the thaakat insider | volume 1, issue 4

8/2/2019 The Thaakat Insider | Volume 1, Issue 4

1/4

Dreams for Kachra Kundi Coming True!

By: Ammara Bokhari, Director of

Global Projects

I had the chance to sit down

and speak with the former

Governor of Sindh and Inte-

rior Minister of Pakistan, re-

tired General Moinuddin

Haider during his visit to Chi-cago. Since retirement, Gen-

eral Haider has been im-

mersed in charitable work

and leads Fatimid Foundation

in Pakistan, an organization

helping people with blood

disorders. I was interested to

hear of his charitable work

and wondered if he had heard

of a site called Kachra Kundiin the Sindh area. Upon tell-

ing him of Thaakats projects

and our current partnership

with Idara Al-Khair Welfare

Society in building a new

school for the children of

Kachra Kundi, his eyes lit up

as he began recalling his per-

sonal experiences of visiting

the site, help-

ing with their

projects, and

witnessing the

immense need

for educating

these children.

He learned of Idara Al-Khairs work in Kachra

Kundi during his time as

Governor of Sindh and was

greatly inspired by it, his

brother also having volun-

teered there.

We went there. It was very

hot, humid, there were kites

flying over the filth, andpeople had torched the

garbage. I saw thousands of

children studying there. I

was quite

motivated to

see the way

these people

were

teaching

They said

that when

these chil-

dren com-

plete their 10-years of edu-

cation, we want them to go

to college, which will enable

them to go to an engineering

college or a medical college

Featured in this issue:

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

Check out these

websites:

[The Thaakat Insider]Marching Forward With Thaakat

or some professional college.mentioned General Haider of

his visit to Kachra Kundi. A

chance meeting ended up turn-

ing into something so much

more meaningful for me.

Having served as former Gov-

ernor of Sindh and Interior

Minister of Pakistan, General

Haider surely understood themost critical areas of Pakistan

that needed help. I was so ex-

cited to hear of his knowledge

on the area we were working to

improve and of the organiza-

tion we are working with. He

found Idara Al-Khairs work in

Pakistan admirable, citing

them to be making a great dif-

ference in education for the

poor. It was great to have met

General Haider and to have

heard of his experiences and he

looks forward to seeing Tha-

akats progress develop on-site.

Click here to see the full arti-

cle of updates on Kachra Kundi
http://thaakat.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/update-on-dreams-for-kachra-kundi/http://thaakat.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/update-on-dreams-for-kachra-kundi/http://thaakat.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/update-on-dreams-for-kachra-kundi/http://thaakat.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/update-on-dreams-for-kachra-kundi/http://www.youtube.com/ThaakatFoundationhttp://www.youtube.com/ThaakatFoundationhttp://thaakat.tumblr.com/http://www.twitter.com/thaakathttp://www.facebook.com/Thaakat.Foundationhttp://www.facebook.com/Thaakat.Foundationhttp://www.crowdrise.com/thaakatfoundationhttp://www.crowdrise.com/thaakatfoundation


2/4

a-Thon for Plumpynut.

Illini Thaakat: Teamed upwith KASA for a Bone MarrowRegistration and registered150 individuals!

Thaakat Loyola:Leading ef-

forts to obtain a new board oncampus!

Northwestern University Tha-akat: Prepared and servedmeals to over 100 people at alocal church.

Thaakat Rutgers NewBrunswick:Planning for theLive, Laugh, & Learn show.

Thaakat Atlanta: HeldWill You Be My Tha-akat? event to makevalentine cards for vic-tims of domestic vio-lence.

Thaakat Baruch:Plan-

ning underway forsome new events!

Thaakat Florida:Plan-ning for Thaakats GotTalent this semester.

Thaakat Houston:Held a Flash Freeze inpartnership with theirMSA to raise aware-ness for their 5K Walk-

Thaakat Rutgers Newark:Plan-ning for a Hoops for Educa-tion event to benefitDarkness to Light, an inde-pendent school project, in Lar-kana, Pakistan.

Thaakat TCNJ:Volunteered at

a Nepalese refuge eye-camp.

