Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Dari and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

I want Afghanistan to be a peaceful country. We have wonderful hospitality in Afghanistan. We have good customs. We have a good culture. I have a dream for Afghanistan to have a good educational system, good health services and for all to live in peace in Afghanistan.

Welcome, gracious viewers, to another edition of Good People, Good Works. Today we are delighted to introduce Mr. Najaf Mazari, the altruistic Afghan founder of the compassionate Mazar Development Fund, a grassroots non-profit organization based in Melbourne, Australia.

The Fund, created in 2007, seeks to financially support those non-governmental organizations providing health services and educational opportunities to residents of Mr. Mazari’s hometown of Mazar-e-Sharif, the fourth largest city in Afghanistan. Mazar-e-Sharif is famous in the country for being the site of the revered Shrine of Hazrat Ali or the Blue Mosque which was built in the 15th century. Let us now meet the friendly Mr. Mazari who has lived in Australia since 2001.

I come from northern Afghanistan, the name of the city is Mazar-e-Sharif. It is very mountainous around it and I remember when I was child, there was about one meter and a half of snow in our village. Yes, there is a lot of snow and it’s very cold. We have four different seasons.

When I came here I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t have a family, I didn’t have a cousin here, nobody. And the first thing (I thought) is can I help myself or not? If I can help myself, then I can help my family. If I can help my family then I can help my people in Afghanistan. I did help my family financially and I sent the children for education and pushed them to study.

Due to a rich and diverse history, Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society. The majority of the population practices Islam, a faith of peace. The harmonious Afghan people share strong family bonds and enjoy close and supportive relationships with their relatives and neighbors.

In Afghanistan you know all your neighbors, your family, your friends. Every Friday we have a cup of tea together with friends and have some fun. It’s good to have neighbors, relations with the neighbors, because if you get sick, the first thing is that the neighbor can help you, if you have any trouble. If someone becomes your neighbor, we cook some food and go to the person’s house and say, "I'm your neighbor" and welcome them to this street.

Mr. Mazari belongs to one of the wonderful ethnic groups of Afghanistan called the Hazaras who have close relations with other peoples of the greater region.

Afghanistan borders the country called Uzbekistan. The people who live there are called Uzbeks. And we have Uzbeks in Afghanistan as well. The Uzbeks and my tribe, called the Hazaras, are almost the same, but different religion. And we have very good relations in northern Afghanistan, Uzbeks and Hazaras. Uzbek peoples are a very skilled people and they are a very hard working people.

Thanks to his loving family, when Najaf Mazari left home in 2000, his wife and his daughter Maria were taken care of very well.

My wife was with my family in Afghanistan and I was lucky enough to have my family over there - my mother and my brother. My sister is there, she was living with my family. Until I settled in a little bit my family took care of my wife. Because we have a custom in Afghanistan: if one is not with the family – like I was not there – then the rest of the family would support my wife.

As he was a rug weaver in Afghanistan, Najaf Mazari decided to open a rug store in 2002. He sells and restores beautiful traditional Afghan hand-knotted rugs  in Melbourne.

I kept working very hard from six o'clock in the morning until one o'clock at night to support the family and to support myself as well. I love to work hard and eat; it doesn't matter if it's just one piece of bread; it's still tasty for me because it's the money that comes from my hard work to buy the food.

I sent money for my wife and the rest of the family as well. Because I was the youngest person in the family, I have to provide more support for the rest of the family. I was supporting Maria and also my wife as well and I also was supporting my older brother. The other older brother, they have a child and I was sending money for education and the other family members’ children.

The farsighted Mr. Mazari values education tremendously and wishes his family’s children are all academically successful so that they may become good tools to help society in the future.

I push, really push very hard to send them for education, because I explained, "If you don't have education, you are like a blind [person]. If you want to do something for yourself or for the community, you have to have an education.” I said, “You're the future for the country. You're the child. You can do the best thing.”

When Good People, Good Works returns, we’ll learn about how the Mazar Development Fund is helping to transform lives in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

When I came Australia I said, “Okay now I did support my family and I did support myself, now I have to support the rest of the people who need really help.”

