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EYA of the Month – September 2015

My Mission is to Serve Humanity

My name is Hayat Hamandzai and I belong to a small district called Qilla Saifullah in one of the provinces of Pakistan called Balochistan. I belong to a poor and un-educated family but I am very thankful to them for always supporting me to pursue my education and dreams. They have never questioned my desire to pursue education for myself or assist others to do so but instead acted as a pillar of strength in the most vulnerable of situations. I share all my stories with them, whether they are bad or good, and try to only reflect on the positive even when my life is under threat.

 

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I have never tried to take money from anyone, because I truly believe that even with very little one can achieve a lot. This drive in me has grown when I used to go to school by foot and then I continued going to college by foot, but I never wanted to stop reading those books. Even though I had very little money I was learning so much, more about the world, more about people, more about justice and more about what kind of a human being I want to be. I do admit that it has been a difficult journey and I have yet to face many struggles but I am very certain about one thing only, that I will serve humanity and never give up this cause. That is the only answer I have gotten and the only perspective that keeps on pushing me forward.

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Once I became part of the Education Youth Ambassador (EYA) Program, I finally felt I found a platform to do the work I had dreamt of doing. However, having the title of an EYA in Balochistan was not going to be an easy task. When I was told about the UpForSchool campaign I was very excited and determined to collect many signatures but the conditions I faced were not ideal. They were many individuals, institutions, organizations, family, friends who labeled my work as immoral and dubious and that with a foreign agenda, pushing me away from my belief system but I kept moving on. I told them that this one signature, one thumb sign will go to the many leaders across the world and act as our voice to help us change our conditions.

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They were many who threatened to take my life and harm my family but with the Grace of Allah I remained steadfast and achieved the target I had set for myself. In the process I also established my own NGO called “Initiative for Social Change and Development”– working to provide opportunities to students such as reading, writing, financial assistance, uniforms all of this with my own pocket money. I got many of my friends involved in this work who helped me spread my message and gather many signatures.

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I had decided that my satisfaction only lay in serving humanity, breaking the chains of slavery and getting freedom from all illegal rules and cultures. Even though I cannot share many pictures of my success on my own face book or other social media however I would want my message to be delivered to everyone through this platform. I would like to thank all my friends and family who have helped me collect 13,000 signatures from my own district and home, which makes me clear on my mission to serve humanity and I will never give up this mission. I know that this is just the beginning and I really want to share with all those who read this story that no matter how small or how you have you must contribute for humanity; one sign may be able to turn around history.

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