Operation Kashmir: Muslim Youth Respond to Disaster

Episode 34: An Interview with Taki Zaidi and Zain Ali

Host: Jihad F. Saleh

Length: 32:13

Recorded on March 13, 2007 in Washington, DC

Click the image of the audio sign to play.

Synopsis: Both Taki Zaidi and Zain Ali traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan and Muzaffarabad, Kashmir in the winter of 2005-06 as members of Youth Medics International - a youth group of Imamia Medics International. The work was dedicated to providing relief aid to the victims of the October 8, 2005 earthquake, and focused on health care in refugee camps and orphanages. They discuss the successes and struggles of their humanitarian work in a Kashmir relief camp. Valuable advice is provided to Muslim youth and young professionals who desire starting or working in a humanitarian NGO. 

Bio: Taki Zaidi, Director of Youth Medics International, is a native of New Jersey. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Montclair State University with a B.S. in Physics and completed graduate work in Rutgers/UMDNJ. His previous humanitarian work includes teaching HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in high schools and universities in Hyderabad, India in the summer of 2003. In August of 2007 Taki will be entering an MD/Ph.D. program and looks forward to seeing the work of Youth Medics International carried on by other motivated youth.

Bio: Zain Ali is a native of New Jersey. He is currently finishing his last year of undergraduate studies at Rutgers University where he majors in Economics and Middle Eastern Studies. He founded an award-winning chapter of Oxfam America at Rutgers University which increases peoples awareness and activism on issues such a Sudan, the Millennium Development Goals, and the ONE campaign. He started a blog and a university-sponsored research project into the socio-economic situation of the Kashmiri people of Pakistan.