We are proud to present immimentary* about an immigrant who found success in America and who find great satisfaction in serving his community.

Tons of people from across the globe have come to the United States seeking the opportunity for a better life. America is a country that was built by immigrants, some who brought their talent and others who found themselves while pursuing their dreams in a new land. Here is one story about the life of a modern-day immigrant.

APNA day care center is a social adult day care. Which is open to all communities in the area. It provides a food, lunch, breakfast and dinner to elderly. At the same time we have services to teach computer skills and to exercise. And also we have a meeting place where people can socialize and talk and mingle and have a good time. I come from an immigrant family from Pakistan. My family was involved in the independence movement, before Pakistan was created. They were very responsible in terms of not only physically be involved but also financially. They helped the Pakistan Muslim League party which was able to help to get the independence of Pakistan. As we migrated into Pakistan we obviously encountered numerous difficulties as you can imagine. My father worked in the government services. We landed in Lahore Pakistan. Lahore is like Harvard in the US. So I had one of the best education over there and I grew up graduated from the School of Pharmacy. At one point in time I had an opportunity to go to the United States and a friend of mine introduced me to the director of pharmacy at Saint Luke’s Hospital on Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. I served at Saint Luke’s Hospital for almost eight years. And then I had an opportunity to open a pharmacy and right here, in the heart of this area. Trying to get a little bit more involved in the community in the Brighton area I started a program where anybody who does not have any insurance would get free medicine. I created a fund and that fund would help anybody who doesn’t have insurance to fill the prescriptions. In 2012 we were hit, in this area, by hurricane Sandy. We were engulfed with a lot of people, who were coming for jobs and who were coming for help. We started to create a fund that could help them out. As we were progressing, there were people who used to stand outside the pharmacy, there were no benches, there were no trees. And I think my interest got started with it. We’ve got to do something for them. The idea of the city had was they didn’t want these people to end up in nursing homes where the cost for the city would be extremely high. I, at that point, decided to actively look for a place. I was determined that I was going to create a center which would help separately the people who had special needs in terms of applying for them and getting appointments for them. There was a separate unit which was taking care of the people who had dementia, Alzheimer’s, mental health issues. And I think, because of the fact that we are situated in the heart of the community, the mosque is here, the restaurant is here, the grocery stores are here, people assemble over here for prayers five times a day. I think our community, at all this time that I’ve been here, and all the media has been misrepresenting in terms of you know, who they are. I think it gave me an opportunity to spend time within the community and the Brighton area to let them know that we’re a peace-loving community who is very much part of the mosaic of America. We help our neighbors, they helped us, and now we have become an integral part of the Brighton Beach area. APNA actually means “it’s yours”. It is a sense of ownership that we give to the community, that you can come here it is yours. There’s only one thing I want to say, yeah well it may not be relevant or it may be relevant, but that’s my life that I weren’t tell you. I grew up in a family where my mother after my last sibling was born, because of medical reasons she had a mental breakdown, and because of that our family was split up. The daughters were living with my aunts and the sons were sent to live with the father. We live separated from a mother for a while. Taking care of ourselves. And we became very self-sufficient, you know. And when our mom came back to live with us we took care of her because she was a mental patient. Our younger days in childhood we learned how to care, how to love, how to care of each other. I think that shaped my life and my character. The funny thing is, I was able to bring my mom into this country and then took care for her for thirty years, till she passed away in 2011. I think I’m blessed, because in our community, in our culture, in our religion if you can take care of your parents you’re the luckiest. I had that opportunity. I just had to say, as I think back of my life, of the years that I have spent here, we spent almost 40 years living in the US and almost 25 years in this community, I feel, I had the opportunity America gave me and I am blessed literally. I’m blessed and I want to give back to the community as much as I can. And I also want to create a legacy where I can be remembered as somebody who provided care and services to the needy, so that I can create a generation of younger people who can do the same. Provide similar services to their elders, to the community, to the city, to their town and become better citizens. And become more meaningful rather than being irrelevant. And that would something that I would hope I would do by creating this center.

*The term “Immimentary” is a combination of words “immigrant” and “documentary”.
IMMIMENTARY is a film production company and a series of documentaries that feature interviews with immigrants from all walks of life. Stories told by the immigrants themselves.