Mehar is the lead for Developments in Literacy (DIL)'s DC chapter. Having lived in the US for almost 17 years, Mehar is an exemplary woman in her ability to maintain a successful family and social life, as well as give back to the society through selfless community service. Originally from Karachi, Mehar completed her college education in Karachi, and went to the UK to obtain a graduate degree in Marketing and Advertising.

We had the pleasure of meeting Mehar at the recent DIL fundraiser and simply had to meet her again to find out more about this charismatic, dedicated, and humble lady who (like all of DIL's board members and volunteers) works without any financial reward to raise funds for basic education in rural areas of Pakistan.

This interview has become quite relevant in the current post-earthquake environment, where the community spirit has reached unseen heights and people are looking for examples and guidance in what they can do. Read on to learn from Mehar's experience...

What is your involvement with Developments in Literacy (DIL)?

DIL was founded in 1997 in Los Angeles by a group of ladies who had the aspiration and dedication to the concept of giving back to the country of their birth. I was approached a few years ago by them to open up a chapter here in DC. At first, I wasn't sure how successful I might be in establishing a presence, because new charities are always taken with a bit of skepticism. However, I went ahead with it and it's been very successful. Most of it has to do with the great reputation of DIL, laid out by the established chapters, which are driven by selfless women who have the choice to go and party their time away, but they choose to do something meaningful for their country of origin.

Why do you feel it is important to give back to Pakistan when we are living here in the US - why not focus our community service on the US?

Well, we should obviously take up any opportunity to give back to the society in which we live. Personally, I feel that God has bestowed the US with a lot of resources, whereas in Pakistan there's a persistent and dire need for resources. Especially for education, and even more so, for educating and nurturing the girl child. We simply have not made enough progress or had a consistent government focus on sustained, quality efforts in the field of education. I've been to rural areas and small towns, where you see government funded schools, so clearly something has been done, but these schools need a lot of work and attention for improving their quality and effectiveness. For example, we took over 10 government schools in one of the areas in Pakistan, where we had to work through many issues, from getting through to the teachers in terms of their dedication to the job, as well as the children, who were malnutritioned and some who were simply not allowed to come to school. But we've been very successful in raising the enrollment and motivating the teachers to do a good job. And there will always be this need because just by venturing out of the main suburbs, you can see the disparity that exists among the different socio-economic groups. There are people living and sleeping, expanding their families, all on the curbside. It hits you a lot more when you go from overseas, so we can do a lot more as well. As long as we are working and able to do something, we should do whatever is possible for improving the standard of living in Pakistan.

What are some unique aspects of DIL?

First of all, there are a lot of great organizations, like The Citizens Foundation, the LRBT, Edhi, and the Shaukat Khanum Hospital, which are doing a fabulous job. It is the donors' prerogative to understand and decide where they want to focus their funds. But I feel that DIL adds to the mix by going to forgotten areas and creating fully funded, well-managed schools in those areas. Secondly, we raise our funds through annual benefits and private sector donations - we have not funded by government grants. This is a big distinguishing factor, because it makes DIL accountable to our donors. Since we want to have a continued, long-term relationship with them, we have to produce results. If we don't produce results or manage our costs well, we will lose the donors' trust. So our target is to keep our expenses under 10% and we take that very seriously. The entire DIL board is comprised of volunteers. We are not drawing salaries, but investing our own time and money into keeping the organization going. Also, we maintain a high level of transparency. You can see our financial statments, which are regularly audited by well known accounting firms within the US. You know the climate in the US as far as non-profits are concerned, but nobody's been able to raise a finger about DIL's integrity of funds management. Recently, the Levi Straus foundation renewed its grant to DIL for five years based on the results they have seen from the schools they've sponsored in Kherpur. All in all, there are so many NGOs - some of them are good, some of them are not so good. But the donors can distinguish by looking at the results, getting to know who runs the NGO, and how openly and regularly the NGO shares its progress with its constituents.

What is your overall approach to fundraising and what have you found to be some effective ways of getting through to donors?

Obviously, the foundation of good fundraising is to educate donors about what they are getting out of donating to a particular NGO. So we first try to keep a clear focus on our objectives and secondly, we maintain transparency. We have an updated website which they can visit to get the latest information. Also, we understand that there is a barrage of fundraising. Donors are inundated with a lot of choices. There's only so much they can give and you can't just keep approaching people with requests for donations. You really have to provide the donor with an option to have a good time as well as contribute to a good cause. So we like to arrange events that would attract donors for their entertainment value, but we do it on a shoestring budget. That way we can provide our donors with good entertainment in a good environment, serve them a good meal, and by minimzing the cost of the event, we can use the funds we raised through the sale of tickets for a good cause. Also, we encourage our donors to take out a few hours or days of their time when they go to Pakistan to visit one of our schools, so they can see the results and build their faith in DIL's efforts. We will arrange for their visit to the schools. They can see what is happening on the ground. Go and see the computer labs in Kherpur and how the children are doing in Dir. I do it when I'm there, and I think everyone can take out a bit of time to see where their money's going. Finally, we keep stressing one thing that when you give to education, you are not wasting your money!

How hard is it to find volunteer support for arranging your events and fundraisers?

