Dosti Foundation
The pictures above show the Kalu Shah school before Rachel brought the Rotary clubs of Salem, NH, Ipswich, MA, and Unitown, Peshawar together early in 2009 to raise $3300 between them. With the matching grant, the total came to $12,000, which bought computers, desks, books, and other school equipment for the Dosti school at Kalu Shah, as well as the first sanitation facilities in the village. (Since Rotary does not allow matching grants to be used for buildings, Dosti paid for the new building.)


































Rachel Williams: Dosti's Link to Rotary

Did you know that almost everyone in Pakistan and Afghanistan wants their daughters educated, and even Taliban groups have asked humanitarians to educate their daughters? That most ordinary Pakistani citizens do not hate ordinary American citizens? These are just a few of the surprising things we learned from our Rotarian partner, Rachel Williams, during her Northwest Ohio speaking tour, October 4 through October 8, 2010. Click here to read more, and see pictures.

Rachel learned about Dosti when she read in a Rotary magazine about a Pakistani Rotarian - Mian Zamarud Shah, president of our board in Pakistan. As International Chair of Ipswich, MA, Rotary, and District Literacy Coordinator for District 7930 (Boston area), Rachel started the "Adopt-a-School Program." Rotary clubs raise money for a school in Pakistan or Afghanistan, and Rotary International "Matching Grants" turn each dollar into $3.50







Dosti VP Aijaz Ahmad (center, in the hat), and Rachel Williams (to Aijaz's left) with Ipswich Rotary. Next to Aijaz on the other side is club president Bob Markel.
...and with Greater Salem, NH, Rotary Club. President Rick Incollingo is fourth from left.
Above left: the school since improvements were made. The student body jumped from 50 kids to 175.

Right: the Rotary Clubs
Rachel's Rotary BioRachel's blog
Every December Rachel travels to Pakistan. In December of 2009, she arranged a meeting between the incoming Rotary District Governor  for  Pakistan and Afghanistan  and the Chief Economic Officer of the US Consulate in Lahore, receiving “a very positive response to our presentation about funding Rotary projects through USAID.”

Rachel says she does what she does because:

Children are not born to hate, they learn it in the absence of proper guidance. For decades, unqualified, angry people have set up distorted religious education in a vacuum of proper schools. The poor and marginalized are easy prey for this. Knowledge really is power! Rachel expanded on this in her October 2010 presentations in Toledo.
Picture above: United Nations Rotary Day, November 6 in New York. Rachel Williams (third from left) had 1200 world Rotary leaders on the edge of their seats with her presentation about the Global Education Campaign, the Dosti Welfare Organization, and the power of education. They now want to visit our schools! Rachel plans to take a delegation in spring 2011.