Houstonians Help Harvard Student 'Save the Little Dreams' of Pakistani Children
 |
Salman Ahmad gives a scintillating performance |
Houston, TX: Called ‘dreamfly’, an organization raises funds to build schools in Pakistan. It supported this year’s annual Asian/Pacific American Heritage Association (APAHA) Festival at the Miller Outdoor Theater on May 3rd as a booth sponsor. The event attracted hundreds of Houstonians, a diverse group that helped “save the little dreams” of Pakistani children by extending their support through drawings, pictures and video messages at the dreamfly booth.
According to a press release, the organization dreamfly was co-founded by a Pakistani Harvard Business School student Umaimah Mendhro and her colleague from Microsoft, Mona Akmal. Its goal is to empower people across the world to unlock their potential and build a network of global communities that invest in each other's success. The organization’s initial project is to build a high-quality primary school and an innovative learning center in Akri, a village in Pakistan where the literacy rate is less than 10% and people live on less than 50c a day. Akri also happens to be Umaimah’s home-village. The organization has already raised $65,000 of the $100,000 needed to build the dreamfly campus.
The construction and ongoing operations of the dreamfly school will be managed by The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a renowned nonprofit organization that currently manages over 450 schools imparting education to over 55,000 students across Pakistan . The organization has won many accolades and honors for its work, particularly for its financial and operations management and transparency. Comprehensive information about TCF may be accessed through its website: www.tcfusa.org. All donations to dreamfly are directed to TCF USA , a 501 (C)(3) status organization investing in education in Pakistan .
The APAHA Festival provided an ideal setting for promoting awareness of dreamfly’s mission, attracting many people to attend with a complimentary concert by world-famous Junoon, a Pakistani rock band selling over 25 million albums worldwide, and the first to be invited to perform at the United Nations General Assembly.
Parents opened dialogue with their children by contrasting the circumstances of illiterate children in Pakistan with the educational opportunities available to children in the United States . As shown in their artistic expressions, pictures and video messages, these children were compelled to help “save the little dreams” of Akri’s children by encouraging sponsors to contribute.
dreamfly’s success to-date has been made possible through the generosity of hundreds of students, faculty and alumni from Harvard, MIT, and other Boston Universities, employees and senior managers at Microsoft Corporation, and every day people in the US who are moved by dreamfly’s mission. Mr. Raymond Gilmartin, the outgoing CEO of Merck and a current Microsoft board member and Harvard Faculty member, became dreamfly’s most recent ‘dream-maker,’ sponsoring the dreamfly school library. To learn more about dreamfly, please visit: www.thedreamfly.org.
If you are able to donate your time or expertise, you can simply email Dreamfly at info@thedreamfly.org or umendhro@mba2009.hbs.edu. Our most critical need, of course, is the additional $35,000 to complete the school. Donations can be made online by following the “How you can Help” link on www.thedreamfly.org. All donations are tax-exempt and go to TCF USA , which is a 501(C)(3) accredited organization.
Let’s together take these children on a surreal journey to make their every purposeful desire and positive ambition a reality. Let’s create positive change wherever we can today – one village, one state, one country at a time.
APAHA contact information: www.apaha.org; or contact Grace Rodriguez, Development & Marketing Director, at grace@apaha.org or 713-568-5432.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
