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The TKN initiative launched during the Golden Jubilee is a global effort that impacts the Aga Khan Development Network, as well as the US Jamat through various domestic assignments. TKN volunteers have one thing in common: each one feels an unwavering need to serve the Jamat.
Saima Gowani and Amynah Pradhan, two TKN volunteers from the Chicago area, were invited to speak on a professional development panel where they provided insight into their career fields for one of the first Knowledge Society conversations. “It was an opportunity to convey what I did professionally at an academic level,” shared Amynah.
A professor at the University of Illinois with a specialty in opioid receptors, chronic pain, and migraine, Amynah says, “we become very narrow-focused professionally, and serving the Jamat has allowed me to grow professionally. I have received a lot more out of giving time and knowledge, and I have worked with new people, learning new things along the way.” Although her Jamati work has focused on the mental health arena, she has been able to leverage her experience in a professional environment by attending conferences, presenting her work and research to her community.
With a background in early childhood development (ECD), Saima recently completed a TKN assignment with Aga Khan Foundation USA, where she assessed the monitoring and evaluation programs in ECD. “This was one of the more professionally-aligned assignments I had the opportunity to support,” she shared. She spoke to ECD professionals around the world, and today, the four-month assignment has led to more follow up questions and additional conversations. “This has been a very rewarding experience for me. I have had the opportunity to make an impact in an institution that not only supports the Jamat, it also supports so many in need around the world,” revealed Saima.
Dilshad Nayani graduated with a degree in nursing from Aga Khan University in 1984, and although she wanted to work there, the hospital did not open until the next year. But life took her to the United States and she has served the Jamat in several capacities.
In 1998, Dilshad became involved in Camp Mosaic for nearly a decade, which led her to a nursing support role for Camp Al-Ummah in 2007. She continued to apply her nursing degree professionally but every summer her colleagues, friends, and family knew Dilshad would be with her extended family at one of the community’s camps. This was, and still continues to be, a passion for Dilshad, “My work with the camps continues to be one of the most rewarding things I have been part of. I found my niche and it is the most touching seva.”
In 2016, Dilshad participated in a TKN assignment for Global Encounters. Since then, she has supported students from around the world at the Aga Khan Academy campuses in Kenya and India. “Working with 15 to 17 year-olds who are away from their families, their comfort zone has allowed me to be their mentor, their friend, their support and most importantly, their nurse,” Dilshad shared, smiling.
Amynah continues to be thankful for her various opportunities, “Helping other people is just part of humanity. We are blessed that we have opportunities to serve, otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go outside my current professional realm.”
Saima shared that her service and career have always been aligned, “I taught English in Pakistan for 10 months, which propelled me to getting my master’s, which led to more amazing opportunities.” More recently, her ECD research for the TKN assignment provided her with data that is helping her complete her dissertation for her doctorate degree. Education is a lifelong process, and so is the tradition of service. Saima and Amynah are prime examples of how both go hand-in-hand and can launch experiences to new heights.
Dilshad’s experience with the camps has allowed her to be more efficient and make decisions on the fly. “There aren’t several doctors and nurses around me so I need to make sure I make a decision quickly that’s in the best interest of the patient. I am a lot more confident in my abilities now,” she notes.
Service allows a person to grow in several ways but the most important aspect of this service is the humanity that grows within those who serve. Those who serve today do it wholeheartedly, and with pride. It is a tradition that has helped unite the Jamat and improved its quality of life around the world.
During my Golden Jubilee... Ismailis from around the world volunteered their gifts not only of wealth but, most notably, of time and knowledge in support of our work. We established a time and knowledge framework, a structured process, for engaging an immense pool of expertise involving tens of thousands of volunteers. Many of them traveled to the developing countries as part of this outpouring of service…Their impact has been enormous in helping us achieve best-practice standards in our institutions and programs…”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Address to the Parliament of Canada, Feb 27, 2017