[The Thaakat Insider]

Turning Dreams into Reality

#lethedreambe Campaign Updates
By: Ammara Bokhari, Director of Global Projects, Thaakat Foundation

2012 Summer Edition Volume 1, Issue 7

Its official, our dreams for Kachra Kundi are finally coming true! Thaakat is proud to announce that our schools classrooms opened its doors to 325 eager students in late June, some of them traveling from as far as five kilometers away at the opportunity to attend. Construction of the school called Al-Khair Campus III, began early this year. Our partner Idara Al-Khair managed construction throughout its entire process and were so pleased with the results!

Timeline of Project Updates

Summer 2011: Began fundraising; Faizan Zaidi visited Kachra Kundi site

Inside this issue:

#lethedreambe Updates Dinner for Dreams Ordinary Muslims Doing Extraordinary Things 1 2 2

December 2011: Purchased land to build school and began construction; Uzma BawanyAli visited project site.

What If You Were Given A Chance? Charities Americana

January 2012: School walls are up and construction of 9 classrooms is completed. Construction of restrooms and digging for water 14 teachers have been appointed, with six to seven connection piping begins.

4 4 4

more planning to come on board. The subjects being taught are: English, Math, Science, Social Science, Art, Urdu, and Sindhi (the commonly spoken Urdu dialect of the region).

February 2012: Thaakat meets with former Governor of Sindh, General Moinuddin Haider to talk about Kachra Kundi and learn about their needs.

The Power of Tweets Remembering Andrew Park

March 2012: Launched #lethedreambe campaign and formed a volunteer team to lead this campaign. April 2012: The Al-Khair

Check out these websites:

Stay up-to-date with Thaakat on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ Thaakat.Foundation Thaakat on Tumblr: www.thaakat.tumblr.com Thaakat on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thaakat Thaakats current global projects on Crowdrise: www.crowdrise.com/ thaakatfoundation

There are 250 desks ready to Tigers soccer team is formed use, a water tank has been for students to take part in. installed on a nearby hill, and bathrooms are currently being completed. This would not have been possible without all of Thaakats amazing supporters! Thank you for believing in the dream and letting us get this far!
June 2012: Classrooms are officially launched! 325 students attended the first day of classes.

May 2012: Bathrooms are constructed; parents begin inquiring about registration.

View the official project trailer. Follow updates on #lethedreambe

Thaakat Foundations Dinner for Dreams

Thaakat is back at it with its third annual charity dinner! I recently had the pleasure of meeting the jovial host, Abbas Rattani from Sheikh and Bake Productions. He is more than your ordinary comedian. Also an actor and director for his popular Sh*t Muslims Say video, he will guarantee to keep you entertained all evening! The dinner is going to be held right outside Chicago in Bensenville, IL. Tickets are $25 each and $20 for students (with valid ID). The program begins at 7:30PM with a presentation of Thaakats current projects, followed by delectable food and treats. A live and silent auction will last the duration of the evening. While the food may fill you up, leave room for the everlasting laughs! Please RSVP today to hold your seat or buy your tickets in advance here!

Ordinary Muslims Doing Extraordinary Things

Posted in the Huffington Post on July 16, 2012 by Engy Abdelkader View the full article here

Mashal Anjum, a Thaakat Foundation volunteer from NJ, was recently featured by Engy Abdelkader, a legal fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, in the Huffington Post. Does a reference to Muslims trigger thoughts of folks organizing food pantries, park cleanups and low-cost health clinics? Do you think of global volunteerism and young adults creating -opportunity and hope -- not destroying? Do you envision a helping hand? Across the river back in New Jersey, Mashal Anjum organizes a major fundraising event with the

Thaakat Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at promoting charitable giving and volunteerism among students and young professionals alike.

garbage, and research finds that burning garbage releases a dangerous chemical known as Dioxin which causes terrible respiratory problems," explains Anjum. "The villagers want their children to go to school but the school is too close to where the garbage is burnt, so Thaakat is raising funds to build a school a mile away from the village." Thaakat initiatives serve

I personally believe that I will be asked by God about what I did with my time and resources, of which we are so blessed.

will be asked by God about what I did with my time and resources, of which we are so blessed. It cannot be random that a person like me is given so much compared to a mother and her many children, all of whom are going to sleep hungry," articulates Anjum. "I believe that some people are sent to this world to do good for others and that is our test."

She strives to raise enough money to build a school for impoverished Pakistani children who live in a trash dump. "The people living there are so poor that they burn
2

people irrespective of religion or race, but like those profiled above Anjum's charitable giving is motivated by her commitment to Islam. "I personally believe that I

What if you were given a chance to possibly save someones life?

Azka Asif shares her first hand experience of bone marrow donation .

