Orphans to Benefit from Charity Walkathon

Cupertino resident Aladdhin El-Bakri, took his son on a two-week trip last summer to Indonesia, where they stayed at the Noordeen orphanage.  

El-Bakri, a supporter of GiveLight, wanted to show his son, Beddiredeen, 10 at the time, how fortunate he was.

"It really opened his eyes," said El-Bakri about his son's experience, living and playing among about 35 orphans in the town of Takengon, about 150 miles outside of the tsunami devastated city of Banda Aceh. 

A husband and wife live on the site of the orphanage, and a cook prepares the meals. The children wash their own clothes and have a system where the older ones watch over the younger ones. It's a large extended family.

But the orphans surprised him, too, because they were happy, he said. 

"The biggest shock to me—you expect to feel sad," he said, "but these children teach you what happiness is. They're genuinely happy." 

The orphans attended public school in town, and during their play time, enjoyed soccer, swam in the lake, and picked flowers from the mountains, he said.

GiveLight Walkathon on Sunday, October 2

The orphanage in Indonesia is one of several supported by GiveLight, a volunteer-run nonprofit based in the South Bay which started in 2005.

On Sunday, October 2, GiveLight's second annual walkathon, a 5K and 10K event, is expected to draw about 500 participants, said race director Fariha Siddiqui, a resident of Milpitas. 

Registration goes from 7:45-8:45 a.m. at Sunnyvale's Baylands Park. 

The purpose is to raise money for orphanages supported by GiveLight in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Haiti, Indonesia and Somalia.

"We encourage [walkathon participants] to do their own fundraising," said Siddiqui, a volunteer. "They can set any donation amount they can easily raise."

A personal Web page can be set up by GiveLight to help with fundraising, she said.

But fundraising isn't the only way people can join the walkathon, she said. Another option is to pitch in $35 on race day for adults and $10 for kids.

Kids are welcome to participate on foot or in strollers, and there will be activities such as face painting and henna tattoos.

There will also be free T-shirts and lots of snacks.

Improving lives of orphans

A family in Cupertino donated land to build an orphanage in Bangladesh for girls, and that is just one example of the generosity that GiveLight sees.

The founder, Sunnyvale resident Dian Alyan, a former corporate marketing executive born in Indonesia, changed her life's focus after she lost about 40 people in the tsunami.

The first orphanage was built in a mountain town 150 km outside of the worst hit major city of Banda Aceh, about a year after the tsunami struck.

"I felt blessed my whole life, including in my career," she said. "But despite my success, I felt a fundamental thing was missing–a sense of purpose."

There was a boys' orphanage in Bangladesh that Alyan visited, but when she saw 300 boys sharing three bathrooms, she said, "let's build 10 bathrooms."

GiveLight also provides funding for an extra meal so that the boys eat three times a day, instead of two.

Her role has also given her the opportunity to experience motherhood in the grandest most possible way, she said.

On a trip abroad to the orphanage, watching her children play together with the others, "eventually I could not distinguish whose lives more precious," she said.

As the founder and director of GiveLight, she focuses her corporate marketing skills today on fundraising to support orphanages in several countries, with mostly Muslim populations. At a dinner fundraiser last year, her organization raised a quarter of a million dollars. It was during Ramadan, a time when Muslims heighten their contributions to charity.

"People want to be a part of success," she said. "People want to be part of a noble cause. Everyone has something good inside of them that they want to manifest." 

A new orphanage is in the works for Sri Lanka, and has local connections in the South Bay. A family in San Jose donated the land.