Foundation helped her, now she walks for them, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA, 21 September 2005 - "Even local celebrities such as Zarifmo Aslamshoyeva had run out of food as another harsh winter tightened its grip on the remote Badakhshan region of Tajikistan. It was December 1992. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and civil war had plunged the former Soviet republic into chaos, cutting off food supplies.... One night, as fat snowflakes fell, Aslamshoyeva was called to the television station to broadcast an announcement. The words were the most important of her career. A group called the Aga Khan Foundation USA had arrived with food. The people of Badakhshan wouldn't starve." (requires registration)

Aga-Khan Schools Celebrate Centenary, The Monitor, Uganda, 4 September 2005 - "This year marks 100 years of existence of the Aga Khan Schools in East Africa dating back to 1905, when the first school was built on Zanzibar Island. The schools have since promoted quality education to students and the communities where they hail."

L´Afrique de l´Ouest a reçu la visite de l´Aga Khan, TV5, France, 4 August 2005 - "Entretien avec son Altesse l´Aga Khan, chef spirituel des Ismailis (Interview with His Highness the Aga Khan in Bamako, Mali)". Edition du 04/08/05, 7 et 8.

Ancient European Music Meets Central Asian Masters, RFE/RL, Europe - "Artists trying to preserve Europe's ancient music traditions have gathered at the St. Chartier Festival in central France for the past 30 years. In July, their knowledge of ancient music was illuminated by Central Asian masters -- both performers and instrument makers -- who were guests of the festival."

Market in the Park, Cairo Magazine, Egypt, 28 July 2005 - "Crocodile, snake, lizard, cow and sheep hides have been used since prehistory for creating durable leather goods, but at the Darb Al Ahmar craft exhibition at Al Azhar Park you can see something new in the ancient art—fish-scale leather. This original local craft is just one of many small businesses that have received a boost from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). After building the park itself, the Aga Khan Foundation is now focusing on the economic development of the adjacent neighborhood."

Firm Helping Small-Scale Farmers Penetrate EU Markets, The Nation, Kenya, 21 July 2005 - "Margaret Wambui might not realise it, but the French beans she grows in her small parcel of land are in popular demand in some of the biggest supermarkets in Europe. And she is not alone. She is among 30,000 small-scale farmers, spread out across rural Kenya, whose produce is eventually stocked in supermarket shelves in Europe." (Link is to AllAfrica.com; article is also available after registration at The Nation.)

Aga Khan helicopters head for Asia, European Business Air News, UK, 14 July 2005 - "The Aga Khan Development Network has now taken delivery of all four AB139 helicopters for use in south and central Asia... The AB139s will operate in the remote and mountainous regions of south and central Asia to ferry personnel and materials for the construction of the three campuses of the University of Central Asia."

Best of Asia: Best Restored Treasure: Baltit Fort, Hunza Valley, Pakistan, Time Magazine, USA, 27 June 2005 - "Seven hundred years' worth of earthquakes, avalanches and neglect had turned it into a rubble-strewn heap, prompting the Mir to turn it over to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in 1989. The charitable foundation embarked on a restoration, which took six years and more than $3 million—and the results are stunning."

Hill forts restored in the Himalayas, The Times, UK, 13 June 2005 - "The enchantment of these forts is due not just to their majestic surroundings, with 12 of the world’s top 30 peaks. Here you can also see superb husbandry, with stone-walled terraces brimming with wheat and wild flowers. The Aga Khan Development Network is a remarkable enterprise, and this is one of the better thought-out aid initiatives. A new society is being fostered and, as the locals proudly point out, you do not see beggars here." (Use Search to locate.)

Bringer of hope and fine architecture, The ArtNewspaper, Italy, 9 May 2005 - "In a rare interview, His Highness the Aga Khan describes his global approach to helping Islamic communities help themselves, while also restoring their past heritage ."

Afghanistan's hospital midwives, BBC News, UK, 14 April 2005 - "The first class of 138 midwives graduated from a two year course funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the Aga Khan Development Network."

Greener pastures, Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt, 31 March 2005- "Spreading over a hill in the heart of Islamic Cairo, the new Al-Azhar Park offers 15 million Cairenes, as well as tourists, some much needed leisure and recreational space with magnificent views of historic Cairo's countless architectural treasures."

