“We began getting a local chapter of Humanity First going here in the Naperville-Glen Ellyn-Aurora area about six months ago. We are currently working with faith-based organization and church leaders to establish a food pantry and work in a collaborative forum.”
Source/Credit: The Naperville Sun
By David Sharos | June 7, 2012
By day, Naperville resident Munum Naeem works in Chicago with United Airlines as the vice president of technical operations. But he spends much of his time outside work giving back to the community as executive director of Humanity First USA, an organization that offers human development and disaster relief.
Naeem, 53, has been leading the extension USA organization as its executive director since it was established here in 2004. A native of Pakistan, Naeem said moving to the United States years ago to receive an education and find work made him want to give something back to a larger theater of people throughout the world.
“I moved to New York to earn my aeronautical engineering degree, and often reflected on how blessed I was to be able to come to America, and it made me want to give something back to the community,” Naeem said. “When you see how some people suffer in the world, I realized if there was something I could do — even if it was just a little — it could make a whole lot of difference.”
One of Naeem’s recent activities was to take a trip to Haiti this past January where he visited a team on the ground there and discuss plans for future projects to help rebuild some of the communities. When disaster devastated Haiti in early 2010, Humanity First, which first registered as a charity in 1995, immediately sent out disaster response teams and provided medical relief and emergency supplies to victims. Since 2010, Dr. Clayton Bell, country director to Haiti, has established several successful Humanity First programs in Seguin, Haiti, including the Cloud Forest Medical Clinic where more than 12,000 patients were treated.
“Dr. Bell is doing an amazing job down there and is doing things the right way, which means spending the money that has been raised wisely and launching a grass roots effort that truly meets the needs of the people,” Naeem said. “It was truly a beautiful experience for me to see the differences being made there in people’s lives.
Here on the local front, Naeem said there are about 400 Chicago-area volunteers working with Humanity First, including about 40 to 50 from Naperville.
“We began getting a local chapter of Humanity First going here in the Naperville-Glen Ellyn-Aurora area about six months ago,” Naeem said. “We are currently working with faith-based organization and church leaders to establish a food pantry and work in a collaborative forum.”
Fateh Shams, marketing director for Humanity First, said that Naeem’s most outstanding asset is his “compassionate character.”
“I’ve known him for about eight years, and ever since I met him, he’s been very proactive about everything, and sometimes I wonder how he does it all,” Shams said. “He seems to work night and day. He’s always available when it comes to doing volunteer work, and he has this timelessness about him.
“Whenever there is a disaster, he’s the first person to ask who is on site there. He’s always organized and quick to make decisions.”
A year ago, Naeem’s job requirements with United Airlines forced him and his family, which includes his wife, two college-age children and a third child who attends high school at Waubonsie Valley High School, to move to Naperville. Naeem said he researched areas throughout Chicagoland and found what many others already know.
“Naperville is an award-winning community and a progressive town, and has been rated as one of the best places to live,” he said. “From my perspective, people who live here are fortunate and blessed, and realize why it’s important to help people in need and have the greatest potential to help.
“Our goal in establishing this chapter is to first help people here in Naperville because there are people suffering right under our noses, and then get engaged in social responsibility in a broader context.”
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Read original post here: Humanity First: 53-year-old leads by example
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