Education from the Heart
By Ras H. Siddiqui
From L to R : Sara Sheikh, Arif Janjua,
Asma Sheikh, Zara Khan, Saher Pirzada, Omar Khan and Hannah
Ahmed
The San Francisco Chapter of
Developments In Literacy or “DIL,” as it is popularly
known, held its annual fundraiser at The Scottish Rite Center
in San Jose, California on Saturday, May 7, 2005. And keeping
with its past tradition, over 200 people from amongst the
“Who’s Who” of the Pakistani community in
Northern California showed up at the fundraiser to express
their support for a noble cause - education of girls in Pakistan.
Our country of origin where the abysmal female literacy rate
should certainly be a matter of concern for all Pakistani
Americans needs much financial assistance to make the dream
of education come true for at least some of its children.
For raising this awareness in the San Francisco Bay Area on
an annual basis the DIL San Francisco Board of Sara Abbasi,
Ghazala Khan, Lubna Sheikh, Asma Sheikh and Saira Siddiqi
deserve our sincere gratitude. And add to that a number of
others who cannot all be named in this report on this function
which saw our community at its best.
Above: Glimpses
of the DIL fundraiser |
The proceedings began with a
recitation from the Holy Qura’n by Saher Pirzada. Master
of ceremonies Omar Khan was a great choice. He has been making
quite a contribution to the Pakistani media in this country
via “Jaiza,” a television program currently shown
on GEO TV on satellite. Omar said that he did not want this
to be a boring program and with his pluck and enterprise it
certainly wasn’t one.
Youth voice Zara Khan was invited to share her thoughts with
the audience. She in turn asked Hannah Ahmed to share her
own DIL school visit experience. Hannah presented the moving
real life story of Zulekha, one of the DIL school students
as an example. The story of Mahajabeen was also equally moving
as Sarah Sheikh presented another slice of Pakistani school
life in the struggling locales there. A follow-up video highlighted
DIL’s efforts to promote education in areas such as
Khairpur, Pishin, Dir and Orangi Town and detailed first-hand
experiences.
DIL Board Member Asma Sheikh delivered the keynote speech
on behalf of the local chapter. Asma presented a brief background
of the inception of the organization and the vision that it
wants to share with others. “DIL is a joint effort of
all of us gathered here today,” she said. She expressed
her thoughts on a number of historical facts, mainly as to
how Muslims who at one time were the custodians of the world’s
largest libraries and which produced great minds like Ibne
Sinha and Ibne Rushd, were mired in illiteracy today. But
on DIL schools she was visibly upbeat. “We have just
begun an ambitious plan to introduce computers in all our
schools,” she said. She explained how DIL worked to
set up schools in those areas of Pakistan where poverty was
rampant. “We have a moral obligation to help those less
fortunate,” she added. On DIL’s vision she said,
“Educating Pakistan’s young girls is our best
hope.” She pointed out that Sir Syed once created the
miracle of Aligarh (Muslim University) to give hope to his
people. And today, only through education can we hope to fulfill
the vision of Allama Iqbal and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Omar Khan returned with some thoughts of his own. “We
have come of age as a community,” he said. He also shared
some anecdotes with the captive audience (since fundraising
time was near), but the actual job of money raising was given
to Mr. Arif Janjua who was certainly not very silent at what
was billed as a “silent auction”. And one must
add that he did a great job and would make any corporate marketing
team proud.
Entertainment was not left out either. We have to thank Sunil
and Chanda Khanna for their melodies, ghazals and geets and
generosity. It was great to hear Sunil after a long interval.
His voice has seen a marked improvement.
The final numbers are not in but around $40,000 was raised
through donations, the auction and pledges. Charter members
of the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) and
APPNA were certainly at the forefront here. Rana Nadim Ahmed
of Home Advantage Corporation, Zain Jeewanjee (G1G.com) along
with Margalla Communications and SAP Corporation also played
a major role. But beyond the monetary aspect, the efforts
of our young people and a number of much older ones are noted
here without mentioning names.
It was good to see a slight change of tactics by DIL here
locally. This was a classy affair but was not an extravagant
one. It kept its focus where it should be: on the education
of disadvantaged girl children in Pakistan.
And in this effort two other groups are also active in this
part of California, namely the Human Development Foundation
(HDFNA) and The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF).
In concluding, one has to thank everyone for attending. And
to Omar Khan one may add that his Jaiza program is encouraging
many of us to give up cable and go the satellite route. And
he does not have to give any local community reporter the
title of “Legend” prematurely. DIL’s work
is what had brought us all together this day. We were delighted
to attend because something of substance was accomplished
here. And when an effort comes from the heart (the Urdu word
for heart is Dil), by the grace of God it will succeed. (Please
visit www.4dil.org for more information).
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