Aga Khan to expand microfinance, Financial Times, UK, 23 February 2005- "The creation of an agency aimed at expanding microfinance services in some of the world's poorest communities was announced yesterday by the Aga Khan development network with the support of the World Bank and donor governments. The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance will bring together the network's existing microfinance activities, now operating in 10 countries, and develop products relating to micro-insurance, small housing loans, savings accounts, education and health costs and small businesses."

46 Graduate in First Fete for Aga Khan Varsity, The Nation, Kenya, 7 December 2004 - "The Aga Khan University (Kenya campus) yesterday held its inaugural graduation ceremony, during which 46 students were awarded diplomas. At a simple but impressive ceremony at the institution's Nairobi grounds, it awarded five specialist diplomas in accident, emergency and disaster management (a one-year course), and 41 in Kenya registered community health nursing (which takes 18 months)."

Lavish ceremony celebrates visionary design, The Times, UK, 6 December 2004 - "The world of architecture overflows with awards, including the $100,000 American Pritzker Prize, the $200,000 Japanese Praemium Imperiale and Britain’s RIBA Gold Medal, which was founded in 1848. All are trumped in key ways by the Aga Khan’s triennial Awards for Architecture, which carries a bounty of $500,000 for projects that benefit Muslim communities."

Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2004, ArchitectureWeek, USA, 1 December 2004 - Made of mud, sand, stone, glass, and steel, scaled from tiny to immense, designed for living, working, learning, and worshipping, a select collection of projects reveals a "comprehensive approach adopted to discover, understand, and explain the challenges of architecture in the Muslim world as it confronts modernity in all its diversity."

Le trophée hors normes des murs d'islam, Libération, France, 30 December 2004 - "Le prix Aga-Khan pour l'architecture dans le monde musulman a été remis hier à sept lauréats. Fruit de trois ans d'enquêtes, il récompense autant des prouesses technologiques que des abris de fortune."

Monumental magic at Aga Khan Awards, Times of India, India, 28 November 2004 - "As the Humayun tomb glowed like a jewel, the 9th Aga Khan Architecture Awards were presented by the Aga Khan in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh."

Aga Khan Award for Architecture Goes to Turkey, Zaman, Turkey, 28 November 2004 - "One of the world's most respected architectural awards, the 9th.Aga Khan Foundation Awards for Architecture, went this year to the B2 House designed by Turkish architect Han Tumertekin for Bilsar Tekstil's owners Selman and Suha Bilal. In the contest, which aims to understand and evaluate Islamic culture through architecture, a jury of nine people including artists, philosophers, architects and city planners evaluated 378 projects from 44 countries."

Cairo Digs Into Its Past to Give Park-Starved Residents an Oasis, Los Angeles Times, USA, 28 November 2004 - "In an unusual initiative combining horticulture, community development and archeology, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has created a 74-acre park atop a 500-year-old garbage dump. The rare green space offers Cairenes what they have been missing: an oasis to call their own. Dubbed Cairo's "Central Park," Al Azhar Park has been an instant hit." (Requires subscription)

The Spirit Behind the Aga Khan Awards, Washington Post, USA, 27 November 2004 - "At a ceremony today in Delhi, India, the ninth triennial Aga Khan Awards for Architecture will be conferred on seven winners. With a payout of $500,000, it's the world's most lavish design prize. Winning entries combine design excellence with the humanistic spirit of Islam. Worthiness can trump glamour."

Reclaiming lost musical legacy, The Hindu, India, 25 November 2004 - "Bringing alive traditions that were drowned in the louder sounds of gunfire for years is a group of musicians like Homayun who are trying to reclaim their lost legacy. Helped by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the old "ustads" have finally been reunited and found students who are willing to carry the rich past to a future."

Old Cairo transformed by park project, BBC On-line, UK, 23 November 2004 - "Most urban areas have one - an area that is a sort of no-man's land where no-one lives and which becomes ever more rundown. The site lies on the edge of Cairo's medieval Islamic city In Cairo this was the case of the land adjoining the Darb al-Ahmar district. For almost a millennium assorted dust, debris and rubbish was piled up along the eastern rim of Cairo's medieval city walls.... But thanks to a $45m seven-year project by the Aga Khan Development Network, the dumping ground has been transformed into al-Azhar Park - North Africa's largest urban green space."

