When I was 12 years old, my mother took me for a cab ride on a very rainy day. I asked her where she was taking me and she said, “You’ll see” and then remained silent. We drove for about half an hour, moving away from our plush surroundings in the Northern part of Tehran (Iran) towards the southern end of the city. Then the scene changed. Tall high rises and beautiful trees gave way to a massive shanty town put together randomly down in the valley below. An ocean of make-shift huts built with anything that could give shelter – cardboard, tarps, pieces of torn plastic, anything.  And invariably in front of each hut, there were women squatting as though waiting for a miracle to relieve them of their misery. There were little kids, babies to toddlers – half naked, with protruded bellies and big, curious eyes that looked through your soul to ask “why this?” We drove around for another half hour as though my mother wanted this scene to be etched on my heart. Then we turned around and returned home.

She really never said anything else, nor did I. No other words were needed. I had seen what she wanted me to remember for the rest of my life. This is how the idea of “Mona Foundation” was born.  Somewhere in the crevasses of my heart I made a promise to myself and to every face I saw that I would not forget. People often ask me why I do what I do and how I find time.  Well, this is really why - a promise I made to myself and to a few kids that I will not forget.

Years later I went to a social and economic development conference in Florida.  After visiting the humble booths set up by a couple of schools in Haiti and Panama, I decided that it was time. I asked a couple of friends if they wanted to join me. They did, and we blueprinted Mona Foundation on the back of a napkin at a lunch table.  A few months later on April 21, 1999 Mona was formed, now touching about 40,000 children and their families in over 10 countries.

The mission of Mona Foundation is really very simple.  We help people help themselves.  We support grassroots educational initiatives that build capacity so that each person can become an agent of change in the social and economic development of their own community and their own nation.  Then Mona partners with these projects for the long run to help them build what best suits their development.

Our vision is lofty.  Ultimately, our purpose is to build a better world - one child at the time and one school at the time - so that in the end we live in a place where no child goes to bed hungry, and no child dies because of diarrhea, and no child is deprived of gift of education.

I have no doubt that we will get there someday.