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Farrah Bokhari
 Meet Farrah Bokhari, a woman who has embarked on a journey to create an organization that provides education and a future for the girls and boys in the poorest villages of Pakistan. Frustrated with other NGOs who were unclear about where her financial contributions were going, Farah started her own organization called A New Beginning (ANB) to foster transparency among contributors and the organization itself. Read on to learn more about what her organization does and how you can help.
How would you introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m ambitious, dedicated and a passionate workaholic. I’m someone with boundless energy and have always been on the go, always doing something and enjoying myself in whatever I’ve been involved in. I am not always easy to work for as I am as demanding of others as I am of myself, but I promise you, in the end I’m a fun boss once the work has been done! I demand and expect excellence from not only myself, but from others also. What some people remember of Farrah from years ago is not the same person you know and see today!
No matter what I’ve done in the past in my career, I always thought (sounds clichéd, I know) that there is something missing. Unlike many people who don’t know what is missing in their lives, I knew exactly what was missing in mine but I could not fulfill these ambitions at that time in my life for various reasons. I remember when I first came to US back in the early 80’s and saw the commercials for Save The Children, I knew then that I wanted to get involved and I did somewhat, by adopting a child in Somalia.
Long story short, about two years ago, with my son in college and personal demands slowing, I caught up with myself and once again I thought of wanting to do something for underprivileged children and women.
Tell us what is A New Beginning (ANB), and why do you feel the need to start something new?
ANB is an organization that is presently adopting government schools in Pakistan and bringing them up to an appropriate standard needed for children in the 21st century. Have you seen the conditions of our government schools? We are currently making a video so people can see what the conditions of these schools are really like and what changes we are trying to bring about. It’ll be a “Before and After” video and picture gallery on our website.
We will be tackling a lot of issues such as child prostitution, child slavery, divorced and widowed women who are having a hard time taking care of their children due to their lack of skills and money to support their families, working to discourage child marriages, women in prisons, so on and so forth.
 We are starting nothing new that hasn’t been done before, but it will be a new beginning for these women and children. A new beginning, a new hope and a new dream, their chance see their world changing before their very eyes.
With so many NGOs already working in Pakistan, what would you say is going to make your organization different from the rest?
That’s an excellent question, and which I have asked myself for the past two years when I was thinking of starting something like this.
I didn’t want to form an NGO; instead, I wanted to support other NGOs and groups. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. When I wanted to know how my financial contribution would be used by these organizations, the impression that I got was “don’t worry your pretty little head over these things and just hand over your money.” That’s not the attitude I wanted; just handing over money and feeling that I had made a contribution wasn’t enough. I wanted to be involved just like I want everyone that contributes towards ANB to be involved. I want transparency; I want us to be asked where each and every penny is being used so each contributor feels they really are helping. In turn, this shows us that people actually care!
By the way, I detest the term NGO for what it stands for today in our society. Whenever you tell someone that you started an “NGO”, the snickers that follow are unnerving. Yet I have to admit, the attitude is deserved since some groups seem to have taken more for themselves than for the ones they claim to help, giving the honest NGOs a bad name.
Despite the negative connotation attached to NGOs, we still need more of them operating in our country. The amount that needs to be done is tremendous, and we know we cannot expect the government to do it all. There are so many areas to work on and each of us needs to play an important role in bringing our country and its citizens forward. We hope in time that people see and focus on supporting those NGOs that are positively contributing to our country.
I pray that some day ANB is ranked among such great NGOs such as Care, Kashf Foundation, Citizens Foundation etcetera, and we are willing to give our all to enjoy such a reputation some day.
ANB has recently adopted a school; tell us where and what changes can we expect to see in the lives of the students and their families?
We have recently adopted two schools in the Billai Gill area that are on the border of Bahria Town in Lahore. We have already began painting the walls, adding electricity, new bathrooms for the girls, ordering furniture, ordering uniforms and preparing to serve breakfast and lunch everyday. It was shocking to see the children sitting on the dirty floor of the cold and dingy classroom. There is just one classroom for the 60 girls ranging from nursery to Class 5, and everyone is supposed to share the class.
The boys’ section is slightly better with tables in the classrooms, but they did not have chairs, so the tables aren’t used. Again, the children sit on dirty floors.
We plan to provide annual physical exams, a playground, and adult classes which will be given after the children’s school is over. We plan on gradually adopting the entire village along with the schools that are operating there. Everything will be provided to the families free of charge.
You also plan to work with women who are divorced or widowed, what training would you be providing to them?