In a Decaying Cairo Quarter, a Vision of Green and Renewal, New York Times, USA - "Can thoughtful urban planning heal deep cultural wounds? That is the question raised by the new 74-acre Azhar Park, whose luxurious hilltop gardens are meant to spawn a revival of this city's old decaying Islamic quarter. Conceived 20 years ago by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a font of revitalization projects in the Muslim world, the project's aims could not be more noble. The park is the largest green space created in Cairo in over a century, reversing a trend in which unchecked development has virtually eradicated the city's once-famous parks. Built over a mountain of debris that had served as the city's garbage dump for centuries, it also replaces one of Cairo's most trenchant symbols of poverty and decay." (requires subscription)

Paradise is a garden, and Cairo now has its own, Daily Star, Lebanon, 21 September 2004 - "The 30-hectare park is a superb aesthetic achievement. Situated at a significant elevation adjacent to medieval Cairo, it provides stirring panoramas of centuries of Islamic grandeur, including the dense geometries and domed mausoleums of the City of the Dead. This cemetery, inhabited for generations by the poor, is revealed in all its poignant beauty, a vast and living memento mori skirting the edges of the city's heartland. The park and its several constructions (including a hilltop restaurant and a cafeteria beside a small lake) embody Islamic building and landscaping traditions to great effect. Scheduled to open in October, the park is already green, cool and inviting. By virtue of its presence, the surrounding neighborhoods have reacquired their prestige as generational communities and guardians of a rich legacy of Islamic architecture."

Ancient voices of the steppes, The Independent, UK, 20 September 2004 - "Abdurashidov has certainly been helped by the fact that Unesco has accorded shash maqam world-heritage status, but he's also supported by the Aga Khan, whose Central Asian "music initiative" funds both this academy and many others in the region. The Soviets may have done their best to obliterate national identity in the Stans, but they did encourage traditional musicians to meet and exchange ideas: in the post-1990 vacuum, those musicians found themselves cut off from both funding and fellowship, and the Aga Khan has moved to fill the gap, in the belief that music can help make these shattered nations whole again."

Yurts and yakkety yaks, The Observor, UK, 19 september 2004 - "The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has organised the first major European tour by Central Asian musicians. It arrives at the English National Opera in London on 1 October - one of the first times the venue has opened its doors to a non-operatic event."

'There's No Conflict Between Islam and Democracy', Deutsche Welle, Germany, 12 September 2004 - "In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the hereditary imam of Shiite Ismaili Muslims, argues that today's Middle Eastern terrorists are fueled by political motivations and not religion." Deutsche version.

Water into Wires, Green Futures, UK, August 2004 - "Over 180 micro-hydro plants have now been installed all across Chitral by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). This NGO works not only with Ismaili communities (for whom the Aga Khan is spiritual leader), but with Sunni Muslims too, as well as the Kalash people – non-Muslims living in three valleys just east of the Afghan border, who proudly claim to be descended from the armies of Alexander the Great, passing through en route to India…."

Living under the Crescent Moon at IVAM, ArtDaily.com, 12 June 2004 - "The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) is presenting the first major exhibition to make an in-depth exploration of domestic culture in the Arab world, both in the past and in the present...The exhibition is sponsored by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is a collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva and the Fondation Arabe pour l’Image in Beirut and is subsidised by the Berlin Cultural Fund."

Egypt gets its own 'central park', Christian Science Monitor, USA,27 May 2004 - "Cairo's new Al Azhar Park, which began construction in 1997, is designed to reflect the Islamic heritage of the area. At a cost of $30 million, the park includes a citrus orchard, rows of palm trees, and waterfalls. A long, marble walkway in an Islamic geometric pattern directs the eye to a splendid view of Cairo's Citadel and its Mohamed Ali Mosque on the facing hill. The park also includes a playground, sports fields, an amphitheater, and an Islamic restaurant.To create the park, which was a garbage dump for about 500 years and later a mountain of dirt, 80,000 truckloads of rubble and soil had to be removed. A nearly one-mile stretch of Cairo's 12th-century Ayyubid Wall was uncovered and is being restored..."

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If you have come across other mentions of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, please send an e-mail with the link to the page to: info@akdn.org