A Night on the Indus!

The night before this year’s gala, we barely slept. There seemed to be too many moving parts, too many vendors and people to manage for it to come out in any coherent way. Not to mention the deluge New York had faced since the skies had opened up two days before. The realization that the next morning we were going to walk into a completely empty 10,000 square foot space and attempt to turn it into an elegant, party version of a traditional Pakistani village was quite overwhelming. The fact that ticket sales had gone well was perhaps the only thing that gave us, as the organizers, some peace. But in the end the team pulled it off, in every way, beyond our expectations.


Everyone managing the overall event led superbly, keeping everything organized and in line. The board members in charge of specific tasks pulled through. Lots of volunteers new to the organization stepped up in ways we never expected. They spent, in some cases, 7 hours in their cars making pick ups and deliveries all day during the miserable rain. Almost none of us had the chance to go home and shower, staying on our feet about 20 hours straight (through clean up). We couldn’t be prouder of our team and everyone’s dedication. The fact that we all believe so deeply in the cause was evident. We all wanted to pull it off, because the better a job we did, the more people would come out, the more would give money, and the more of an impact we could have on the children of Pakistan.


In the end, of course, it is the attendees that make an event. And our supporters came out in full force. We sold over 300 tickets, almost capacity. Everyone paid attention to our presentation and we all were floored by the multitude of active, intelligent questions we faced afterwards as well as all the generous donations. People made new friends, ran into old ones, mingled, enjoyed the food, the hookah room, the drinks, the henna. Our amazing honoree, Gideon Yago, gave a speech rich with his experiences in Pakistan and as a journalist covering some of the most difficult events of the past few years. And he spent a good amount of time talking us up, which couldn’t have made us happier and definitely drove donations at the end of the night.


It was a wonderful, fun night, no doubt. We hope we not only entertained our patrons, but brought greater awareness to the issue of illiteracy in Pakistan and the reason that we are all so dedicated to YOUR DIL. We’re looking forward to getting to know all the new people who have said they want to join us and our cause and (sigh, after a bit of a break), getting back to work spreading the word and raising money.


We raised about $20,000 for our school in Mansehra, 20% of what we need over the next three years. We are so moved by everyone’s generosity and excited about what that means for the children we will be educating with this money. We promise to give you regular updates so you can see the impact your donations have.

Hope that those of you who came enjoyed yourselves. Please feel free to leave comments to this post about what you would have liked to see us do, what worked well, what didn’t…we’ll keep it all in mind. Check out the gallery for all the wonderful photos from the night, and if you feel like you can contribute more to the Mansehra school, please see instructions on how to donate.



And thank you, thank you, thank you for making this event such a success!