Sunday, September 24, 2006

"SEEDS OF HOPE" SCREENING AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

On behalf of Alif (Alliance Investment Fund) I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone that attended the “Seeds of Hope” event. The audience was a mixture of students, community members, organizers and faculty. The documentary and subsequent discussion on the plight of vulnerable populations in Ethiopia was engaging and thought provoking.

I would like to thank Columbia University School of Social Work for providing us with the venue to facilitate this event. Additionally, the screening was a collaboration of the following organizations: Columbia University School of Social Work’s International Social Welfare Caucus, Tadias Magazine, United Nations Association - Midpenninsula Chapter, and Concentric Media.

Once again, thank you all for taking out the time to join us. Please feel free to contact me at nasir@allianceinvestment.org with any comments, suggestions and thoughts about the event, and visit Alif at www.allianceinvestment.org to find out how you can get involved in affecting change in the lives of marginalized children in Ethiopia.

I hope you will join Alif in its mission to invest in the lives of orphans and vulnerable children!

Nasir Al-Amin
"Investing in Our Shared Future"



Here are a few pictures from the event:


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In responce to your question about unschooled children. It is unfortunate that within many cultures (more so in Africa) women are devalued and under appreciated. Your statistics of 66% of uneducated children are girls. That sounds correct. A lot of parents don’t see the importance of educating a young woman because they feel “Why would we invest in something that will shortly be another mans responsibility” Women get married young and become housewives. If you have 2 kids, one is a boy and the other is a girl which one is going to be favored??????? Unfortunately the boy is. The man ultimately has to provide for his family; not the girl. Do I think its right? NO

After my trip to Nigeria I made a commitment to myself that I would adopt 3 girls from the continent. A don’t know the raw numbers, but more than half the girls in Nigeria do not continue school after secondary education. It is sad and that is why things need to be changed.

I wish I knew about the event. It sounds like you had a good turn out. In Sha Allah I will be invited next time. Why Ethiopia?????