My name is Ikram (Ike) Naqvi and I have been living in Australia since 1960 since leaving Amroha to study geology. Since retiring from geology (and, later, charity fund-raising), I have been fortunate to travel extensively through Europe and North America. During this period, I met many friends and relatives for the first time in decades and was struck by the level of achievement of a surprisingly large number of people living overseas that have their origins in our small home town of Amroha.


It has been amazing and inspiring to hear of the stories of my long-lost (if not forgotten!) childhood friends and of their children and grandchildren. Hearing of these many achievements and regaining contact with many friends and relatives after such a long time made me much more appreciative of what a special community I am from. A thought began to grow that this type of contact should be fostered and this special community spirit and talent could be harnessed to produce something remarkably positive.

Amazingly, the exact same views were being espoused by many of the people that I met. Since then, I have had many further discussions with a range of people of various ages, religions and backgrounds, about what could or should be done - this process still continue. However, it is time to make a start and we shall develop over time. Hence, I have formed a secular organisation called "Amroha International Society" and it has three main purposes:

i) Improve contact and communication amongst those with origins in Amroha, living outside the Indian sub-continent;

ii) Highlight role models and develop an international network to assist and advise younger members of the community; and

iii) Provide a mechanism by which charitable (educational / health) activities can be funded, carried out and monitored.

This society shall be run electronically, by email and by a dedicated website: http://www.amrohainternationalsociety.com

We hope to ensure that we build a platform that is flexible and open to all Amrohvis living overseas. This is a non-commercial exercise and we expect all participants to use any information contained for social purposes only. We urge you to register on the site and to send us your ideas and suggestions for our the website can be developed so that it can help to foster a positive spirit amongst our special community.

Yours sincerely,

---Ikram Naqvi (Hobart, Australia)

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