Download - The Thaakat Insider | April 2013
April 2013
Volume 2, Issue 1
Six New Classrooms
at Kachra Kundi School
Opening Soon Our nine-classroom school in
Kachra Kundi has been
undergoing an exciting
expansion for the past few
months and will soon open
six additional classrooms!
Classroom enrollment has
increased substantially as
more and more families want
to send their children to
school. And children wanting
to live their dreams of rising
above through education. The
final touches to these brand
new rooms are currently
being made and the school
will be ready to host a new
set of fresh, young minds in
the coming weeks!
The school's principal,
Mohammad Mazahir, makes
frequent trips to visit the poor
families living in and around
Kachra Kundi. The purpose
of these trips is simply to
convince parents that
education will be their
children's greatest ticket out
of poverty. Children in
Kachra Kundi who are not
enrolled in school are instead
employed to collect scraps of
garbage in high hopes of
selling it to recyclers. Daily,
they are exposed to harmful
fumes from burning garbage
and poisonous toxins from its
decay. These children are also
exposed to local gangs who
convince them into joining a
life of crime, ultimately
creating a continuous cycle of
destruction and poverty. The
only alleviation to this
destructive cycle is to educate.
Mr. Mazahir's efforts to visit
families and convince them to
enroll in our school have
brought much positive light
into the otherwise dark lives of
Kachra Kundi's growing
population. Word spread
among town that Thaakat's
school is expanding with six
additional classrooms and
families have eagerly
registered their children.
The six new classrooms will
host 150 new students- that's
about 25 students per
classroom. New teachers are
currently being interviewed
who will teach English,
Math, Science, Social Science,
Art, Urdu, and Sindhi (the
commonly spoken Urdu
dialect of the region).
Global Project Updates
Inside this issue:
1
Global Project Updates
1
The L.O.V.E
Campaign
2
Recognizing
Exceptional Women
2
Where Your Funds Go
2
Thaakat Chapters Around
the Nation
3
An Interview
With Kelly Jo
4
What to Expect
in 2013
4
Double Your Donation
4
[The Thaakat Insider]
Check out these
websites:
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Thaakat would like to thank
all of its generous donors for
believing in the dreams of
Kachra Kundi's children!
We hope to continue our
school's expansion with
more classrooms that can
continue to educate the ever-
rising youth of poverty-
striken Kachra Kundi.
Maternity & Health
Center in Sierra Leone
Almost Ready Thaakat is helping build a
maternity and health center
in an impoverished village of
Sierra Leone, West Africa
called Blama Perri. Expectant
mothers of Blama Perri and
several other surrounding
villages currently do not
have access to a place where
they can properly deliver
and be cared for- leading to a
series of health problems and
birth defects. Thaakat
decided to help this
community and build a
proper facility for these
women. We previously built
five child-rescue centers in
Blama Perri where several
orphans are cared for.
Construction of the
maternity and health center
is near completion and we
expect to officially open it in
the coming weeks!
By: Ammara Bokhari, Director of Global Projects, Thaakat Foundation
Earlier this year, Thaakat
launched the L.O.V.E
Campaign to bring
awareness to the increasing
instances of violence against
women worldwide. On
Valentine’s Day, Thaakat
distributed numerous e-cards
and mailed cards along with
‘Break the Silence’ shirts on
behalf of individuals that
donated to raise funds for the
cause.
Through this campaign,
The L.O.V.E Campaign
Thaakat
was able
to raise
$1000 in
just 3
weeks.
The pro-
ceeds of
the
fundraise-
ing initiative went to benefit
Wafa House, an organization
founded by Dorria Fahmy
and Nawal Kahf, dedicated
to strengthening the family
unit. A majority of their work
is dedicated towards
assisting women and
children victims of domestic
violence.
International Women’s Day
is annually held on March 8
to celebrate women’s
achievements throughout
history and across nations. In
honor of this day we
launched a contest for folks
to nominate a woman who
works hard to give back to
our communities.