Thaakat UIC:Held a Valen-tines Day Fundraising BakeSale and holding a One City,One Food Drive to end hungerin Chicago.

Thaakat Bradley: HostedCleaning for a Meaning cloth-ing drive.

Introducing Rookie of the Year, Omar Salim

Thaakat Chapters Around the Nation: Whats New

Page 2Marching Forward With Thaakat

(Originally published by Omar Salim.

See the full article here.)

Exactly

one year

ago this

month, I

stumbled

into one

of the

most life

changing

decisions

I have

evermade. A

friend of mine contacted me

about a marrow registration

drive for a boy in need of

a transplant. I assumed it was

just slightly different than a

blood drive, no big deal, and

committed to being at the

drive the following Sunday.

Within a matter of minutes

that same friend came back

to say she had just gotten

word that the boy had

passed away.

The sort of eeriness that set

in within moments was

something that I cannot

find the words to describe.

For the first time in my life

I felt utterly helpless at

helping someone. It just

did not make any sense to

me. Growing up I alwayslived by the idea that I

could do anything I set my

mind to, but why is it that

this time, that opportunity

was taken away?

Growing up I was taught

that the only way to achieve

success is through helping

others and always remain-

ing humble in the process.

For so long I had planned

the ways I would help the

world, but all these dreams

seemed to be post-career

aspirations with nothing in

the immediate future. The

passing of boy in need of a

transplant was, as shameful

as it sounds, the exact life

altering reminder that we

can only live in the present.

It was a harsh realization

that at age 20, I still hadntaccomplished nearly what I

wanted to, despite the capa-

bility.

With a desire to make some

sort of contribution to that

boy, I tracked down the or-

ganization holding that

marrow registration drive-

Thaakat Foundation. The

rest is history. A year later

I find myself on the na-

tional board, coordinating

local campaigns and

events, all while laughing

along the ride. Its been a

year thats opened my eyes

to the impact one person

with a vision can make;

add a few believers and

theres nothing that can

stop you. My past year

with Thaakat, as clich as

it sounds, has openeddoors I never knew existed

and friends I dont know

how I ever did without.

I can only wish that you all

find a cause that can com-

pletely submerge yourself

in. I was blessed enough to

find mine and theres ab-

solutely no turning back.
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3/4

Thaakat Tumbls into Social Media

Page 3Volume 1: Issue 4

Caryn Dreibelbis is a student

at Oglethorpe University and

a part of our Thaakat Atlanta

team. Here is a little snippet

from her about an awesome

fundraising project she hastaken on herself!

About one month ago I re-

ceived an amazing opportu-

nity to compete in a college

fight night for a cause! Obvi-

ously, I had to pick ours! So I

waited and waited for the

votes and we are one of the 5

charities that will be repre-

sented at this fight night.

Each boxer

will choose

to represent

a charity.

My fight

will be onApril 19th

and I have a

fundraising

goal of

$1,500. The

winner of

the fight

takes all.

This is a

huge and

wonderful

opportunity

so I thought

I would

reach out to

you all as I

take on this

endeavor.

Please con-

sider leading

the way in

donations

and also just

emotional

support

would be

amazing!

Caryns Fight for Thaakat With Thaakat Atlanta

Thaakat Foundation has

been a wonderful addition

to my life and Im so happy

to get the opportunity to

represent this organiza-

tion.

Here is the link to CarynsPayPal account: http://

tinyurl.com/6wafa2n

We are so excited to have

Caryn fight for Thaakat

and we wish you all the

best, Caryn!

Thaakats most recent addi-

tion to the social media plat-

forms is a Tumblr site, cre-

ated and maintained by

Nudrat Zoha.

In speaking to Nudrat on how

the idea generated, this is

what she has to say: I re-cently came across Tumblr

and was amazed by how many

nonprofit organizations were

using it as a platform to pro-

mote their organization

and I thought to myself,

"Why not Thaakat!?". I

looked up different ways to

make our Tumblr attractive

and differ-

ent from

other or-

ganizations.

