SADIA ASHRAF • MA ’00
BUILDING BRIDGES
An alum works to raise money and awareness for schools in Central Asia
contacted Mortenson to learn more. When Ashraf, a resident of Bolingbrook, Illinois, learned that
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Mortenson had a speaking engagement in Evanston, she went to O’Hare, introduced herself, and whisked him to a Pakistani res- taurant in Chicago. Over nehari and matka gosht, Ashraf and her husband convinced Mortenson that he could do more to tap into the fundraising power of Pakistani-Americans. Mortenson asked Ashraf to help. She agreed. Four years later, Ashraf works full time as an outreach coordinator
for the organization Mortenson founded, the nonprofit Central Asia Institute. She travels to 50 events a year, from Pakistani mountain vil- lages to affluent communities in Florida, in support of the institute’s mission: promoting and supporting community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They currently have 168 schools educating 56,000 students. Born in Islamabad, Pakistan, Ashraf moved with her family to
Mauritania, on the west coast of Africa, when she was young. Her father helped with poverty alleviation and development programs. When Ashraf was a teenager, the family returned to Pakistan, and she earned a degree in linguistics from Quaid-e-Azam University. She became engaged to a Pakistani-American man who lived in
Chicago, so she moved to America and enrolled at Loyola to pursue her master’s in literature with an emphasis in post-colonialism. After finishing her graduate degree in 2000, Ashraf and her husband moved to Joliet and had two children. While focusing on her family, Ashraf stayed busy with freelance writing, teaching, and eventually running “a few non-profits.” In 2006, Ashraf picked up a copy of the book that would set her
life in a new direction. “My husband and I have a litany of complaints about Pakistan, but we had done very little to actually make a differ-
adia Ashraf (MA ’00) intercepted author Greg Mortenson at the airport. She had recently finished his book, Three Cups of Tea, which chronicles his efforts to improve education in Pakistan. The work moved Ashraf so deeply that she
Sadia Ashraf visits a school reconstruction project in the Kashmir region.
ence,” she says. “Then, when I read Three Cups of Tea, I had a couple of epiphanies. This man, the author, was so dedicated to improving education in Pakistan; it made me want to get involved. Then, after September 11, I felt like there were so many misconceptions about Muslims and Pakistan—like the grey area had been taken out of the discussion. I felt like I belonged here in the United States, but also that I didn’t belong. I felt like Greg was the kind of person who could build bridges of dialogue between these worlds.” After meeting him at the airport, Ashraf started volunteering
with Mortenson 40 hours a week, and then they started traveling to fundraisers and conferences. The organization blossomed, and they are now invited to speak on panels and meet with politicians, celebrities, and other leaders. But Ashraf tries to keep her eyes on the Central Asia Institute’s ultimate goal, which is to raise money to open schools and support scholarship in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Education alleviates poverty, especially the education of girls,” she says. “While boys often try to leave their community, the girls stay at home and reinvest in their community. Every dollar you invest in a girl’s education will net a return of $34 to their community.” The organization also supports public health initiatives and opens women’s centers. Ashraf credits Mortenson and her current work with helping her to reconcile some personal questions. “I had these three different cultures running through me: African, Pakistani, and American, and I wrestled with that. Three Cups of Tea made me see that diversity as a gift, not as a curse.” Now, she has the chance to engage many of her varied talents with the Central Asia Institute, building bridges between cultures in a bid to increase women’s access to education, one school at a time.
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