Dear Friends of the GiveLight Family,
I pray that this message finds you and yours well. 2020 was a year defined by uncertainty. None of us could have predicted the challenges we all had to face. Despite this, we continued to witness God’s blessings pouring in for our children through your generosity.
Here are a few highlights:
1) We had to cancel many events, including a sold-out benefit dinner in Sacramento, a talk at Intel HQ for 140 employees, and we were unable to hold events during Ramadan. We produced a short video that showed our work and impact around the world, and to our pleasant surprise, we collected the most funds ever within one month.
2) Twenty-one summer interns helped us with our website, design, video editing, and social media. After the summer, eight interns continue to volunteer, allowing us to benefit from their talents, including editing our new “Light Up the World” video series which showcases our diverse and growing GiveLight Global Community.
3) We held Global Quran competitions for our children in May for reading and September for memorization. First-place winners were from Indonesia, second place from Bangladesh, and third place from Morocco. We are so proud of their accomplishments and plan to continue this next year.
4) We received two grants from a generous foundation based in the Middle East, which will cover expenses for two homes for a year.
5) We conducted our first Global Speech competition and the winners were Summer Qureshi (New Jersey), Zaid Siddiqui (Southern California), and Simra Mirza (Southern California). Congratulations to them and a big thank you to the judges and our sponsor, Desert Moon Foundation.
6) We experimented with online auctions and had great success in “selling” paintings, Knafeh, cakes, and a beautiful charcuterie board.
7) We now have more than 60 companies supporting our work via Corporate Matching. New additions include Twitter, Goldman Sachs, Pepsi, and 3M.
8) GiveLight was chosen by Salesforce as its global partner via the employee-based organization called Faithforce. We had a kick-off session in November and will pursue different ways where employees can make a direct impact via mentorship, scholarship, and eventually a visit to teach at our homes post-Covid.
9) We launched a new program, Project Inspire, where our talented and loving mentors have been tutoring our GiveLight children via Zoom. The children are receiving supplemental education in math and English, Quran reading, and the arts.
We are so grateful to all of you for making GiveLight a continued success story during these trying times. May we learn from these lessons in 2020 and grow our impact even stronger in the years to come, by His grace and your continued trust.
Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and healthy holiday season and New Year.
With gratitude and prayers,
Dian and The GiveLight Family
