Sawayra’s Mission
Sawayra is a humanitarian, charity registered in the United States. It was founded in January 2016 as a non-profit corporation registered in Texas. In February 2016, it was registered as a 501c3 charity with the US Department of Treasury. Its mission is social uplift and improved quality of life in developing countries by focusing on basic necessities. The first country Sawayra started working in is Pakistan, one of the most populous countries in Asia. More recently, we started exploring rural projects in Kenya. The Sawayra model is very simple:
- The key areas we focus on are electricity, water and waste management, using local, sustainable solutions
- Our focus is at the grass-root level – single family homes, neighborhood and community organizations such as schools, hospitals and orphanages
- All the professionals who are part of Sawayra work on PlayFortuna a purely volunteer basis, and receive no financial compensation
- High ethical standard – volunteers are required to sign a conflict of interest clause to align with our humanitarian focus
- Financial transparency. Our financial records will be posted on our website for public viewing starting late 2017
- University interns are a key part of our organization. They investigate local problems, test and develop sustainable solutions
- Mentoring is a key part of Sawayra’s mission, so our interns develop a passion for public service and entrepreneurship
- The solutions developed by Sawayra are made available free of charge via the public domain with some stipulations to maximize adoption and uplift of local communities
- We raise money in the United States to facilitate testing, development and pilot projects, and encourage local players to take projects to the next level
- Strong focus on renewable energy – energy is the lifeblood of society and key to delivering healthcare, education, food supply, commerce and communication
In summary, instead of relying on large projects that require significant capital investments, infrastructure and centralized management, we take a bottoms-up approach grounded in local ownership, social entrepreneurship and civic pride at the household and community level. The focus on human capital development and self-help can also help break the cycle of illiteracy and corruption in developing countries.
Sawayra’s vision is to help communities develop local ecospace that bring together energy, water, food and waste recycling under a environmentally sustainable framework.
Organization Structure
As of September 2017, our team consists of fourteen professional volunteers, of which twelve are based in the US and two are based in Pakistan. In addition, we have nineteen students working as interns, and also attending full-time university courses. Our interns come from the University of Houston and NED Engineering University in Karachi.
Partnerships
Sawayra has signed agreements with the following organizations:
- Hunar Foundation
- NED Engineering University
The agreement with Hunar Foundation is tied to training their students who are working to become electricians to become familiar with solar technology, so they can install solar panels and related equipment, troubleshoot and repair. Our agreement with NED is geared towards doing doing project testing prior to Field deployment. NED also allow us a mechanism to communicate in the Karachi area on the work being done by the interns, and to facilitate adoption by local civic and private organization based on a level playing field.
Company Match Donations
We receive company match and donations from the following:
- Chevron
- BP
- Schlumberger
- AIG
- Amazon (through the Amazon Smiles Program)
Join Us
If you are excited about the work being done at Sawayra and want to participate in any fashion – your ideas, your time, financial contribution, organizational level partnerships etc., we would love to hear from you. Being a volunteer does entail 3-6 hours per week of time commitment and you need a passion to help people improve quality of life. For more details, please reach out to one of our officers:
- Maroof Ali Syed (VP Marketing) – maroof@sawayra.org
- Syed Fawad Raza (Company Secretary) – fawad@sawayra.org
All donations made in the United States are tax-deductible under or 501c3 status. And thank you for your interest in Sawayra!
