Posted:(08/3/10 10:45 PM)

If you or anyone you know lives in Chicago, DC, NYC, Houston, London and/or Lahore and would be interested in participating in or helping organize an MDF event, please contact us.  We have exciting plans to be in all cities in the coming months.

Posted:(07/29/10 12:55 AM)

Pakistani Ambassador, His Excellency Husain Haqqani delivered a powerful and candid presentation at our annual fundraiser in Aspen. He spoke about the recruitment of child soldiers in Pakistan, the domestic and international threat it poses, and the importance of education and access to knowledge in order to curb its development.

“..the conflicts these young kids are involved with are not conflicts of their making… every  young Pakistani child who gets to go to school gets an opportunity -in life, it is one recruit denied to extremist groups…There is a great opportunity to change minds. The generation that was brought up on hate, if they are replaced by a generation brought up with a better understanding of the world, a more hopeful and positive understanding of the world, there will be less conflict! It’s a beginning…”

MDF is delighted to report that the event raised $75K this year, more than the last few years and despite the suffering economy.

Thank you for your generous contributions and ongoing support!

Posted:(06/2/10 10:32 PM)

This graph demonstrates the vital importance of education to economic attainment. According to the International Labour Organization, each additional year of primary education raises a female’s earnings by 15%, and a male’s by 11%. The average girl in Pakistan who receives no education can expect to earn $1/day, and a boy $2/day; after receiving five years of education, as children in MDF-sponsored schools do, a female can expect to make over twice as much, and males will 69% more.

Posted:(05/27/10 2:54 AM)

Marshall Direct Fund friend and supporter has written a fiction-based-on-fact thriller about the Philippines. It is available for sale in paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3441540 (CreateSpace is a subsidiary of Amazon.com) and the Kindle Edition: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003J35BY0. Please share with others!

Posted:(04/22/10 7:35 PM)

This is a very significant article (written for the New America Foundation by our own Vice President, Hassan Abbas) that explains recent political changes in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and the changing dynamics of insurgent groups.

An issue such as this is incredibly important for our own mission, to enable access to education in Pakistan; these insurgent groups have often targeted schools in NWFP, especially girls’ schools, in their attacks.

An excerpt from the article can be found here. The full version is here (PDF).

Posted:(03/25/10 2:51 PM)

MDF provided Vocational Training for 100 Women in Pakistan by equipping mothers with skills and training to produce clothing and embellished goods in order to launch successful businesses, generate income, send their children to school, and lift their families out of poverty, thereby enriching their quality of life and security.

Thanks to your support MDF received $9,195 from 69 donations between April and June 2010, of which $2,400 was invested towards the purchase of back up energy resources for our existing schools.

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/vocationaltraining-for-100-pakistaniwomen/updates/

Thank you for your support and contribution to MDF through Global Giving during our Open Challenge between April and June.

Global Giving is an online marketplace that connects people to the causes and countries they care about. Individuals select the projects they want to support from those listed on the site, make a tax-deductible contribution, and get regular progress updates – so they can see your impact.

Posted:(03/22/10 5:17 PM)

We have something new and exciting we’d like to share with you! It’s the new Marshall Direct Fund toolbar – once added to IE or Firefox, each time you shop at more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle!) a percentage of your purchase will automatically be donated to Marshall Direct Fund – at no cost to you (and you may even save money as the toolbar provides coupons and deals as well!). The toolbar also has a search box – each time you search the Internet, about a penny is donated to Marshall Direct Fund. http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/marshall-direct-fund

And please pass this along to all of your friends. The two minutes it takes to add this toolbar to your browser can make a lifetime of difference!

Get the toolbar NOW! http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/marshall-direct-fund

Posted:(03/16/10 3:51 PM)

Just a quick reminder – this week is Aspen Fashion Week, so be sure to check out MDF events and fund-raisers! All the details you need are right here!

Posted:(03/1/10 5:42 PM)

We’ve launched a new program for supporters of MDF to donate their frequent-flyer miles to us to help us travel to and from Pakistan as well as travel domestically for conferences and other events.

We currently have programs set up with Frontier and Southwest, and will be adding more airlines soon!

Frontier: If you have an Early Returns account with Frontier, please click here to fill out the form to gift miles to MDF. Our account number is 30048740621, and the name on the account is Silbi Stainton.

Southwest: With Southwest, you may transfer your earned Awards flight to MDF. Because this requires you to book a flight in our name, please contact us at info@marshalldirectfund.org to make arrangements!

If you have unused miles with other airlines, be sure to check back soon as we will be adding more shortly!

Thank you for your support!

Posted:(01/6/10 3:48 PM)

Launching MDF’s new Circle Program! -

Are you, or someone you know, interested in advocating for women, children and access to primary and vocational education in Pakistan? Perhaps you, a friend or someone in your network is looking for a worthy cause. We have several tools and ideas to help start a new circle, and will provide plenty of support. MDF Circles are an innovative and collaborative way to support the mission of the Marshall Direct Fund. E-mail info@marshalldirectfund.org for more information!

