HDF Silicon Valley Fundraiser for Pakistan

The Human Development Foundation (HDF) held its sixth annual benefit dinner at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, CA, yesterday, May 30, 2009. The dinner attracted about 500 attendees. In spite of the down economy and rising unemployment in the high-tech valley, the event exceeded HDF 2008 record of $140,000 in donations by raising $170,000 this year for HDF programs, to increase literacy, improve healthcare and fight poverty in Pakistan. Similar events are held each year in all major cities in North America to raise large sums for the noble cause HDF has undertaken.

HDF's efforts are inspired by late Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, the famous Pakistani development economist who pioneered the prevailing human development theory, and founded the Human Development Report of UNDP published each year by the United Nations. The focus of the HDF effort can well be summed up by what Dr. Haq said, "..in the last analysis, it is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, an ethnic tension that did not explode, a dissident who was not silenced and a human spirit that was not crushed." Sadly, Dr. Haq's home country and his South Asian neighborhood continue to rank very low on the human development ranking of the nations of the world.

Local HDF sponsors presented a report on HDF projects in various parts of Pakistan, including community empowerment, village development, non-formal schools, adult literacy, health clinics, water management, microfinancing, etc. As the keynote speaker and US Congressman Mike Honda noted at the event, the efforts like HDF's are likely to be far more effective than the military operations to end insurgencies in South Asia.

Here are some of specific details of the HDF efforts in Pakistan:

1. Community Empowerment: Rather than giving out charity, HDF works in partnership with community participation for their uplift. Following this philosophy of "hand-up" instead of "hand-out", HDF has built the following:

a. 1302 development organizations(DOs).
b. 146 village development organizations(VDOs)
c. 61 activist workshops held
d. 10,851 people participated in community management skills training.

2. Community Physical Infrastructure Development: This program helps communities improve heir environment, including link roads, water storage, hand pumps, tube wells, irrigation, sanitation and pest control projects. Such projects are executed with community's sweat equity (DO) and manged by community (VDO) upon completion. Over 600 such projects have already been completed, and hundreds are currently underway.

3. Schools: HDF education program has grown from a few non-formal schools with 20-30 children each, to multi-grade schools with over 100 children each. Many of these schools operate in remote areas, and curriculum is activity-based to retain children's interest and reduce drop-out rates.

a. Over 10,000 students enrolled.
b. 193 non-formal one-room schools.
c. 16 primary and secondary schools.
d. 56 teacher training courses.
e. 254 adult literacy classes.
f. 3,600 adults attended schools.

4. Health: HDF offers healthcare programs from preventive to curative. In the areas served by HDF, here are some statistics:

a. 79% of births attended by trained personnel.
b. 65% of children are fully immunized.
c. 85% of children 2-5 years old are fully immunized.
d. 101,000 patients treated in out-patient clinics.
e. 918 health seminars presented.
f. 92 free healthcare camps organized.

5. Microfinancing:This program has grown from offering small loans to individuals to joint ventures and community partnerships, and "one village, one product" programs. In addition to capital, these programs also offer skills training to start and run the businesses. These microloan programs are based on the Islamic principle of Murahaba. Here are some specifics:

a. Over 6000 loans amounting to a total of over one million US dollars.
b. 98 joint ventures.
c. 8 "One Village, One Product" programs.
d. 138 poultry farming projects.
e. 9,500 people trained.

During his keynote speech, Congressman Honda said the US foreign policy should have the same goals that the HDF has in Pakistan. Drawing from his experience as a US peace corps volunteer to support education and infrastructure development in Central America in the 1960s, he proposed a similar effort in restoring US credibility in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He praised the new US emphasis on economic aid and said he supports the 80/20 rule that General Petraeus has outlined, with 80% emphasis on the political/economic effort backed by 20% military component to fight the Taliban insurgency. While the aid to Pakistan bill is still not fully developed, Honda wants to see a large part of the economic aid be funneled through non-government organizations(NGOs) and public-private partnerships to make such aid more effective in improving the lives of average Pakistanis. Honda strongly supports Congressman Kucinich's efforts to establish a US department of peace to focus on maintaining peace by developing and promoting conflict resolution techniques and broad efforts at human development and poverty alleviation.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich's bill proposes the cabinet-level Department of peace that embodies a broad-based approach to peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution at both domestic and international levels. The Department of Peace would serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and help to create the conditions for a more peaceful world.

