 What
is dreamfly?
We're two friends, Umaimah and Mona, who've
started dreamfly as an initiative to change the
world by investing in the children of the world
and providing them the opportunities they
deserve to maximize their potential. We
specifically want dreamfly to become a platform
where people from all walks of life come
together and work towards a common goal. In a
world that seems fixated on our differences, we
want to focus on our similarities - the fact
that we all love our kids and want to pass on a
better world to them. dreamfly is our hope of
achieving that.
Our plan is to work with local communities
and reputable organizations all over the world
on projects that focus on the health, education,
well-being and practical skill development of
children to make them strong contributors to
their communities and be socially and
economically empowered. We want to mobilize
donors, volunteers and partners (regardless of
geography) who share this vision.
Our first school started operation in
Pakistan in 2008 and now has 200 little kids.
We're now focusing on Afghanistan and starting a
primary school there in spring 2010.
Learn more about
our projects.
Here's why we do what we do:
Umaimah's take: Akri is my
home-village. It's where my father was born.
It's where I first learned how to ride a tractor
and install mosquito nets around hand-woven
hammock-beds. It's where I raced my pony with my
brother on the dirt roads and rode on
motor-bikes and tongas to nearby (barren) fields
and villages. As I grew older, the differences
between me and Akri started to become stark.
Acutely painfully stark. After being
home-schooled in Badin, I made my way to Cornell
University. Then Microsoft. And now Harvard
Business School. While Akri stayed the same.
With barren fields and dirt-roads that lead to
nowhere. People who don't want to go anywhere.
Or become anyone. Or even do anything. All
people of Akri - men women alike - other than
the little children. When I visited my
home-village this year, I found children, only
the little ones, somehow out of nowhere, talking
to me about their crazy, imaginative dreams.
Dreams of becoming someone. Dreams of flying to
places unknown, of curing people, of ending
wars, of saving the world! Children for whom the
reality of Akri had not yet set in... I want to
take each child of Akri and dare her to make her
dream a reality. With the help of friends,
people who care, people with beautiful hearts
and some crazy journeys and dreams of their own,
people like my good friend and partner Mona, my
husband and best friend Adil, my life-time
friends at Microsoft and new acquaintances at
Harvard, we can take the children of Akri on a
flight of dreams and a fight to make every
purposeful desire and positive ambition a
reality.
Mona's take: I'm fortunate - I
have a great job with Microsoft and the freedom
to live my life by my rules. It
had very little to do with luck and a lot to do
with the opportunities my mother made available
for me by investing 100% in my education and
encouraging independent thought. dreamfly is my
chance to provide similar opportunities to kids
who are most eager to avail them. That's why
when Umaimah mentioned The Citizens Foundation
(TCF) to me over IM, I took the next flight out
to Pakistan to meet with her and the TCF folk -
we went to Akri and met with the kids we hope
will attend our school. They were all beyond
adorable - eager, grateful and excited at the
prospect of a school. Two years have passed and
I'm amazed and humbled by the generosity of the
people I call my friends and my collegues -
they're poured their hearts and souls into our
little dream and made it real and given us the
hope and momentum to take on our next big
adventure - in
Afghanistan.
I'm nervous and excited and very driven to have
our primary school in Afghanistan up and running
in spring 2010 and looking for
your support. |
