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Bliss Blog
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Founding Team |
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Saba Gul is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of BLISS, and a recent alumnus of MIT, from where she holds BS and MS degrees. She has a passion for social innovation, female education and entrepreneurship. Saba was an MIT Public Service fellow in Sri Lanka, where she worked on low-cost solar lighting for post-Tsunami refugees. She has also conducted workshops on entrepreneurship at universities in Africa. She sits on the board of the MIT Club of Minnesota, and volunteers her time for the Association for the Development of Pakistan.Saba was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan.
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Eleni Orphanides is a Co-Founder of BLISS, with a special interest in development economics and human rights. She is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Davis Peace Prize for which she implemented her project in Cyprus. Eleni holds a BS in Economics from MIT. She is currently working at Amnesty International.
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Pakistan Team |
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Sana Kazmi studied computer science at MIT and recently moved back to Karachi to work in education development. She is passionate about universal education, women's empowerment, good design and cute handbags, and is excited to be part of an initiative that involves all four.
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Maryam Tahir Khan is a graduate of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan where she majored in painting. She comes from a family of artists and philanthropists, and has taught at the Beaconhouse National University. Her work has been exhibited at the Alhamra Art Gallery and the Hamil Gallery, to name a few. She is the main designer for BLISS products.
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Sumera Sahar is Country Coordinator of Barakat in Pakistan, and is our main advisor and partner in implementing BLISS at the Barakat Schools. She grew up in Attock, Pakistan.
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Abdul Rehman has been BLISS' main community liaison since its inception. He is now also Project Manager of our program in Attock. He is a Turkmen and has worked with Barakat for over a decade now.
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Advisory Board |
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Dr. Ishrat Husain is the Dean and Director of the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. He has served as Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, and was responsible for its policies in areas as Poverty Reduction, Gender Relations and Dynamics, NGOs, and Reform within the Public Sector. He heads the National Commission for Government Reform. Dr. Husain has also served as Chief Economist for Africa and later, Chief Economist of the World Bank for the East Asian and Pacific region. Dr. Husain holds a Masters degree in Development Economics from Williams College and a Ph.D in Economics from Boston University.
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Arti Pandey is Program Director of Barakat, a non-profit that targets marginalized populations in South Asia and that runs the schools BLISS has chosen for its pilot project. She is an alumnus of Boston University where she did her PhD dissertation on child labor practices in the Indian carpet industry. Arti has worked with the Turkmen community for many years and has been instrumental in advising us on doing the same.
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