The Lighthouse Cohort is among the pioneers in the Middle East who are on the front lines of their communities to professionally and strategically bring voice and take actions to build a life of dignity, peace, and purpose for anybody who rightfully deserves it…writes Rahul Laud
Aishwarya Joshi – a construction architect turned social entrepreneur – is on a mission to transform the stereotype world of giving. She is the founder of “The Lighthouse Cohort,” a Dubai -based forum on a social mission redefining plans of action to overcome the realistic challenges around global peace, education and sustainable livelihoods across Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Today, The Lighthouse Cohort is among the pioneers in the Middle East who are on the front lines of their communities to professionally and strategically bring voice and take actions to build a life of dignity, peace, and purpose for anybody who rightfully deserves it.
The latest big success was conceptualizing a simple yet effective Kilimanjaro Challenge to raise funds for Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation and gain attention for the healing and resettlement of refugee children in the forgotten provinces of Iraqi – Kurdistan.
The challenge was taken up not by regular trekkers but by a unique team of nine UAE-based Indian expats – comprising finance professionals and an orthopedic surgeon – all driven by a purpose of breaking barriers for good.
The raised funds will be supporting Lost and Found – A Healing Program to be conducted in more than 50 refugee camps across Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Lost and Found Programme was conceptualised by The Lighthouse Cohort – the social impact partner for Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation. Kilimanjaro Challenge is about breaking barriers and so is the healing project.
“The project aims to cleverly break barriers in order to restore the lost universal human values, assist the refugees to find strength in non-violence, self- transformation and humanity,” said Aishwarya. “The goal is not just about alleviating suffering or trauma but to help them to lead their own conversation with responsibility, write their own destiny with perseverance, broaden their outlook through opportunities and most important give hope of reintegrating into mainstream community with dignity and purpose.”
Expressing his happiness at seeing a group of Indian expats taking up the climb for refugees, Dr. Mariwan Baker, founder of Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation (BHHF), said: “This group is the first group of Indian expats climbing for the Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation. Climbing Kilimanjaro is not novel for Indian expats. But imagine if 10 expat Kurds in Dubai would have done the same thing for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh…how much that would mean for Rohingya people. The climb of these Indian expats means a lot to me. They are my heroes…”
Paul Post, Partner at Bitfiner – the design agency supporting the campaign pro-bono from Estonia said: “I think this project was a big success and would strongly suggest arranging these kinds of undertakings on a regular basis. This is a great way to gain attention and raise new funds. It was not just “Donate for refugees”, but it presented in an interesting and more connected way which ultimately generated authentic engagement, substantial funds and stories of support that culminated with the achievement of the team climbing the tallest peak in Africa – Mt Kilimanjaro.
“They say you are closest to the almighty when you are at peak of a mountain and that thought made me attempt Kilimanjaro as a tribute to my dad who I lost in 2014. I joined the journey with a group of 9 few of whom I knew and few who I didn’t. What gave me further pleasure in joining in this group is the fact that we were about to climb for hope and bring awareness towards a genuine cause – Healing of refugee children in Kurdistan. The trek to Kilimanjaro was the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life but I’m happy we summited successfully and achieved our objective of supporting Bring Hope,” said Amith Kumar, Orthopaedic surgeon, a team member.
Another participant, Hiral Sampat, Finance professional, said: We the Indians in Dubai always thought of doing something in line with UAE’s theme “Year of Zayed” on behalf of the country we earn our livelihoods from. That’s where we connected with Bring Hope and took up the task of climbing the 4th largest peak that was challenging beyond our imagination & leaving our kids behind further intensified our challenge. As a mother of two girls, I could connect to the “healing project” and happy we were able to raise significant awareness in UAE about the need for healing of these refugee kids across Kurdistan.
The campaign broke few myths – no funds were invested in PR, advertising or marketing collaterals for the campaign. The climb was self – funded by the climbers and the success depended on word of mouth or personal social media posts. All the funds received by BHHF at the end of the campign will be used towards the Healing Project.
The highlight of the campaign turned out to be the involvement of the labor accommodations of the UAE. Even the blue-collar workers showed interest to make donations for the displaced refugee children.
Gulzar, a Bangladeshi blue collar worker said: “We were following this campaign through social media and asked mam how we could contribute to the cause. I was happy to see that my friends in labor camp showed that they wanted to give back to the society like me. Within two weeks we spread awareness about this project. Although I asked for 1 AED only, many gave AED 20, 40 and even AED 100 during Eid.
During the 1st week of August more than 50 children and 25 women experienced a positive impact of this project in Kawargosk and Darashukran refugee camps located in Erbil.
Suha, a BHHF staff assisting the project on ground shared: “It was fantastic. Immediately after two days I realized this project was impactful. The children and women were more relaxed, they felt more comfortable in their own skin, confident and emotionally more balanced. We have never seen them come every day with a big smile and so much enthusiasm to learn. We also observed that the refugees had stopped complaining and started taking ownership of their own challenges. The best part was they had listed out areas and started working towards their goals as team even before the end of the sessions.”
During this first phase of the programme, the staff and caretakers at the refugee camps witnessed that transformed individuals interacted positively at every level of society for a sustainable future for all not just the refugees. The staff at the refugee camp staff admitted that it was a refreshing change of conversation.
Aishwarya said: One committed decision to go cross border, taken by nine Indian expats for humanity is transforming not only the refugees but many minds today. It is a good reminder for the expat community that there are no cheat codes when it comes to creating change. It’s needs perseverance at many levels – but – as an expat community there are many ways to get started!!
