Pakistani American Forum/
Merit Grants for Young Women
(MGYW)
MGYW's Marketing Booth During Pak Day Mela
 MGYW Board Members |  Grand Prize Winner |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |
To celebrate 75th Resolution Day, recently a Grand Mela Festival was held at Phoenix Club, Anaheim, California. MGYW set up a marketing booth at the festive event for distribution of promotional materials including “Save the Date” Flyer for MGYW’s Banquet to be held on Saturday, November 14 at Knott’s Berry Farm Resort Hotel (more details at www.mgyw.org and Facebook). A free raffle drawing was held where lucky participants had the opportunity to win fabulous prizes comprising of elegant gift baskets (donated by Drs. Ashraf & Bina Kamdar) and a 32-inch LED TV. There was also arrangement to decorate hands with Henna. The MGYW Booth was visited by a large number of community members, and officebearers of all major Pakistani-American organizations, Consul General of Pakistan, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) accompanied by famous community activist Mohammmad Khan, and Artesia City’s first Pakistani-American Artesia Councilman Ali Sajjad Taj. While visiting the MGYW Booth, Congressman Royce praised accomplishments of MGYW towards education of under-privileged young women of Pakistan and even made a cash donation. The MGYW Board Members who volunteered at the event included Bina Kamdar, Tasneem Afzal, Zille Huma, and Farhana Mohamed as well as several volunteers.
Another Accolade for Malala Yousafzai!
On February 8, 2015, the 57th Grammy Award Ceremony was held at the Staples Center, Los Angeles. It brought yet another honor to young Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai when the audio version of her memoir, “I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World,” won the Grammy’s in the category of Best Children’s Album. The audio version of the book was narrated by Neela Vaswani who is a professor of creative writing in the Masters of Fine Arts Program at Spalding University. In December 2014, Malala and the Indian child labor advocate, Kailash Satyarthi, shared the Nobel Peace Prize as well as exchanged compliments; in February 2015, the Grammy Award was received by Neela Vaswani, an Indian American, who lavishly praised Malala for her achievements. Thus Malala’s mission is not only empowering underprivileged children, especially girls across the globe, it is also inculcating mutual respect and understanding amongst all people in this world - even those belonging to the two archrival nations.
Signing of Memorandum of Understanding between
Pakistan Foreign Office Women’s Association and Merit Grants for Young Women
A memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Pakistan Foreign Office Wives Association (PFOWA), Islamabad and Merit Grants for Young Women (MGYW), Los Angeles on 5th September 2014. The signing ceremony was held at the Consulate General of Pakistan, Los Angeles in the presence of Consul General, Mr Tasawar Khan. PFOWA was represented by Mrs Iffat Tasawar Khan, while Ms Farhana Mohamed signed the MoU on behalf of MGYW.
MGYW is a 501(C) (3) registered non profit organization working for the promotion of higher education among meritorious but financially underprivileged young female students of Pakistan. Since its establishment in 2000, under Pakistani American Forum, MGYW has been providing assistance to hundreds of deserving girl students in Pakistan in the form of tuition fee, books, uniforms and monthly financial assistance to continue their studies. In addition MGYW partners with well established charity schools that predominantly cater to educate girls in impoverished rural or urban areas of Pakistan.
PFOWA is a registered non profit organization run by the female officers and spouses of officers of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. It was established in 1947 to assist the deserving children of low grade employees of the Ministry, by providing them syllabus books, stationary and scholarships for higher education in Pakistan on the basis of merit. It also provides financial assistance to the widows of the Foreign Office staff and extends a helping hand, in cases requiring medical assistance. PFOWA has been active in providing relief assistance during disasters like earthquakes and floods.
Since one of the main activities of PFOWA is also to promote education by supporting the deserving students of the Foreign Office families as well as different charity schools, the idea to establish an institutional link between the two organizations was proposed by Mrs Iffat Tasawar Khan in 2013. The MoU was signed after approval by the MGYW Board of Directors and Madam Najia Aizaz, President PFOWA.
Under the MoU, MGYW will annually provide 15 scholarships to PFOWA, which will be granted to the girl students, belonging to the families of low grade employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is hoped that the arrangements agreed between the two organizations will go a long way in realizing their cherished objective of supporting and promoting education amongst the underprivileged segments of our society.
MGYW 2014 Annual Banquet
2014 News Highlights