Stories
Stories
Creating Common Ground in Communities of Conflict
Umaimah Mendhro (MBA 2009) was visiting her native village in Pakistan in 2007 when she got the idea to found the Dreamfly, a global initiative designed to educate, expose, and empower people living in communities of conflict.
“We connect dreamers everywhere in the world with champions who can help them realize that dream,” she says.
A volunteer network sustains the San Francisco–based organization, which has helped facilitate peaceful relations in India, Pakistan, Colombia, and Rwanda. In India, for example, the Dreamfly built a high school computer lab in a neighborhood with significant Hindu/Muslim conflict. Designed for each computer to be shared by two to three students, the children work with each other with minimal direction from a facilitator.
“The stories that have come back are incredible,” Mendhro says. “One of the Hindu children told us his new best friend was Mohammed and he had never spoken with him before. He said, ‘We are going to start a software company and build video games.’”
(Published May 2016)
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Re: Umaimah Mendhro (MBA 2009); Scott Spencer (MBA 2009); Amy Flikerski (MBA 2009); Nitin Nohria (Professor of Business Administration Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor (Leave of Absence)); Dutch Leonard (George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration); By: Jill Radsken
