The Shin Fujiyama Podcast | Social Entrepreneurship | Nonprofit Organizations | International Development Aid | NGOs

Razia Jan worked as a tailor and dry cleaner before starting Razia's Ray of Hope Foundation in 2008, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in Afghanistan through education. She operates the Zabuli Education Center, a school that she founded in rural Afghanistan that provides a free education to 625 girls. 

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Show Notes for Razia Jan

• Razia was a single mother when she started her own tailoring and dry cleaning shop
• Even as a tailor, Razia was involved in community volunteering
• Razia was the only Afghani in her entire town during 9/11
• After 9/11, Razia sent blankets and quilts to the Ground Zero rescue mission
• Razia sent care packages and 30,000 shoes to the US Army during the war in Afghanistan
• Razia returned to Afghanistan after 9/11, 38 years after she had moved to the US.
• During that visit, she could not find her old home as everything had been destroyed
• When Razia opened the Zabuli Education Center, they started with just 100 girls
• The students at the Zabuli Education Center learn both Arabic and English
• When Razia Jan joined the local Rotary Club, she was the only woman, and the only Muslim
• She simply tried to blend in at the Rotary Club and eventually became the President
• “Service Above Self” -Rotary International
• Razia has been a part of Rotary International for 20 years
• “You can’t do things on your own.”
• All the houses in the village are mud houses and the roads are unpaved.
• There are no trees in the village
• Drought has affected Razia’s village where many families depend on their grape orchards to make a living
• Razia Jan lived in Afghanistan for eight years (2007-2015) so she could be present 24/7 at the project
• In 1920, the king of Afghanistan had built a boy’s school that was later destroyed. It was on that land that Razia Jan began building the Zabuli Education Center for girls
• The land, by then a garbage dump, was given to Razia by the Ministry of Education
• The community wanted a boys school at first, and not a girls ...

During his senior year at the University of Kentucky, Jacob Dietz made it his mission to raise $25,000 for Students Helping Honduras. He and his classmates wanted to build a school in La Lima, Honduras, where 400 children lacked a middle school building.

Jacob asked himself: “Do I have the ability and time and self-discipline to do this?” It all seemed daunting. The previous year, they had raised $11,000—less than half of what they hoped to raise this year.

He called up his SHH chapter at the university for a meeting. For him, the group was “a team in the utmost sense.” They studied and discussed how other chapters had succeeded in different cities. A few days later, they decided on an event that had been carried out in New York and Maryland. They were going to organize a gala to raise $25,000 in one night. It would be called Brick By Brick, Kentucky.

Jessica Schilling, a fellow student at Kentucky, worked alongside Jacob as the co-organizer. The two had gone to school together since kindergarten. But for Jacob, he would have never imagined such a partnership with Jess. In fact, he never talked to her when they were kids. “Jess was always the smartest student in the grade. I failed 4th grade math,” he said. A shared mission turned them into an unstoppable duo.

The two of them spent hours handwriting invitation letters. They drove around endlessly, talking to businesses to find sponsors. They faced one rejection after another. They created videos for social media but they kept stumbling over their words in front of the camera. When things felt overwhelming, Jacob closed his eyes and imagined the night of the event where all his friends would be there. His parents who planned on missing work to be there. His brother Josh who had tirelessly helped him that semester.

When they paid the down payment to reserve the venue, they knew there was no turning back. One challenge after another awaited Jacob and his team. Guests waited until the last minute to register. They found typos in the posters they had printed at Staples. A video Jacob had spent hours on crashed on the morning of the event. He had to decide, “Do I put the work back in? Or do I scrap it?”

Did Jacob and his team prevail? Find out how the night unfolded by listening to this unbelievable podcast episode.

Social entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski was arrested in Detroit at the age of 18 and faced a long jail sentence. Instead, he received a second chance and was sentenced to just one year in probation. That was when he decided to turn his life around. He finished high school and went to a culinary institute where he peeled carrots. His relentless work ethic found him restaurant jobs in New York City, Chicago, and then Paris. It was there that he began telling himself to "quit screwing around, quit making excuses, quit overthinking things. Just do it.” In Paris, Brandon realized that "hard work doesn't have a language."

Yet becoming a successful chef was not enough for Brandon Chrostowski. He thought to himself, “I’ve got to do something even bigger with my life. It may take a long time, but I’m going to start today.” His dream was to give a second chance to ex-convicts. During his time off from his 80hr/week restaurant work, Brandon began teaching culinary skills in a local prison. He spent $2,000 of his life savings to buy all the equipment.

As his project grew, he built Edwin's Restaurant and Leadership Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. Not only is it a top rated restaurant, the staff who work at Edwin's Restaurant are ex-convicts who receive training and housing. Brandon attributes the success to his work ethic and trust in his instincts: “People think you have to rest one day. You don’t have to. You can work on a project. You can work 100 hours per week. You just do that seven days a week. When you hit it like this for a decade, things start to happen. You really chip away at what needs to get done and built.”

Brandon was recently named a CNN Hero.

Show Links for Brandon Chrostowski

Show Notes for Brandon Chrostowski

Brandon Chrostowski began working in the restaurant industry in Detroit before he was 18

Brandon Chrostowski got arrested at age 18 and faced a 5-10 year jail sentence. Instead, he received a second chance and was sentenced to just one year in probation.

He was a high energy child who loved to push the limits

He started working in the restaurant industry in New York, Paris, and Chicago

Back in Detroit, friends were getting killed or going to jail

The idea of race was a big issue for Brandon

“I’ve got to do something bigger with my life. It may take a long time, but I’m going to start today.”

When Brandon started Edwin’s Restaurant, he was still paying off school loans

“You can work 100 hours per week.”

Edwin’s schedule when starting Edwin’s Restaurant: 8am-10am Edwin’s Restaurant, 10am-midnight work at a restaurant, midnight-2am Edwin’s Restaurant

“You just do that seven days a week.”

“People think you have to rest one day. You don’t have to. You can work on a project.”

Brandon works from 8am until 1am six days a week currently, and 10-12 hours on a Sunday

“When you hit it like this for a decade, things start to happen. You really chip away at what needs to get done and built.”

Brandon had to figure out how to start and run a nonprofit organization

While Brandon worked as a full-time chef, he started small, by teaching culinary skills in prison. That’s how he started

A documentary about Edwin’s Restaurant will be coming out in early 2017, with 4 years of footage

“Nobody’s going to invest in you if you don’t invest in yourself.”

Brandon invested $1,000-$2,000 to purchase the startup equipment like knives

Small family foundations began supporting Brandon

One in three people have been involved with the justice system ...