Sunday Times 2
US public service award for Fazana
View(s):Fazana Saleem-Ismail was one of seven Capital District residents, based in the New York state capital of Albany, to be bestowed with the 2015 Jefferson Award for Public Service.
Fazana Saleem-Ismail (Courtesy Facebook)
She was the recipient of this prestigious award because of her work on a project
she founded in May of 2011 called Jazzy Sun Birthdays.
The project hosts personalised birthday parties for children living in homeless shelters and includes decorations, balloons, arts and crafts, face painting, games, pizza, juice, themed cakes and gifts for the birthday children, and goody bags for the guests.
To date, she has helped celebrate the birthdays of well over 110 children ranging in ages from 1 to 16. The project is run entirely with the help of volunteers and donors of funds/products. Fazana has worked with about 300 volunteers who have contributed to the project in various ways.
She is a working mother of two children, Sanari (10) and Jaazib (5), who are the inspiration behind the project and whose nicknames she used in its name.
Fazana is a research scientist/evaluator who works for the Professional Development Programme of the Research Foundation of State University of New York (SUNY0.
She has had volunteers from all walks of life and all ages: Girl Scout troops, groups of elementary school teachers, college students, church youth groups, Junior League groups, families, mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, etc.
Last week, she was officially presented with a Jefferson Award for Public Service medal at an Awards Dinner attended by about 100 people.
Celebrating with her were her parents, Dr. Fawzy Saleem and Mrs. Loulou Thassim Saleem; her brother, Afsaan Saleem; her husband, Jiffry Ismail; and her children, Sanari and Jaazib Ismail.