The top 3 nominees, chosen
by our guest panel, received
$100 to donate to their
charity of choice and a Break
the Silence shirt.
Celebrating International Women’s Day by Recognizing Exceptional Women
Where Your Funds with Break the Silence Go
2
$1000 – The Emergency Fund
A proposed charity designed
to issue financial aid to men
and women who suffer abuse
and chose to leave.
Thaakat SPEAKS UP Against Domestic Violence
“Living in this country, this
is the least we can do. It is
not the lack of response from
the men that bothers me so
much but it is when the
women refuse to
acknowledge there is a
problem. As youth we need
to address the issue. You
will find women of your
own decent and you need to
support these women so that
they can become financially
independent.” – Dr. Zafar
Wafa House found that the
numbers of domestic abuse
are higher in South Asian
and Middle Eastern
communities because of any
number of factors – such as
the language barriers and
cultural restraints that
prevent victims from
knowing where to turn to for
help.
$1000 – Wafa House – An
organization dedicated to
strengthening the family unit;
especially children and
women of domestic violence.
$500 – Unchained at Last – An
organization dedicated to helping women
leave arranged and forced marriages.
Congratulations to all the
women that were nominated!
We are so proud and of all
the women out there, giving
back in their communities,
and being role models for so
many other women!
1. Dr. Aisha Zafar,
nominated by Dr. Shahid
Yousuf of APPNA. Her
charity of choice is Thaakat
Foundation.
2. Nabiha Shaikh is a pilot in
the Air Force, nominated by
Sabeena Shaikh. Her charity
of choice is ASHA for
Education.
3. Sumaira Khalid is a
teacher, nominated by Hajera
Azam. Her charity of choice
is the Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society (LLS).
Check out the Thaakat
Foundation blog to read the
full interviews of these
exceptional women!
Thaakat Illini- Through the
month of March they were
able to register 73 individuals
in bone marrow drives. They
are also planning a
Volleyball Tournament to
raise funds for Break the
Silence.
Thaakat Rutgers New
Brunswick- Held an event at
Maya Lounge and held the
‘We Clean up Nice’ fashion
show to raise funds for Wafa
House. Both events were
huge hits for NB!
Thaakat Rutgers Newark -
held a Candygram sale and
raised over $70 for the LOVE
Campaign. They also held an
event at Nujoom Lounge to
raise funds for Wafa House.
Thaakat TCNJ- Held a bone
marrow drive and
successfully registered 30
people! They are also plann-
ing a Silent
Auction to raise
funds for our
school in
Kachra Kundi.
Illini Chapter Gets Recognition from University of Illinois
With the school year halfway
complete, our chapters are
still actively fundraising for
some big causes this year,
including the Break the
Silence and Bone Marrow
Registry drives!
Thaakat Atlanta – Held a
valentine card making event
for women’s shelters called
“Will you be my Thaakat?”
ATL Thaakat members also
volunteered at Medshare
packaging medical supplies.
Thaakat UIC- Held bone
marrow drives and
registered 77 new people to
be on the bone marrow
registry.
Earlier this semester, the
Illini Thaakat Foundation
received a huge honor from
the Illini Union Office of
Volunteer Programs from
UofI. They were nominated
for the Outstanding
Volunteer Service Award.
CONGRATS, ITF!!
Illini wrote on their site
“…thank you to all the
volunteers who help out with
ITF. We really appreciate all
your help!”
Nilofer Kazmi from Illini
says “ITF is an opportunity to
for college students to get
together as one and give back to
our community in ways that are
both fun and engaging. It gets
students involved in activities
around campus that they may
not have been familiar with
before. This is what inspires and
motivates us to keep up our
volunteerism, seeing new faces.”
3
What’s New With Thaakat Around The Nation
Thaakat ATL Thanks Kelsey Smith have begun in our former
member’s honor. Smith’s
fight was an impressive,
challenging bout that roused
the entire audience, and
inspired those that have been
following her journey
towards victory. Thank you
for choosing us as your cause
Kelsey!
