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ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2007 | Visit our website | How you can help |
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ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2007 | Visit our website | How you can help |
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CONTENTS: |
ISSUES: |
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Contact Us Tel: (02) 9887 1665 or Email Us. PO Box 6234 North Ryde NSW 2113 |
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DEVELOPMENT REPORT: MAHBOBA'S PROMISE CONTINUES TO EMPOWER Afghanistan's most needy are experiencing some relief, thanks to the efforts of Mahboba's Promise. Most notably, Kabul now boasts a community centre, Hope House, built by Mahboba's Promise funds, which will look after 100 widows and orphans formerly living in desperate conditions on the streets and in ragged tents. Hope House is almost finished and it is a huge achievement for Mahboba’s Promise.
In Badakshan, Mahboba's Promise has set up yet another development project, working with the local community to build a school. This school is being built to Ministry of Education specifications and provided work for local builders as well as 12 teachers. This school was the dream of a young doctor who wanted to create opportunities for illiterate young Afghanis in the region. Mahboba's Promise stepped in and made it happen. Already, the school and its teachers are so in demand that the school will run three shifts a day - most exciting of all is that young girls are to be educated at the school too.
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" Some orphans have acquired skills and can help support the family." |
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MAHBOBA RAWI HONOURED
ON INTERNATIONAL WOMAN'S DAY
Mahboba is also a guest speaker at the WHOLE WOMAN FESTIVSAL being held in Byron Bay on 9 March in honour of International Women's Day. Tickets are $25. To book, call Cherie on 02 6677 1743. The work and influence of Mahboba was also recognised recently at the Mission of Hope Australian Muslim Achievement Awards when they lauded her with a trophy and citation as a MUSLIM ROLE MODEL of 2006. Mahboba is humbled by the recognition afforded her by varied sectors of her Australian community. |
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COUNTRYWOMEN OF BEGA
SHOW SUPPORT
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STAR VOLUNTEER....
Mahboba of her brother, Sidiq Rawi. As Executive Director of Mahboba’s Promise, Sidiq leaves his family in Sydney to regularly visit Afghanistan. This extraordinary commitment, done voluntarily, helps Mahboba to manage and run the 19 projects now spearheaded by the organisation. Thank you Sidiq! |
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SPONSOR A WIDOW OR CHILD
Please help us by sponsoring a widow or orphan. Call (02) 9887 1665 or e-mail us mahboba@mahbobaspromise.org to process your donation! |
“Widows are so poor, if we did not feed them, they would die.” |
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A HELPING HAND....
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MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE VISITS KABUL
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WANT TO HELP?
VOLUNTEER!!! If you want to make a positive difference, throw some of your energy and commitment behind an organisation that does so much good by harnessing goodwill.
SYDNEY OFFICE
KABUL |
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ABRN 135 823 880 OUR THANKS TO ALL OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS AND DONORS WHO HELP MAHBOBA'S PROMISE TO CONTINUE ITS RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT WORK |
Contact Us Tel: (02) 9887 1665 or Email Us. PO Box 6234 North Ryde NSW 2113 |
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In
the large town of Jaghori in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, a girls'
school will soon be in operation again after pupils of Pittwater
High School in Sydney, Australia, raised funds to fix the Jaghori
school well. Mahboba's Promise arranged for the funds to go overseas
to get the water flowing again with the school gates reopening in
April to the delight of pupils. Also in Jaghori, a generous Sydney
donor, Mohammad Sadeq Sadeqi, has made possible the purchase of 10
computers and teacher wages to instruct Jaghori children intensively
in Information Technology. The children are lapping up the classes,
reports Mahboba's Promise founder, Mahboba Rawi, who knows
first-hand how hungry Afghani children are for self-improvement.
Returning
recently from a tour of the organisation's various development
projects, Mahboba's Promise founder Mahboba Rawi noted that
conditions in Afghanistan, if anything, are deteriorating. "Things
have become more expensive; the gap between rich and poor continues
to widen; and the lack of health, education and general
infrastructure is disheartening," Mahboba notes. "It is so rewarding
to see the results. Some of the little orphans I rescued in the
beginning are now learning skills and starting to support their
mothers.”
UNIFEM
Australia is launching their "POWERFUL WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA"
photographic exhibition on International Women's Day on 8 March 2007
and among those 30 stunning portraits will be our own Mahboba Rawi,
founder of development organisation, Mahboba's Promise, operating
since 1998 to uplift and empower the poor, needy and destitute.
Congratulations, Mahboba! For more information, visit the UNIFEM
website, 
In
Bega nearly 200 women from around the Valley Shire gathered in
January to listen to Mahboba talk about her work. Mahboba was
brought to the Bega Valley by the Bega Women’s gathering committee
and stayed for a long weekend to meet groups and individuals. “I was
overwhelmed by the generosity of country people – they were so
alive!” said Mahboba. She came back to the Sydney office with
renewed energy. Two boys in the Valley devised a project of their
own which was that every time they turned on the TV or a computer
they put a dollar of their savings in a jar. Each time they
restricted their shower to one minute, their parents put 50 cents in
the jar. The jar was full at the end of six weeks, just when Mahboba
arrived and so they proudly gave her $130.10 cents. Congratulations
to Nicholas and Thomas Noble!
“Now
that the organisation has grown, I could not manage without Sidiq,”
says
The
mainstay of our fundraising is sponsorship. We are in the process of
separating our sponsorship into two funds. One is the Widows Welfare
Fund where the donation goes straight to widows in the form of
coupons for food and essential supplies. The other is an Orphan
Community Sponsorship where we use the funds for educating orphans,
teaching them skills and involving them in community projects. Says
Mahboba says: “Nowadays aid organisations all focus on helping
communities to become self-sufficient and so do we, because if the
children can grow up and get a good job, they can help their
families out of the poverty trap. But in Afghanistan, the widows are
so poor, if we did not feed them, they would die.”
This
is a heart-warming story. When the Men's Group of Sydney-based
charity, the Exodus Foundation, heard about a young Kabul streetboy
who needed money for major surgery that Mahboba’s Promise was trying
to help, they took a collection and raised nearly $400 for him.
Long-time Mahboba's Promise volunteer, Elizabeth Giles, was on hand
to receive the money and thank the Men's Group for their act of
compassion. Thank you, Men’s Group, Exodus Foundation!
Mahboba
likes Management Committee members or supporters to join her in
Afghanistan to check on project progress. “It’s good to have a fresh
pair of eyes looking at my work; I always get a lot of value from
that,” says Mahboba. This year Raymond Nelson, volunteer Vice
President of the Management Committee, accompanied Mahboba to Kabul
and met many of the widows and orphans helped by Mahboba’s Promise
sponsorship programs. In this photograph, he chats to six-year-old
Mariam who lost her entire family in a rocket attack. When Mariam
first came to the orphanage she wouldn’t speak and appeared always
fearful, but on this day she spoke confidently and solemnly with
Raymond.