Atlanta for Acumen

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Comment by Rebecca Posey on November 30, 2011 at 12:35pm

Just a reminder, please join us at the ATLANTA+acumen Facebook page--lots of sharing and community happening there! http://www.facebook.com/atlantaforacumen

Comment by Abdul Mubeen on October 26, 2011 at 1:22am

How can we send thousands of children to empty schools? Please help me

 

Background

 

 My name is Abdul Mubeen. Currently I am living in Dubai, U.A.E, and I am a chartered Accountant (ACCA). I am belonging to Pakistani administered Northern Area (Gilgit Baltistan), a remote area in Himalayan - Kramkuram mountain region. My village name is called “Hudur Gujrat” (Distract Diamer Chillas) an End of the road forest village.

In 1977 Government of Pakistan announced to build a building for school in my village and fortunately after around 30 year in 2007 this school building has been completed. During these 30 years, school has educated only 8 men and 1 woman out of six thousand population area and I am the only one graduate.

There is no single dispensary and maternity home in the village as well.

Few months before I read an amazing book (three cup of tea and Stone into school), both of these books are based on the story of our area, but unfortunately non of any international NGO contact our district , because being a “ TALIBAN” holding  area this become a “ No go Area” for any international NGO.

 Although the heights   of karakroum mountain keep hide so many problems of this areas like family and ethnic discrimination, self rule of powerful families and religious Mulas over poor and minorities families, woman harassment in the name of Islam, keeping away the poor families form education and political process, all these insight stories one can not understand just pass through Islamabad to Gilgit by airline or krakrum highway and information form the “face good” politician and elders in a pleasant meetings until you reached the village side with victim families.

How we address all this issues just build school walls, small dams, water canal, road repair, providing foods and shelters?

I believe that the long term solution of all these problems is one and only “EDUCATION” especially for girls.

To deal with this single solution for the entire problems recently, I visited my village and surprise that the school buildings were empty and only one teacher was there for three schools. Animals were walking around the schools and all children were working in the field, houses or with sheep herds ……. I had raised the following question to my villagers to understand the ground problems and for my feedback.

 

Q.1. what happen if some NGO will build a school for our children?

A.1.We don’t need just school buildings “we need education and healthcare services for our children regardless it’s from inside building or open air field”. We will reedy to send our children to school if school provide one time food and education supplies same as religious mardsas are doing,  as we are poor people we can not afford all these by our self.

 

Q.2. Why you are not sending your children to school?

A.2. what is the benefit of sending our children to school? We are poor people and our children are helping us to look after our animals and cultivation. These things are helping us to increase our income.

If we will send our children to school for primary education then we have to send our children to cities for higher educations. As you know there is no community hostel and compensatory resource. So it is batter that we will not send our children to primary school and ask them to helping us in our daily activities.

 

Q.3. why our children are attracting to religious mind extremist “Madarsas”?

A.3. It’s very simple that we are poor people and Islamic Madarsas are sporting or children and our homes and we have no fear and worry about the future of our children because after getting education from Islamic Madarsas they also decide the future of our children.    

 

Request

 

After getting such concern form village elders and watching empty school building full with donkeys and dogs with my own eyes I realize that without a proper alternative compensatory long term education PLAN based on the concern of the village elders and ground realities its difficult to ensure the enrollment of children to school. Because here the real problem is poverty and luck of motivation that deprive children’s from school.

 

Being the only one graduate form my village and community I decide it’s my responsibility to start a compulsory education for all programs “The Mountain Community Welfare Program” in these remote areas of Himalayan Mountain region. 

 

Now to pursue with this mission I need your help to connect me to any individual or NGO donors to start my project, because I have limited recourses and experience to appeal the world.  

 

I hope and believe that with the help of unfailing humility people like you I will help the thousand of poor children in the remote areas to become a good citizen.

 

Please help me.

 

Thanks and regards,

Abdul Mubeen ( mubeen675@hotmail.com) or 0971-507906835.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comment by Rebecca Posey on April 11, 2011 at 9:02am

Hey everyone, Acumen Fund is presently HIRING!

They have several mid- and entry-level spots to fill, including two positions on their business development team in New York.

Check it out and apply: http://www.acumenfund.org/about-us/work-with-us.html

Comment by Rebecca Posey on February 8, 2011 at 3:46pm

Hey friends, I hope that you'll come out to the planning meeting at the Hub in midtown on Wednesday.

If you want to be more involved with social enterprise and patient capital in Atlanta, this is your opportunity!

Please respond to the discussion above entitled 'Leadership/Volunteers Meeting' or message me directly. Thanks so much!

Comment by Rebecca Posey on January 10, 2011 at 4:29pm

Please note that tomorrow's meeting has been RESCHEDULED to 1/25/11 because of the snow and freezing temperatures. Sorry to not see you all tomorrow--but please save the new date, and we'll get together soon!

Comment by Melissa McCoy on December 8, 2010 at 12:21am

Great meeting all of you tonight as well!

The website for my conference, Enterprise to Empower, with all the videos/photos/info is www.En2Em.org. Look under the 2010 tab.

I'll post any events/opportunities I hear about that yáll might be interested in to this site!

Comment by Shreenath Regunathan on December 7, 2010 at 8:31pm

Friends, Great meeting today - I am excited to see what we can make of this opportunity. Here is a link within the Acumen Site I just found - on top (http://community.acumenfund.org/notes).
where there is a small list of Acumen Resources and information.
You should all be able to find my name on Facebook / LinkedIn and let's continue on this momentum. Cheers!

Comment by Swetha Krishnakumar on August 10, 2010 at 1:50am

Hi Rebecca! This looks like a great group! I'm a final year student at Georgia Tech. I'm really interested in international development and got more exposed to social entrepreneurship work this summer through an internship. I'd love to learn more about the group and what's going on in Atlanta. Thanks!

Comment by Rebecca Posey on August 8, 2010 at 1:58pm

Hey Meklit, it's my pleasure. Thanks for joining the group! Once we reach double digits, I'd love to get everyone together for an informal meet-and-greet to share our ideas. Jo-Ann from Acumen has also provided some guidance on starting a formal chapter if others in the group are interested.

Comment by Meklit Berhan on August 5, 2010 at 6:36am

Thanks for taking the initiative to create this group, Rebecca! It will be wonderful to have a like-minded group of individuals close by with whom to exchange thoughts and ideas. I look forward to further developing this community and exploring all the possibilities.

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