A huge congratulations from
Thaakat Atlanta to Atlanta
Corporate Fight Night 6’s
competitor Kelsey Smith for
winning her bout on January
24th, 2013. Due to Smith’s
choice to represent Thaakat
on this show, we were given
an amazing opportunity to
network with other local
charities in our community,
to share our mission with the
attendees of this event, and
also raise money for our new
initiative “Pritam’s Power”.
Smith’s victory secured a
sizeable donation that will go
towards the initiative we
Psst... check out this
video produced by
Thaakat Illini on the
importance of joining
the Bone Marrow
Registry!
tomorrow. I
was open and
honest about my
relationship on
my blog, the
“Verbal Abuse
Journals”. I
realized that
night that if I go
back and write
on my blog, I
did NOTHING,
I am responsible
for these other
women in these
relationships who are
watching me to see what I
do. That sparked me to
continue the advocacy. It
was tough to leave and if it
wasn’t for a few little
magical events that
happened I might have
had to go back to him.
Q: When did you realize
you were being abused?
A: Even though I talked to
my sister about these things
Kellie Jo Holly is the creator
of the site “Verbal Abuse
Journals” and author of My
Abusive Marriage…and what
i’m doing in it. Thaakat was
able to donate $1000 to help
Kellie launch the
“Emergency Fund”.
Q: How do you speak up?
A: I fell into advocating
against domestic violence.
The police had threatened
my husband with a taser but
they had nothing to arrest
him on. I had to leave; I had
to make that decision to go.
When I left and was
thinking about things, I
realized that there is no way
I can write on my blog
and my mom
during my
marriage, I
didn’t
understand I
was being
abused until
about 15
months
before I left. I
thought we
had marriage
problems,
that it was his
alcohol, or
anger management. I didn’t
comprehend that I was
being abused. When that
realization hit me,
everything started taking
sense. There is an education
that people are missing
there. People say things like
“it takes two” and we don’t
understand that being hit
means the same thing as
being “abused”.
Q: What is the best
An Interview with Kellie Jo Holly
In 2012, we adopted two
communities. In 2013, we’ll
be expanding our nine
classroom school in
Kachra Kundi, Pakistan to
15 classrooms and will be
opening our doors to
mothers-to-be at our
maternity center in Sierra
Leone.
At least $10 billion in
workplace matching funds
go unclaimed each year;
often, corporate employees
simply don’t know about
the opportunity for their
employer to match their
charitable contribution.
Why do we need your
help? Corporate matching
accounted for approx. 20%
of our donations in 2012.
Without them we cannot
continue to assist projects
and people around the
What to Expect in 2013 with THAAKAT
world in the capacity that
we do. Our entire board
works on a 100% voluntary
basis so that your
donations go to those who
need it most; please help
us put our GOOD to work.
Please contact us at
[email protected], title
your email Corporate
Matching, to request more
information on how you
can help us match
donations from our events.
We are going full force with
our ‘Break the Silence’
movement in 2013, hoping it
helps our society become
more comfortable in
addressing the issue of
violence against women.
Two-thirds of the world’s
working hours are worked
on by women. Let’s
empower them.
You Can Double Your Donation!
4
advice you have for those
that want to leave?
A: There is one statement
that helps me 100% — Make
a plan and get out. After I
figured out it was abuse that
I was dealing with and I
made my appointment at
the department of social
services I was sitting and
talking to the counselor. She
was validating that my
experience was abusive and
panic set in. The counselor
told me to slow down. She
said to think about what I
wanted to do and to make a
plan. My husband was more
verbally violent than
anything and I was dealing
with him for 17 years , I felt
like I could make it another
6 months, I just needed to
figure out what I needed to
do to stand on my own. I
don’t advise women to stay
but I do advise them to
think about what the next
step will be.
“When I left my abuse-
ridden marriage, I had no
money, no job, and no
insurance. By the grace of
God, I found people to help
me solve all three
problems… eventually.”
-COMING SOON-
Be on the lookout for our
new website launch!