Amyn Charania: Project Mansha

I was born in Myanmar (Burma) and my family migrated to Hyderabad, India. I completed my high school in India with a 96.2% average. I started studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo but then switched to Math Honors (would be declaring Math and Business) as my major. I worked at CIBC as a Technical Process Analyst and earlier at the Ontario Ministry of Education as a Service Facilitator.

My friend started Project Mansha and soon it became Mansha Foundation (a registered Canadian not-for-profit organization). The Board of Directors includes three of my friends. I have been its member since its initial stages. Mansha initially planned on working towards Education in the developing countries, especially India but since the Refugee Crisis was such an urgent issue, we decided to fundraise for it. We became official fundraisers for the UN Refugee Agency. We started a T-shirt campaign with the slogan “Unite Humanity Conquer Poverty”.

We also organized the largest social clothing drive in the Kitchener / Waterloo region in collaboration with “Mes Amis”/ “The Clothing Drive” from Toronto. Along with clothes and footwear, we also had hygiene products, food essentials, toys for kids, books, etc. During Ramadan, we organized a food basket drive where we prepared around 200 food baskets with Ramadan food essentials that were delivered to the refugees’ homes in Kitchener / Waterloo. I have had a diverse set of roles including: representing Mansha in multiple external events, planning and organizing the events aforementioned; along with various minor roles that are required in any small organization (considering at the moment, we are 9 people in total).

Amyn Charania – www.mansha.org