I realized

what sets

Thaakat

apart is how

we interactwith our

followers

using powerful pictures

and videos, and decided

that would be a perfect

stage to display Thaakat's

achievements. Because of

it's popularity, Tumblr can

be an excellent tool for

Thaakat in spreading more

awareness and letting more

people know what we're

really about.

This new addition got me to

thinking about how the

nonprofit world should be

using social media. The

Nonprofit Social Network

Survey conducted a survey

including about 11,000 non-

profit professionals from all

nonprofit segments. They

reported that 9 out of 10

(89%) nonprofits reported

having a presence on Face-

book in 2011 while 57% re-

ported a presence on Twit-

ter. Other commercial so-

cial networking giants in-

clude YouTube (47%),

LinkedIn (30%) and Flickr

(19%).

Facebook reports that 600

million users log in each

month and half of them

return each day! Twitter

stats report there are over

100 million active users.

These sites can be used to

spread an idea, promote an

event for fundraising or

raise awareness on an is-

sue that people may not

necessarily even know

about. The lesson to take

from all these numbers isthat people want to be con-

nected and that means

nonprofit organizations

have to explore different

avenues of staying con-

nected.

Check out the Thaakat

Tumblr: http://

thaakat.tumblr.com
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4/4

Chapter Highlight: Illini Thaakat

I had the pleasure to

speak to Co-

Presidents Shahvar

Hussain and Hajera

Azam and I wanted

to know one thing:what is their Thaakat?

Hajera says, My dad is my

rock. He has always taught me

to stay positive and to give

without even thinking.

Shahvar says, Our

Thaakat is having sev-

eral committed, hard-

working and passionate

people on our team.Seeing each others' pas-

sion at every meeting

and event really motivates

us all to perform better all

the time. Our Thaakat

comes from everyone put-

ting their 'thaakat' into

our local and globalcauses.

Keep up the great work Illini Tha-

akateers, you truly bring out thethaakat in all of us!

The Illini Thaakat Team has been

having a great start to 2012 with a

busy schedule and many successful

events! Id like to share some high-

lights about this chapter and its re-

cent events.

In early February they held a Bowl-

ing-Popcorn social titled Unlimited

Bowling! Unlimited Popcorn! Unlim-

ited Thaakat!. The event was a huge

success and by the looks of it, mem-

bers definitely had a ton of fun.

For Valentines Day, the members

visited Heartland Health Care Center

to spend time with the elderly and

spread joy to those who need it most.Members made cards and played

trivia with the elderly.

Most recently , ITF undertook a new

mission: Find a Match for Andrew

Park. They partnered up with the

Korean American Student Associa-

tion and hosted their first Bone Mar-

row Registration Drive at KASAs

annual basketball tournament. In

only two days, ITF registered 150

individuals!! That is so completelyincredible and I can only imagine

the hope that it gives Andrew.

the team and every other

person around me working

to achieve their dreams- it

inspires me. Thank you to

the person who, with all of

their sincerity put me onthe ballot for this, to MB

Muslima for this great plat-

form and to everyone who

continues to support the

cause every day. I consider

this an honor and win for

our entire team who works

tirelessly towards creating

positive change!.

See the issue online here.

Our Very Own Uzma Bawany-Ali, 40 Under 40

(Originally published by Thaakat

Foundation on 2/6/12. See the full

article here.)

Thaakat

Foun-

dationsExecu-

tive Di-

rector,

Uzma

Bawany

-Ali was

voted as

one of

the top

40 In-

spirational Muslims under

the age of 40! An anony-mous voter nominated

Uzma last December and

MBMuslima selected her

for the running to be intheir Top 40 list! It came

as no surprise to have her

win the #11 spot. We are so

proud of you Uzma! Con-

gratulations! Thank you to

each and every one of you

who graciously voted and

believed in Thaakat!

When we asked Uzma her

thoughts on winning, she

responded, I was abso-lutely delighted, not only

to make it into the top but

to even be nominated. Its

a special thing when youwork towards something

with so much dedication

and there are people

around you watching you

and cheering you on. I

know that I cant get

through my every day and

reach my goals if it werent

for every single person

around us that supports
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