It's actually heartwarming to see how many people volunteer to help. We plan our events almost eight months in advance and circulate the information to our members and friends. Immediately after that, we start getting phone calls. People offer all kinds of help - whether to print the invitation cards, or to sell a table to their friends, or help with the event management itself. It is really tremendous how much community spirit exists in our youth and adults. There's a young DIL group in New York, called YOUR DIL, which does fundraising for DIL. They are doing a tremendous job by organizing small private events, as well as larger public events, to raise funds for DIL. I would like to see a similar chapter of YOUR DIL in the DC area as well.

When raising funds, or in your outreach programs, do you focus only on Pakistanis or the larger non-Pakistani community as well?

Actually, this is an area where we need to focus in the future. The last event we had, the fashion show, is something that non-Pakistanis would have enjoyed as well. It boils down to resources and with an entirely volunteer based organization, there's only so many areas on which you can focus without spreading your resources too thin. But we hope that next year we will broaden our focus on other cultures and faiths as well. It's a great opportunity for us to bridge the gap between the different ethnicities and faiths as well, and to promote our culture and society to them.

Shifting gears a little bit - how challenging or rewarding has it been to raise a family in the US ?

Actually, touch wood, I don't want to sound like one of those smug mothers who think their kids are the best, but I haven't faced any challenges or traumas in raising my kids here. Apart from the day to day minor conflicts of what you can wear or not, which parents face everywhere, I don't think I have faced any major issues. You see, you need to have a secure home environment, not be too strict, but keep a discipline and expect your childrens' respect. Children in North America, I find, are more straight forward and simple. They will say whatever they think and they will ask direct questions. You have to appreciate that and let loose the reigns to allow them to develop their own personalities. You can't be strict to the extent of being cruel because that causes unhappiness in children. In this culture, you can't make your children feel like they are aliens. There are proms and parties, but there are also rules and curfews, and if you use them with a good balance, you won't have any problems.

Do you feel you would have had a different experience raising your children in Pakistan?

I go to Pakistan every six months and stay there for at least 2-3 months. Nowadays, what I see there is a lot of wealth concentrated in certain segments of the society. There are some unbelievably wealthy people there, whose kids have access to a lot of amenities. We are salaried people and have a limited budget. So I feel that children from a family like ours, on a salaried budget, may face some conflicts and contradictions in the Pakistani society. For example, when they come home from a friend's house which is a huge mansion with many cars and servants, and return to their own reality, they begin to question why they don't have the same lifestyle. I'm not saying every child, but some children may be confronted with that kind of dilemma, which can then lead to low self esteem. When their friends are going for the weekend to Dubai or Bali, or flying out fresh flowers for a party or wedding, it just creates more of a disparity. It's hard keeping up with people like that. Here in the US, you have the choice of not being a part of this hedonistic lifestyle and still live with dignity.

What is the main motivation behind your involvement with community service and volunteer work?

My main inspiration is my mother, Mrs. Masooda Jawad, who has been an active member at APWA since I was a child. Growing up, I saw her dedication and committment to volunteer activities for the causes of women and the girl child, along with her attention to her family and kids. I don't think I'm anywhere near the level she has reached, but she's my role model. Actually, both my mother and my mother-in-law have been active volunteers all their lives. My mother-in-law Mrs. Rasheeda Patel is a lawyer, and has an NGO called Pakistan Association of Women Lawyers, which provides free legal advice and help to battered women and other women in need of legal aid who don't have the financial means. So it was just ingrained in my personality to give back to the society, in my own family, and then in my in-laws.

You have done a remarkable job in transforming the Pakistani mission.  What was your inspiration and how did you make it happen?

The first thing is that the Embassy is an institution where you keep on building upon what people had done before you.  Similarly, we have also built on the achievements of our predecessors. They did a lot of good things here, and we leveraged them. I think my biggest inspiration came when I was at Columbia University, I knew a lot of Pakistanis and could see that it was a very resourceful community but there was a lot of confusion in it as well.  You see, if you are doing well in Pakistan you will not leave it, so people who come here are generally not satisfied with Pakistan, and are looking for a brighter future and better economic opportunities and education. Which is fine! Pakistan's economy cannot absorb everyone and reward all of them at the same level of financial success they can achieve here.  But that initial reason for migrating makes it very critical to keep the Diaspora connected and interested in their heritage, culture, and country.  Otherwise, the country risks alienating a great resource.  Now, nobody will work with you if you have a bad image or poor customer service; you can make speeches, write good arguments, but no one will listen to you if your image is poor.  So we had to take some actions to let the community know that we care.  We were lucky to move to a new building, which gave us a better image and work environment.  Then we transformed our consular services and made them a lot more client-friendly.  We opened new Consulates and now have a total of four consulates in the US.  Having the database has enabled greater outreach as well, and combined with our operational transformation, we have received tremendous response and acknowledgement from the community.  Where we had a few hundred people attend the Embassy events organized for a visiting dignitary, we now have thousands.  We are very inclusive and we invite and communicate with everyone.  A handful of people have been offended because they lost their exclusive access to the Embassy, but we believe that everyone's equal and as such, all our community members are included in our activities.  My inspiration as such was to give it my 100% and I hope I succeeded in doing that.

What would you like to say to our readers, especially the youth, in the light of your experience?

Stay positive, stay focused, and never lose heart. When you try to do something good, you'll be pounded from many sides. But if you believe in what you are doing, and stay focused, you will overcome all obstacles. There is no limit to the heights you can achieve if you can dream and believe in your dreams.