April 15, 2015 ALLAN JENKINS Sauder School of Business: When Naeem Mawji, M.Eng 2015, and founder of Jamii Power, talks about bringing sustainable, profitable electricity to rural Tanzania, you hear the words not of a dreamer, but those of a problem solver.
His message has resonated with audiences at last year’s UBC President’s Installation Panel Discussion, “Generation Empowered,” and five years ago at TEDxTerryTalks 2010.
“We are not doing this because we are doing something good. We are doing this because we think we can. It’s a massive challenge. We want to be the ones to resolve it, and we believe we are the ones who can resolve it.”
Mawji grew up the son of a civil engineer in Tanzania. He and his younger brother, Aleem (co-founder of Jamii and now a UBC mechanical engineering student), spent their school breaks in rural villages with their father, Anil, a builder of schools, community centre and dams.“
Unlike people from cities, we spent a lot of our childhood in the villages. We speak Swahili and could absorb the culture. That’s how we were exposed to the challenges these communities face.“
And, coming from a family of entrepreneurs, we saw opportunities in these areas, and saw ways to open up possibilities,” says Mawji.
Mawji was also inspired by his Ismaili faith, and particularly the words of the Aga Khan, who urges the fortunate to touch the less fortunate “with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination.”
Earlier related:
TEDxTerryTalks 2010 – Naeem Mawji – Power to the People: Bringing electricity to rural Tanzania - This talk is about an innovative approach to providing conventional grid-based 230V AC electricity to… |
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Naeem Mawji: Lighting a nation, one village at a time – The Ismaili - For years, village representative Kiboko waited desperately for electricity to reach Masurura, in northeastern Tanzania.… |
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Naeem Mawji: Let there be light | UBC Public Affairs - Naeem Mawji knew that many of his fellow Tanzanians did not have access to electricity.… |
Ismailimail 
naeem mawji should get involved wth the tremendous hydroelectric electricity generation program that akdn is plananing for the KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA for the northen areas of pakistan where the mini dams series is expected to generate 400,000 mw of electricity this would be an efficient fusion of energies
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