UPDATE: DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, HONORABLE EKLIL HAKIMI WILL BE UNABLE TO JOIN US TONIGHT. We will be going on with the event with Khris Nedam, who has much to share with her experiences in Afghanistan and as the director of Kids4AfghanKids.
[PRESS RELEASE] After Historic Election, Afghanistan Ambassador, Educator Speak at New College
Just two days after Afghanistan’s historic presidential election, the country’s ambassador to the United States, Hon. Eklil Hakimi, and Khris Nedam, director of U.S.-based charity Kids4AfghanKids, will travel to Sarasota to share their vision of “America and Afghanistan as Partners for Peace,” in a program sponsored by the Sarasota World Affairs Council.
The program will be at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 7, at the Sudakoff Center on the Pei campus of New College, 5845 General Dougher Place. The lecture is free for SWAC members and all teachers and students. Admission is $25 for non-members. Seating is limited and reservations are recommended; call 487-4603 or email info@sarasotawac.org.
A reception with the speakers for SWAC members will follow from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at College Hall on the New College bayfront. Information about membership can be found at www.sarasotawac.org.
Eklil Hakimi was appointed ambassador to the United States in 2011, after positions as the country’s ambassador to China and Japan. He has held various policy-making positions in the Afghan government. He also has studied in the United States and worked in the electronics industry. Ambassador Hakimi has a master’s degree in engineering and speaks six languages, including fluent English.
Khris Nedam is an educator who has lived, worked, and traveled throughout Afghanistan for the past 30 years. She is founder and director of Kids4AfghanKids, a program in which Michigan school children reached out to children in an Afghan school. The American school community raised enough money to build a co-educational school in Afghanistan that now includes elementary, junior high and high schools, as well as a medical clinic and an orphanage.
The Sarasota World Affairs Council, or SWAC, is a member of the largest non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization in the United States dedicated to educating and engaging U.S. residents on global issues. It joins nearly 100 councils across 40 states that reach more than half a million people yearly. SWAC is hosted by the New College Foundation and is a 501(c)3 organization.