|
company
profile |
|
A unique opportunity to make a difference "I will be in Atlanta, can we meet to talk about some philanthropic opportunity in Iran. So begins an email from someone I had never heard of; but the sender's title sounded impressive, "Professor of Computer Science and MathematicsÓ at Imperial College, University of London. For a moment I thought perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I did my undergraduate at the same university system "Kings College.. I noticed a website address at the bottom of the email. One click took me to a site titled Science and Arts Foundation, describing some efforts to deliver PC's and Internet connectivity to the schools in Iran. For a moment I felt the power of faith at work here, because since my wife and I had founded a charity foundation in Atlanta we had been thinking about embarking on some type of charity project in Iran. The idea of building a school or a clinic had occurred to us, however we felt many Iranians were already engaged in this type of activity and further we were looking for a project with a long lasting effect on the young population. Having been in technology business all my life, I had come to the conclusion that most likely enough clinics and schools would be built, but that not many would pay enough attention to the long term Information technology needs of the youth in our country. I could still remember the frustrating moments I had building a multi- transistor radio while in the eighth grade in Iran. I could not contain my frustration when paging through British and American electronics magazines and noticing how with a simple phone call I could easily obtain all the parts needed. We had just heard of the magnificent achievements of the Iranian students at the Academic Olympiad and we felt the need to engage in an endeavor that would encourages various aspects of information technology in our native country. The bigger problem however was that we left the country while in high school and had no contacts in Iran nor did we feel comfortable partnering with just any entity in Iran that did not fully understand our objective. Here I was looking at an email that seemed to offer exactly what we were looking for. I immediately responded to Dr Abbas Eddalat and soon after he arrived in Atlanta to meet me for lunch to further discuss this over Ghorme Sabzi. Although, I don't remember ordering any (in that case I guess I still owe him some), I could not contain my excitement listening to him telling his story of how he founded the Science and Arts Foundation. Abbas had collected some money for some charitable causes during the early part of 99' in England, and while visiting Tehran he decided to visit Roshd high school located on the south side of town in a deprived area that had produced 2 Gold Olympiad winners. While visiting the computer lab, he was appalled at the state of a few XT machines that could hardly run any of the existing software. Seeing the enthusiasm of the students, he decided to donate the entire fund to the high school to set up a computer room and then to connect them to the Internet through the university. A local charitable person offered to pay all the expenses and asked Abbas for the donated money to be spent on another school. Before finishing my after lunch tea, I felt I had found my calling cause and decided to sponsor a school right away and continue to help the foundation as much as I could. I did not realize the impact of this effort until one night, while working late, I received the following email; aghay_e Taslimi aziz ma bachehaye dabirestane Hesabi be shoma keh fekre bachehaye Iran hastid salam mikonim. az shoma be khater ta'hyeh computer baraye ma kheili tashakkor mikonim. midanid keh bachehaye Irani dar mosabeghe jahani football robatha (RoboCup) dar donya avval shodand ma ham harche bishtar sa'y va koshesh mikonim keh karhaye elmi khob anjam dahim ham ba savad shavim va ham baraye Iran eftekhar kasb konim. baz ham az shoma tashakkor mikonim va be omide didar shoma hastim. danesh amoozane dabirestan Dr. Hesabi - Varamin I was so excited that I ran to my wife Nahid and woke her up to read her the email. Her puzzled face shortly turned into a big smile. Then we realized how it feels to make a difference.
Almost 3 years have past and to this day SAF has equipped some fifty
schools and other educational institutions in Tehran, Varamin, Islamshahr,
Shahre-Ray, Isfahan, Rasht and Roudsar. We have also produced various
educational websites, organized teachers training and collaborative
projects between schools in Iran and outside Iran. Our schools participate
in the activities of the International Education and Resource Network
and in the international life-link network www.life-link.org.
All these activities have been coordinated by our School Information
Center set up at Sharif University of Technology. We are now extending
our operations to other major regions starting with Tabriz, Kashan,
Yazd, Guilan and Ghazvin, Shiraz. SAF is now a registered charity
in UK, US, Canada and Iran and is pending registration in France
and the Persian Gulf countries. Last year one of the dedicated teachers that coordinates SAF's activities in Iran encouraged the children at one of the schools to set up an assemply line and build the PC's that the foundation uses to equip the schools. It is a wonderful sight to see 14 and 15 years olds assembling PC's knowing that they are contributing to the future of their country. A few weeks ago, Dr. Edallat, several SAF administrators along with 5 teachers from Iran attended the 8th International Teachers' Conference, 5th I*EARN Youth Summit - AFRICA CONNECTS in Cape Town, South Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope. SAF's impact on the conference was such that the organizers asked the team to arrange and deliver the final moments of the closing ceremony. At the closing ceremony, two members of the team from Iran delivered a poem (in Farsi) and some observations regarding the value of collaborative work respectively. They were replied to in kind by two American teachers and were rewarded by an ovation from the delegates in attendance. All this has been made possible by donations from both inside of Iran and the expatriate. Our country missed the industrial age when an impact required a huge investment over a long period of time .We are at a historic point in that a bright lone visionary with a computer and an idea, given the opportunity, can make a big difference. This too is a grand opportunity for the Iranian Americans involved in technology to make a difference. Any investments we make in the youth of our country will have a huge impact in the future and bring rays of hope to those who otherwise may feel hopeless. |