In a panel discussion after the keynote, Ethan Casey praised what HDF and other Pakistani-American organizations are doing to decrease human suffering in Pakistan. But he emphasized the need for Pakistani-American community to also reach out to the the mainstream white Americans who are often ignorant and sometimes suspicious of Pakistan and Pakistanis. Casey, who often speaks to mainstream American audiences about Pakistan, has traveled to Pakistan several times and written a book about his experiences. Ethan singled out Greg Motenson's efforts in building schools in Pakistan's northern areas and recommended his book "Three Cups of Tea". He is planning to study Urdu as a graduate student at University of Washington in Seattle, and continue to pursue his interest in Pakistan.

Prior to the keynote and panel discussion, there was a presentation by Dr. Mubina Agboatwala, chairwoman of Health-Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE), a Karachi NGO. She talked about her visit to Mardan and the extreme heat and dire conditions in the refugee camps in the north west. These people have left the war zone for safety, following the counter-insurgency operation launched by Pakistan military. Dr. Agboatwala said that the government has registered and housed only about 15% of an estimated 2.5 million IDPs in government's tent cities. The rest are staying with friends or family, an untenable situation if the war drags on long.

San Jose city vice mayor Dave Cortese, a good friend of the local Pakistani-American community, spoke of the positive contributions of Javed Khan, the man behind the efforts of HDF in Silicon Valley, and presented a plaque to him, amidst loud applause by the audience.

The well-organized event concluded with a geet and ghazal program by singer Hanif Noormohammad.

The HDF events are sponsored by many prominent Pakistani-Americans, including NEDians in Silicon Valley, through their contributions of money and time every year.

My daughters have volunteered for this event in the past years and my family and I regularly attend it every year. It is one of the few Silicon Valley events that is truly worthwhile for us because of the money it raises to serve a very noble cause, near and dear to our hearts. Organizations like HDF represent the best way for us to move us toward a better world free of conflict where human life is truly valued.



Related Links:

Aid versus Trade, Investments and Remittances

Microfinancing in Pakistan

HDF Silicon Valley Fundraiser 2008

Aid to Pakistan Bill 2009

Light a Candle, Do Not Curse Darkness

Facebook Group-Zimmedar Shehri

Helping Children Become Responsible Citizens

Orangi Pilot Project

Three Cups of Tea

Volunteerism in America

Dr. Akhtar Hamid Khan's Vision

TiEcon and HDF Fundraiser in Silicon Valley

South Asians in Silicon Valley had a big weekend with both TiE(The Indus Entrepreneur)and HDF(Human Development Foundation)holding their annual events. These events brought out the powerful, rich and famous with origins in the sub-continent including former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Lord Nazir Ahmad and celebrity politician Tariq Aziz. While Mr. Shaukat Aziz was the keynote speaker on Thursday evening at the TIE Global charter member reception, the Human Development Foundation annual fundraiser was addressed by Lord Nazir Ahmad and Tariq Aziz, among others.

TiEcon 2008

Mr. Shaukat Aziz was warmly received by the The Indus Entrepreneur charter members as he spoke about the opportunities for American and South Asian entrepreneurs and investors in both India and Pakistan. "They can help lower the temperature and build trust, which is needed to resolve disputes," he said of TiE effect on the political animosity between India and Pakistan.



