Volunteers In Action

Seated in a Pamiri home in Khorog, Tajikistan, 73-year-old Khudododova Tursunmo listened intently to a presentation on Nazrana. She learned that Ismailis worldwide would have the opportunity to pledge a Diamond Jubilee gift of time and knowledge to Mawlana Hazar Imam. A retiree and grandmother of five, Khudododova wondered what gift she could give the Imam to show her love.

How can someone on one side of the world affect an initiative on the other side? Or contribute to making an improvement to a large-scale process? Or share the knowledge they have acquired through years of education and experience? The stories of TKN volunteers Ali Thanawalla, Adam Jutha, and Huma Pabani are all examples of short-term, remote assignments with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), which have made a significant impact on the agency's work.

Karim Marani’s TKN journey with the University of Central Asia (UCA) began in March 2013 when he received a call to determine his interest in contributing to the design of the university’s academic library. This was in preparation for UCA’s inaugural undergraduate programs across three campuses in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Karim has an undergraduate degree in Library and Information Science from East Africa and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from the USA. He is currently Director of the Learning Resource Center, McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Dr Fazila Lalani, a full-time emergency physician with the Aga Khan Health Services, Tanzania, is working in her ideal job, and it started as a TKN assignment.

In February this year, Dr. Umed Ali Ajani, Associate Director for Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, travelled to Tajikistan for a week to provide guidance on managing a heliotrope outbreak and preventing similar incidents in the future. A physician by training, Dr. Ajani has worked in the United States as an epidemiologist for more than 20 years. His TKN assignment was with the US Ismaili Health Professionals Association (IHPA) and the US Aga Khan Health Board (AKHB), institutions he has previously served with. The onsite host institution was Aga Khan Health Services Tajikistan (AKHS-T).