For awhile I was the only one at Table #9. I enjoy arriving early to conferences to get a good feel of the room, but my colleagues are quick to claim my timeliness owes more to the breakfast buffet. Both are true.

I was attending the Population-Level Behavior Change Evidence Summit, which had been organized in response to last year’s Child Survival Call to Action and sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The ultimate objective of this summit was “to provide expert review of the evidence on effective and sustainable practices and policies to achieve population-level social and behavior change for child survival and development.” Basically, the goal is to apply evidence-based best practices in programs that will effectively reduce preventable child deaths and ensure healthy child development in low- and middle-income countries.

I’ve participated in and represented the Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA) at several such global health conferences in Washington, DC since starting my fellowship last summer. With a Master of Public Health degree, I’ve focused on learning and contributing towards AKF USA’s impressive health portfolio. We’re working to achieve sustainable improvements in the health status of vulnerable groups – especially geographically remote populations, women, and children under five – by working to establish basic health services and improved policies and health financing systems.

While waiting for the Evidence Summit to begin, I saw a woman across the room swiftly walking over. Taking a chair next to me, she glanced at my nametag and exclaimed, “The Aga Khan Foundation! You do some amazing work in the world.” She then eagerly asked, “What is AKF doing now?”

This is a wonderful question, one that I’ve been known to answer with much enthusiasm. However, having been with AKF USA for almost a year now, it has become ever more challenging to capture all our “amazing work” in a single conversation.

My table, now full of people listening intently, was excited to learn about the new $60 million partnership with USAID for long-term, community-based social development in Afghanistan utilizing an innovative multi-input area development (MIAD) approach. Within health, I mentioned the USAID-funded Chitral Child Survival Program (CCSP) in northern Pakistan, which trains and accredits community health workers at the grassroots level to provide quality healthcare to women during and after pregnancy and enhances community participation to decrease maternal and infant mortality rates. This launched a group discussion on each organization’s individual work in other sectors including agriculture, access to finance, early childhood education, disaster mitigation, and various civil society projects.
My experiences seemed puny beside the decades of experiences of my table mates. They told harrowing stories of setting up makeshift health clinics after the earthquake in Haiti and working with expectant mothers in the dead of winter in Siberia. Still, to contribute to the wonderful discussion, I described my time working as a Research Analyst with theAga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and shared my favorite story of the world-famous yurt kindergartens. The program even caught the attention of the World Challenge, a global competition sponsored by BBC World, Newsweek and Shell “aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level.”

I’ve genuinely enjoyed every minute of my time here at AKF USA, but I’m very excited for the next part of my journey which will hopefully take me to the field. Ever since returning from the year-long assignment with the AKDN in Kyrgyzstan a few years ago, I’ve only thought about (and incessantly talked about as my family and friends will quickly attest) going back to Central Asia, working again with some extraordinary minds, and being around such wonderful people. I’d like to help build on the examples of resiliency I saw there.

Having grown up familiar with the remarkable work of AKDN and actively advocating for poverty eradication in my community, I realized early that the problems of the world are deep and complex. I am therefore committed to seek out real, lasting solutions that improve quality of life for the marginalized so they feel empowered to achieve prosperity. So, as Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, “Our job is to put ourselves out of business.”

For those privileged few who have seen it up close, there is a plaque on President Obama’s desk that reads, “Hard things are hard.” I know they are, but I’m ready for ‘em.

By Sophia Assani, Professional Development Fellow at the Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A.