The Board Changes...

One of the best things about being a part of YOUR DIL is the amazing, talented, fun people we’ve met. The board is like a cute, little, slightly dysfunctional family. Most of us didn’t know each other before YOUR DIL, but have become very close over the past year and a half despite many differences in personality and interests. Considering we talk to each more than we talk to our families or other friends, this isn’t surprising, and what connects us all is a deep concern for Pakistan and a desire to find a way to have fun while making a difference.


So while, we’re extremely happy for the positive changes in our volunteers’ lives, we’re pretty broken up to lose two of our founders, our Co-Directors of Fundraising, Sabeen Ali and Amna Nawaz to other cities, Boston and Washington DC respectively. Sabeen (who just got engaged to YD founder Hashim Mian!) is moving to Boston to pursue her MBA at Harvard and Amna is moving to DC after a promotion, on a new assignment for NBC (she was a producer at Dateline).



(Amna Nawaz and Sabeen Ali at "Spring into Action" on April 6)

Both are responsible for the YD events all of you have attended and have helped make each event better than the one previous. We’ve had some great laughs and amazing experiences with both, and I know I speak for the rest of the board when I say we will miss them tremendously. So thank you Sabeen and Amna for your dedication, hard work and good humor. And best of luck! Come back and visit often and make sure to either start (as in Boston) or join (as in DC) the local YD chapter!

As a result, there have been some changes to the board that we are very excited about. Our Director of Volunteer and Community relations, Bilal Khan (who just married YD volunteer Komal Hanif!) moved over to take Sabeen’s position and replacing Amna will be Sophia Umar, long-time YD volunteer who has helped on every single event since our inception. Both are very hard working and committed to Pakistan and are going to be great in their new roles, starting with running our Gala, “A Night on the Indus”. Congrats Bilal and Sophia!

Replacing Bilal as co-Director of Volunteer and Community Relations will be Madeeha Halim, who worked tirelessly on the Strings concert and keeps us in stitches with the most amazing collection of emoticons you’ve ever seen. Welcome Mads!

We’d also like to welcome Ali Nazar who will be working with YD Secretary Danish Iqbal on maintaining and expanding our website.

BTW, it may sound from the above that we’re not only slightly dysfunctional, but also slightly incestuous (with all the engagements and weddings), but the couples knew each other outside and before YD. We do hear, however, that at least one couple out there met at one of our events and just got engaged?! We’d love to hear you story…!

Congrats again to our new directors and best of luck and a big THANK YOU to those leaving us!