Beyond the TiE Global charter member event on Thursday night,the TiEcon 2008 conference continued through Friday and Saturday. There were some 4,000 attendees at the Santa Clara Convention Center, packing keynotes and parallel panel discussions on topics such as the Internet economy, life sciences, green technologies, what's hot - and not - in mobile phones to next-generation enterprise software programming.


HDF Silicon Valley Fundraiser 2008



The fundraiser was attended by over 500 Silicon Valley Pakistani-Americans and others at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, CA. It featured Lord Nazir Ahmed as the keynote speaker as well other speakers including Ethan Casey, author of a travelogue "Alive and Well in Pakistan" and Prof John Mock, a professor of Hindi and Urdu at University of California Santa Cruz. The event raised over $140,000 for building schools for the poor children in Pakistan. As usual, Mr. Javed Khan, Mr. Shahid Khan and Mr. Ather Siddiqui were at the forefront of this effort.



Lord Nazir, in his keynote, talked about the continuing difficulties faced by Pakistanis. He said that Pakistanis have lowered their expectations from "roti, kapra and makaan" to "roti, bijli and paani" and were still struggling for the lowered expectations. He was critical of Musharraf. Ethan Casey, however, said he has been going to Pakistan for over twelve years and he found all successive governments from Bhutto to Sharif to Musharraf all deeply flawed. Casey felt that Pakistanis are quite used to dealing with continuing crises and they will rise to the occasion and address their problems without relying on the governments. He particularly thought that the Pakistan expatriate community can help.

Though Lord Nazir Ahmed was a keynote speaker, he almost stole the show from comedian Azhar Usman with his jokes. For example, he said his mother does not understand what a British lord is. She thinks he has become a Tehsildar, a notch above the Numberdar, the highest government official in the village where he was born near Mirpur. What he said sounded a lot funnier in Punjabi. Then he had a sirdarji joke about a sikh who told him he was "Lord Ranjit Singh". When Lord Nazir expressed surprise about not having seen him in the British House of Lords, Ranjit Singh explained, "I was a landlord in Punjab. I left the land back home. So, in the UK, I am just a lord, not a landlord."

The speeches and fudraising were followed by stand-up comedy performances by Samson Koletkar (who claims to be "the world's only Indian Jewish comedian") and Azhar Usman (Allah Made Me Funny) who looks like Osama Bin Laden and jokes about it.

Samson is young and emerging desi star comedian who warmed up the audience before the better known Azhar Usman took the stage. Samson has pretty good material but his delivery was a bit lacking in its effect. He had a couple of very good jokes about his Jewish-Indian parents.

For example: "Most comedians say their dad is so cheap that.... When I hear that I say to them "You talk about cheap. My dad is an Indian Jew. Now beat that!"

Another one: " My Jewish mother in India wanted me to marry " a nice Jewish girl", a Jewish mother in New York wants her son to marry " a Jewish girl". But a Jewish mother in San Francisco just wants her son to marry "a girl".

Azhar's famous intro line that gets the audience laughing is " Hello, I am not Osama Bin Laden. I am his cousin Osama Bin Laughin". He had a lot good material about desi and Muslim humor in the US. For example: "You often hear Muslim men described as terrorists and Muslim women as oppressed. Have these people actually been inside a Muslim household to observe it? If they really do, they'll find the reverse to be true. Muslim men oppressed and terrorized by their women."

Another example: " Desis are the biggest bootleggers. They buy one copy of my CD and copy it for a hundred people and sell it. Once I asked my dad to buy me a Nike
pair of shoes costing a hundred dollars in Chicago. My dad's response: "Pagal ho kiya? Soo dollar ka joota pehno gai?" Then my dad took me on a trip to Patna market in Bihar where he found me a Nike pair that looks exactly like the one I saw in Chicago. But when you look closely at the logo, it says "Nice".



As the population of South Asians of various ethnicities, religions and opinions grows from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in this high-tech hub, it seems that Silicon Valley is becoming a center of South Asian culture and business in the West. This region can serve as the bridge between this great nation and the emerging economic and political powers in South Asia.