We will be educating widows by offering them adult education classes and helping them learn some kind of a skill, whether it be it tailoring, teaching, learning to be midwives, or assisting them in creating small businesses that they can run themselves. We also plan to offer them adult education classes.
Divorced women suffer many hardships given how our society treats divorced women. The stigma is worse for a poor woman with no education and lack of funds. These women are left alone to fend for themselves and their children; it is an extremely harsh life for them. They need to be self sufficient too, and will be helped by being trained with some skill that can generate income and help them support themselves and their children.
We’ll be also working with poor families that have daughters sitting at home because aren’t able to provide them dowries. The dowry system is a curse in our society, but it is also a reality that I don’t see disappearing in my lifetime. Through education and raising awareness, we hope to change these concepts. For now, we can all help to get these girls become educated and trained so they are better prepared for marriage. We also plan to provide them dowries so they can get married, settle down and help give their old parents some peace of mind.
 Even though there is a lot of support for various NGOs in Pakistan, the question about transparency of these organizations comes to mind. Tell us how you feel about that and what you plan to do about it?
To gain the trust of the public and our donors and those we are serving, we owe them full disclosure of our activities and that’s through transparency through our actions and our performance. Also, members will have access to online financial information. The reputation of our board of directors, members, peers and those we serve are of utmost importance to us.
We’ve seen corruption happen in all kinds of organizations, and the best way to prevent such action is through transparency in what we receive and what we spend.
How do you plan to raise funds for your organization?
As of now, we, the boards of directors are supporting all our efforts with our own personal funds. Also, my immediate family is helping a lot as they know how much ANB means to me. Future plans include launching ANB with a fundraising show to make people aware of what the organization does; it is planned to take place in Winter 2008.
We also plan on raising funds through events such as concerts and fashion shows. Membership dues will also help us. I will also be going to Monaco at the end of October to talk to some friends there as they are very much interested in helping our people through the education system. Sylvia, one of our honorary members, is involved with a lot of local charities in Monaco and France and has already been a wonderful support for me. She is helping me plan a fashion show in Monaco which would include hosting HRH Prince Albert, who is very much involved in raising funds for children’s education through Amade, a cause started by his mother, Princess Grace.
What has been your biggest challenge thus far in running this organization?
The biggest challenge has been motivating our own people towards such a cause. When I’m visiting Pakistan, I sometimes feel as if I’m having an out of body experience when I watch people spend lavishly on themselves while ignoring the poverty around them. By all means do so if you can afford to, but also give back to the society is what I’d like to tell these people. It doesn’t take much as everyone’s contribution makes a difference, whether a few hundred rupees or thousands. We just ask you to share your blessings with the less fortunate.
How can we the readers help and contribute to your organization?
Thank you for asking, everyone can help in so many ways. We can use student volunteers who can help with painting murals on the classroom walls of the kindergarten and nursery classes so they are more stimulating for the young children. We can have organizations help by providing our schools with playground equipment, donating classroom supplies or even construction of additional space. We need monetary help for providing dowries for the young girls, free medicines and free mother and child care. The list is endless!
We would love if fashion designers and celebrities help us organize a fundraiser by offering their talent in an evening where we can all get together and unite for a cause that benefits not just our society, but makes an impact on the rest of the world.
Lastly, what is your message to the readers of Mag4you.com?
Someday, I would love to have you, the readers visit our schools and technical workshops. Please join us in beating the stigma of Pakistan being called a “Third World Nation!” This goal can only be achieved through education and awareness. We have to put a stop to the recent alarming descent into fanatism our country is spiraling into, where our beautiful Islamic faith has been used to terrorize the world in a fascist-like way for their own personal power and gain. Sadly, they are succeeding because of innocent people, victims of poverty and ignorance.
These are not small issues nor one any reader can ignore or avoid. It will take everyone’s effort to help educate the poor, train them and create jobs in different skills so that they can take care of themselves and their families. Let them learn to reason with logic and not with emotions. Give them a chance of bettering their lives and those of their future generations.
 In the end, I would like to especially thank Bia Imran, (V.P. of ANB) for the tremendous work load she is handling back in Lahore while I work from here in NYC. I cannot thank her enough for what a great job she is doing despite juggling her career, her home and her children.
I’d also like to thank a wonderful young man who was one of our first volunteers, and now ANB’s first hired employee, Ahsan Malik, who works tirelessly for ANB and is the star of the show!
Without these two, I wouldn’t be able to see my dream come true the way it has!
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