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Tuesday, April 27, 2010 |
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| The president of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama praised Kashf Foundation’s success in poverty alleviation and the empowerment of low-income households, especially women and the efforts of Ms. Roshaneh Zafar (founder of Kashf Foundation) at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington DC on 27th of April 2010.
In his opening address at the summit President Obama acknowledged the great contribution Kashf Foundation continues to make for poverty alleviation and the economic mainstreaming of “hundreds and thousands of families and children”. President Obama emphasized the importance of the exchange of ideas across borders such as the adaptation of Dr. Yunus’s model of microfinance in Bangladesh to the Pakistani context by Ms. Zafar. Kashf which literally translates to ‘miracle’, exemplifies successful collaboration and revolutionalization of entrepreneurship across the Muslim world. President Obama stated that he hopes similar cooperation is further enhanced through the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship and similar platforms.
President Obama along with other high ranking U.S. Government officials, including the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce, attended the summit where entrepreneurs and stakeholders from Muslim communities were invited to build synergies and provide learning opportunities for social entrepreneurship.
Ms. Zafar represented Pakistan at the Summit to enhance the understanding of issues in poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment in Pakistan. Ms. Zafar stated that “one of the biggest challenges Muslim countries, including Pakistan face is that of the youth bulge, that is, over 65% of Pakistan’s population comprises of people below 24 years of age. It is very important that Pakistan’s youth does not lose their hopes and that their potential of these young people is unleashed and utilized. Microfinance, enterprise development and SME lending has to go hand in hand to create jobs for these young entrants, both men and women. Kashf Foundation and Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited will jointly meet the needs of at least a million such individuals in the next 5 years.” Click here to watch video |
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