Welcome back to Good People, Good Works. Our program today features Mr. Najaf Mazari of Afghanistan who is the founder of the Mazar Development Fund which is based in Melbourne, Australia. The Fund seeks to uplift Mazar-e-Sharif, Mr. Mazari’s birth city by providing residents there with enhanced access to education and healthcare services. Currently Najaf Mazari owns a successful rug store in Melbourne which sells many splendid Afghan rugs. He has worked with rugs for much of his life.

Fortunately I have an older brother, and my older brother moved to the city. When they moved to the city, in the beginning they took me to the welding shop to learn welding. And I couldn’t learn welding because I don’t like welding to be honest with you.

And then I met my friend and he took me to the rug factory. At the rug factory, I loved this job, and I learned this trade for a long time. And fortunately, this skill helped me when I came to Australia, finding a job for me was easy.

Mr. Mazari has always desired the best for his people and tried to find ways to improve their lives.

I started thinking of people who cannot afford something. Especially now from Australia anyone who is going to Afghanistan, especially Mazar-e-Sharif, my city, I’m sending from here a lot of medicine, and I’m buying this medicine from a chemist in Australia.

Their lives have improved a lot fortunately, especially from the medicine I’m sending from here for pain, back pain, shoulder or leg pain. When I have last been to Afghanistan, a lot of people were praying and said, “This is wonderful medicine. It is very real medicine. Before I could not walk properly; now I can walk properly and the pain is almost gone when I use this medicine.” And they said to me, “Thanks for your support.”

In 2006, Najaf Mazari’s wife Hakeema and his daughter Maria came to stay in Australia. The following year, with the help of his friends, Mr. Mazari started the Mazar Development Fund to help his homeland.

I said, “What can I do for my village?” I spoke to one of my Australian friends, and I said, “We have a village in northern Afghanistan, it is in the high mountains, and they don’t have any healthcare or services there like ambulances and big hospitals, those things. And it is comprised of about 76 small villages all in an area called Charkent.

In most places, they’re using donkeys and horses which take 12 to 14 hours to reach the city. I especially feel bad not just for the injured people, I am thinking, “What happens to women who are pregnant and traveling with horses and donkeys to get to the city for the hospital.”

I spoke to my other Australian friend and then we came together to establish the Mazar Development Fund. We’re starting with an ambulance. Hopefully soon our first ambulance will be on the road and then after that we will also be supporting education as well.

Now around Australia we have more than a hundred members and the first ambulance will be ready and hopefully very soon be serving my village. Really this makes me very happy because with the ambulance, people will only take four hours to bring the patient to the city. It will be a free service and it is to help someone, to save their life.

In 2008, with the assistance of Melbourne-based writer Robert Hillman, Najaf Mazari co-authored the book “The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif,” an autobiography of his amazing life.

A lot of Australians said “Thank you for writing this book,” and “We didn’t know anything before because we were just hearing it in the news but what you mentioned about Afghanistan, now we know what is going on in Afghanistan thanks to you writing this book.”

Mr. Mazari now shares his heartfelt message for the people of his homeland.

Hallo, I thank my countrymen. I now live in Australia in Melbourne. I want to tell you one thing; when I arrived in Australia in 2001, I did not have anyone in Australia. I did hard work from 6 am to 11 pm. Today, thanks to God, here I have set up my own business, I have gotten a rug store... and it is a very nice country. In English, they call it “multi- cultural,” which means people from every part of the world have come here, from every religion, every tribe and live in peace and harmony. They are advanced people, educated people. Thanks.

We salute Najaf Mazari’s deep care for the people of Afghanistan and for his great determination to better the lives of the residents of Mazar-e-Sharif. May this wonderful city and the rest of Afghanistan enjoy ever brighter days ahead.

For more details on the Mazar Development Fund, please visit: www.MazarDevelopmentFund.org.au
“The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif” is available at www.Amazon.com

Kind-hearted viewers, thank you for joining us today on Good People, Good Works. Next up is The World Around Us, after Noteworthy News. May peace always be with the warm and loving Afghan people.

Roger Coley is a British veterinary surgeon who truly loves animals. He donates his time and medical supplies to care for sick and injured wild animals at the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary.

Well, basically what we do is any of the animals that come in to them that are injured, we deal with on a no-charge basis.

We get all the medication that we can use on site at the sanctuary. Whenever we need anything else, we can just give a ring and he’s there to help us.

Please watch “Shining World Compassion Award: Roger Coley – Veterinary Surgeon with a Heart of Gold,” Thursday, May 20, on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.