Enthusiastic Response to Global Fundraising Campaign

From the cities and prairies of North America, to the towns and plains of Africa, to the metropolitan areas and villages of South Asia, Aga Khan University attracted over (US) $83 million in its Partnership Campaign. "It was an overwhelming response by thousands of donors around the world," said retiring AKU President, Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, "and a resounding endorsement of AKU’s efforts to become an agent of change in the developing world."

Beginning in Vancouver, Canada in September 2004, and ending in Bujumbura, Burundi in March of this year, the global fundraising was far reaching.

50,000 youth around the world contributed $3 million to build a Sports and Rehabilitation Centre on Stadium Road.

Kassim-Lakha explained, "In the past our campaigns have only sought support from Ismaili communities around the world. This time we limited our Ismaili campaign to 80 per cent of the campaign target, or $66.4 million.

The remaining $16.6 million came from donors – individuals and corporations from all faiths and communities – who see AKU as an effective partner in global efforts to reduce poverty and lack of opportunity in developing societies through education."

Funds raised in the Partnership Campaign will be used to support a wide range of AKU programmes and services in Pakistan, East Africa, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom. They include enhancement of existing endowments in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the creation of a new endowment to provide long term funding for teacher development programmes at the Institute for Educational Development in Karachi. Funds will also be used to encourage more research, not just in medicine and basic sciences, but also in nursing and education. Several new professorships and chairs in the Medical College and School of Nursing will also be funded from the campaign.

Other pledges, from mainly corporate donors in Pakistan, will be allocated to the cost of construction of the recently opened Ibn Zuhr Building for cancer services at Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi. Already this fully equipped building is offering life-saving radiotherapy services to cancer sufferers from all over Pakistan. Additional funds raised will help fund the extension of the Hospital’s Emergency Room and construction of a new Day Surgery and Imaging Building.

To support the University’s expanding activities in Africa, a group of corporate leaders in Canada accepted an invitation to partner with AKU in establishing a $20 million Institute for Educational Development in East Africa. Located in Dar-es -Salaam, Tanzania on shared land for a new Aga Khan Academy, the new teacher training institute will replicate and build on successful graduate study and certificate programmes at the AKU-IED in Pakistan. The new facility will draw teachers and school administrators from all over Eastern Africa , including Mozambique, Angola and Congo.

Of particular significance was the support of the younger citizens around the world. A K U’s Partnership Campaign included an appeal to youth in all countries to help build a Sports Centre at the new AKU-FAS campus. In 1996, 50,000 youth around the world contributed $3 million to build a Sports and Rehabilitation Centre on Stadium Road. This time, the youth of the world exceeded the commitment with $5 million for a new Sports Centre on the new campus.

The success of the global campaign was largely due to the volunteers including over 1,000 Ismaili volunteers around the world. Volunteers also played a major role in the success of appeals in the non-Ismaili sectors, especially in Pakistan. Munnawar Hamid, a Member of the University’s Board of Trustees, and Chairman of the volunteer Resource Development Committee, Corporate said, "Our success in funding major new patient services buildings on the Stadium Road campus, as well as patient welfare at the University Hospital, is entirely the result of hard work by volunteers, many of whom are the captains of industry and commerce in Pakistan."

The latest Aga Khan University Partnership Campaign has moved the University to a new level. Donors and volunteers from all communities, in all countries, and from all levels of society, pledged their financial, moral and intellectual support in unprecedented numbers. Commenting on the success of the Partnership Campaign, incoming AKU President Firoz Rasul said, "AKU is truly fortunate and in a unique position to have such a generous international donor and volunteer base that continues to propel the institution’s trajectory to becoming one of the great universities of the world."