnal says. “I am so grateful I live in a community where people thought beyond their race or culture or religion. I have friends who are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikh, atheist – they all helped. So that was a very humbling experience for me.”
Munnal and her sons, Yaheya and Haashir (both Dublin Coffman alumni), met with the Consul General of Turkey to discuss the ongoing developments in Turkey and to represent Dublin and their contribution to the relief effort.
“I think by the end of this project, I can safely say that the common moral code of us as a human being is the same,” Munnal says. “Doesn’t matter what religion or culture or what else you belong to. Morality speaks the same language.”
Munnal also seeks to help her own community. Since 2014, she has donated two scientific calculators to Dublin Coffman high school to support students after seeing a need in that area. She also helped organize a “Candy for Calculators” to get the community involved.
From 2011 to 2018 she participated in Multicultural Day at Bailey Elementary School where she shared about the culture of Pakistan – the country where she was born – as well as other cultures.
Katie Giffin is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