Each year, thousands of people of all different ages are diagnosed with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other lifethreatening diseases. Seventy percent of people do not have a donor in their family and depend on Be The Match Registry to find a match to save their life. During a bone marrow drive at DePaul I got a chance to register with Be The Match. A couple little swabs of your checks is all you need to sign up, so I thought, why not? Maybe I could be a match for someone. I was surprised when I received a call from Eileen at Be The Match telling me that I had come up as a potential match for a patient in Washington. She did not tell me much about the patient at that time other then he was male and in his 70s. Eileen asked me if I was still willing to donate and if I would like to continue the process, I agreed instantly!

you still willing to donate? And again I agreed! I went to go see Dr. Klein in April 2012. There I met Nancy from the Bone Marrow Registry and Omar Salim from Thaakat Foundation, who had set up the Bone Marrow Drive at DePaul. After some further test procedures, I met Dr. Klein who explained the procedure that they were doing was called a PBSC donation. It was going to be nonsurgical procedure that

back through my other arm. He explained to me all the risks and then after signing some consent forms, I was one step closer to donating! The first day I got the shot was when I started to feel some muscle aches and pains, mostly in my lower back but it wasnt too bad, I just took some Tylenol and slept it off. They next few days were better than the first and I just felt tired but all of that was normal and expected.

said that was normal. They started at around 8:30am and were going to go until at least 12 or 1pm depending on how I felt. After probably two hours into it, my left arm started to feel really stiff (and just weird), but the nurse would move it around a bit so it felt a little better and she said that was totally normal. Other than the arm stiffness and overall weird feeling in the arms, it wasnt too bad. Around 12, the nurse started to take out everything and get me ready to leave. My left arm (where they had been taking blood from) felt incredibly heavy when I first tried to move it and it took a little bit of time for it to go back to feeling normal. After the nurses made sure I was doing ok I was done for the day and would come back the next morning. I came home to a lovely surprise from the Thaakat team. Some delicious cookies with a lovely note, it was nice to have their support! The next day was the same procedure as the first day and they got more cells then expected so that was good! I felt totally normal after the donation, not just normal but AMAZING. It was such a great feeling to know that from just that small little procedure, I had possibly saved someones life. It is amazing how small things can make a big difference. I never expected that a year after signing up for the Bone Marrow Registry, I would actually be donating. I hope to continue to help those in need I any way that I can.

On May 16th, I was a bit nervous walking into the hospital but way excited at the would take place at the same time! Eileen gave me the hospital on an outpatient basis. For 5 days leading up to last injection of filgrastim and the donation, they were going then the nurse started to get to be giving me injections of a me ready for the procedure. Since its better for your veins Since I was just a potential drug called filgrastim to match, they still needed to do increase the number of blood- if you are nice and warm, the nurses kept my arms (and the some blood tests just to make forming cells in my rest of me) warm with sure I was. I went in for the bloodstream. Also the drug blankets and heating pads. tests but I didnt hear from would move the cells that them until February, the they need from my bones into With all the needles and IVs in, they were ready to start. following year when I got a my bloodstream letter telling me that I was a (Cool,right?!). The blood from my left arm match for the patient but he was going into the machine, was not ready for a transplant On the day of the procedure, where it was separating the at that time. my blood would be removed cells they needed and the rest through a needle from one of the blood was going back About a month later, I arm and passed through a into my right arm. Despite all received another call from machine that would separate Eileen saying that the patient out the cells they needed. The the blankets and heating pads, felt really cold, but the nurse was ready for a transplant and rest of the blood would go she then again asked me, are
3

Charities Americana Feature Thaakat Foundation

Originally posted by Thaakat Foundation on June 12, 2012

Thaakats Founder, Uzma Bawany-Ali and Director of Community Development, Omar Salim were invited by Charities Americana to be featured in an audio interview. Together, they discussed Thaakats plans and goals for the coming year as well as a quick updates on our Bone Marrow Registrations, Project Reborn, #lethedreambe & our campaign against domestic violence, Break the Silence. This is the second time Thaakat was featured on Charities Americana! Charities Americana is a charity dedicated broadcast that sheds light on the efforts

of smaller organizations that often go unrecognized. The program can be heard on 1090 AM, Sunday afternoon between 12 and 1 PM EST. Have a listen to the podcast! Thank You Charities Americana for inviting Thaakat Foundation once again to discuss our work and for your continuous support.

Within the last couple weeks we had someone who had previously signed up as a donor; go through the entire donation process. It was definitely a shining moment for us. And also to be able to say these drives we are doing they do work, they do help patients in need of these transplants.
Omar Salim talking about

his proudest moment while in Thaakat Foundation

So many passionate people are around the country that are just helping Thaakat progress. I just want to give them a shoutout and let them know they are appreciated. We are inspired everyday by everything they are doing. Also, a huge shoutout to our intern team! Theyve brought so much new awareness and so much passion to our project. And to everyone that continues to support us day in and day out.
Uzma Bawany-Ali

The Power of Tweets

The other day I finally caved in to creating my own Twitter account. While it remains fairly unused at the moment, I was inspired to do so because of this concept of retweeting. The fact that you can have another individual retweet your message to their entire list of followers to read is pretty cool, and need I say, phenomenal for instant information sharing. Thaakat Atlanta team has been hard at work and have gotten celebrities to retweet (RT) our #lethedreambe campaign to over 5 million people!! Great work, team! Here are a few of our many RT stars: Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, musician Sunny Brown, Music Director Salim Merchant, Teen Wolf stars: Sinqua Walls & Gage Golightly along with Bollywood Stars: Boman Irani, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Farrah Khan, Preity Zinta, Mallika Sherawat, Anupam Kher, Shekhar Kapur, Shekar Ravjiani & Vishal Dadlani.

Remembering Andrew Park

Earlier this year we had featured an article on Andrew Park, a young boy who had been fighting with leukemia. Andrew found a match late in March 2012 and underwent his transplant in mid May. In June, Andrew entered the ICU due to complications. At this point, the doctors met with the family and decided it was best to focus on Andrews comfort and coming to terms with letting him go. On June 30, 2012, surrounded by his closest You can read more about the family's journey here. Andrew was strong and fought hard, staying positive in this difficult time which is an inspiration to others. May he and his family find peace. family, Andrew passed away peacefully.

twitter.com/thaakat