Posted:(12/31/09 10:23 PM)

Pakistani news site Dawn.com has an article praising the work of community leaders and activists in Pakistani towns in keeping communities together and strong:

“Our real leaders are the thousands of community activists in our midst – not necessarily well-known. They are heroes in their own right. They deserve our gratitude.”

We would like to thank the wonderful people we work with in Pakistani communities; they are eminently committed to enabling access to education for children in their communities, benefiting not only these children but the community as a whole.

Agha Imram Ali Khan is our Director of Operations in Pakistan. Liaqat Ali manages the Islamabad/Rawalpindi region, where Amna Irfan is the Headmistress of our Barakahu School; Asma Rasheed, Nazia Kamran, Nalia Baber, Samia Maqbaoi, and Mubeen Akher teach at Barakahu, where Rami Babi is the Maid/Cook, and Abdul Resheed provides security. Agha Ali Raza is the Project Manager in the Lahore/Sheikhupura region, where Iman Fatima is the Headmistress of the Sheikhupura Schoool; Sidra Shamsi, Tahira Siddique, Nageena Siddique, Tasmiya Kanwai, and Amara Safdra teach at Sheikhupura, where Kausar Mansha is the Maid/Cook, and Muhammed Rizwan Khan provides security.

We thank all of these wonderful individuals for their work! In their honor, we are asking for donations – see here for more information.

Posted:(12/15/09 10:34 PM)

Dr. Hassan Abbas (who, among many other accomplishments, is Vice President of MDF), was recently invited to interview Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Below is a portion of the interview, which can be found in full at his website.

Hassan Abbas: During your recent visit to Pakistan, you won the hearts of many through your courageous outreach – visiting Badshahi mosque, participating in television talk shows, interacting with students at country’s premier educational institution Government College Lahore, and most importantly going to the mausoleum of Mohammad Iqbal, the poet-philosopher who gave the idea of Pakistan. Even those who are critical of the U.S. policy were appreciative of these gestures and it served an important message to those Pakistani politicians also who are not in touch with masses.

Secretary Clinton: Well, first, the resilience and the courage of the Pakistani people. Everywhere I went, I met people who are speaking out and standing up and working hard, and that was extremely moving to me. I also felt like both the civilian government and the military leadership understood that the threat they faced had to be addressed.

And I thought that was very promising, because the terrorist threat to Pakistan is growing and it’s intense and it can only be defeated by the Pakistani people coming together and rejecting it, in the first instance, trying to present a different narrative than the one that the terrorists are putting forth, using military force where they must, but mostly by developing the democratic institutions, by developing the country, clearly demonstrating that Pakistan has no room for those who want to tear down, because the Pakistan people want to build.

Hassan Abbas: During the said trip you also visited Police offices in Islamabad to pay tribute to the sacrifices rendered by police officials in the fight against extremism. You are the first and so far the only foreign leader visiting Pakistan who thought of this. It is becoming clear in Pakistan that the country will not be able to win this battle especially in areas like Punjab and Karachi unless its law enforcement and police forces are reformed and upgraded. I must confess that this topic is of special interest to me as before my academic career in the US, I was a police official in Pakistan. Also Pakistan army cannot be expected to fight everywhere in the country. In this context, will the US be supporting police and law enforcement reform agenda in Pakistan?

Secretary Clinton: Well, we would be honored to do so, because I agree with you that the police truly are on the front lines. They often have to deal with the rush of violence that comes in cities or towns and they don’t have the support they need, they don’t often have the equipment that they need. And as you say, I met a number of police officers, both in Lahore and in Islamabad, who are very committed, but under-resourced. And I am more than happy to consider any request from the Pakistani Government to help the police force, because I agree completely that they’re the front line of defense.

For the full text, please click here.

Posted:(12/14/09 8:12 PM)

The obstacles for children to attend school in Pakistan are many: weak infrastrucure, poverty, and conflict all contribute to a situation in which at least 8 million of the country’s 20 million school-age children do not attend primary school. One of the more recent developments worsening this situation is the Pakistani Taliban’s war on education. The group targets schools for bombings and seeks to recruit children through madrassas, religious ’schools’ that attract children who, without the madrassas, would not receive any education, and convert them to the beliefs of the Taliban. As illustrated in this touching yet tragic PBS/Frontline video, these children are molded into soldiers and suicide bombers for the Taliban. This is one of the trends we at the Marshall Direct Fund are working against; by enabling access to education for Pakistani children, they can empower themselves to combat the force of the Taliban in Pakistani society.

Posted:(12/10/09 12:05 PM)

Welcome to the Marshall Direct Fund blog! We’ll be using this space to provide updates on MDF projects, stories of people in Pakistan who are involved with MDF, news on Pakistan, and much more. If there is anything you would like to hear more about, or have comments regarding the blog, please e-mail us: info@marshalldirectfund.org.