Sooraya & Tabitha | A Chat About Charity

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Tabitha seeks out Sooraya so she can get more involved.



Tabitha arrived around the time Angelo said Sooraya would be there.

She tried to make it right in the middle so she wouldn't miss the
other woman. She poked her head in cautiously and was pleased to spot
Sooraya. "Hey! Angelo said you'd be here. I wanted to talk to you."

Sooraya looked up from the applications she was studying and a smile
appeared when she saw who was stopping by. "Hey Tabitha. Come in.
Anything I can do for you?"

Tabs moved fully into the room. "At the risk of sounding like an
overzealous salesman, I was hoping I could do something for
you." She tried not to look like a desperate puppy. "I heard
you had a nifty project going and I wanted to help."

Stiffing a giggle, Sooraya propped her head on her fist. "I am not
quite sure about which project you are talking about..." She replied a
little playfully. "Or do you happen to mean Malala's Rose?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yup. Bossman told me a little about it.
You're doing an amazing thing."

"Just doing what I can. It's nothing much." Sooraya replied modestly.
"Have a seat. You said you wanted to help... did you have any
particular in mind you would like to do?"

She bit her lip. "I'm not really sure? I've just got to get out of my
rut. I've hardly left the library in over a year." Not even to sleep,
some nights.

"Hmm." Sooraya considered that for a bit, fiddling idly with a loose
end of her hijab. "Why don't I tell you a little more about where we
are with the project? That might give you something of an idea where
you might be able to help." She considered for a bit before pulling
out a map. "I don't know if you heard we have selected a location a
little while ago. It's some distance away form Herat, around here."
Briefly she pointed out the location. "Currently two things are mostly
underway. The first is in Afghanistan self, namely checking what needs
to be done on the property and arranging things with the local
authorities. Second is investigating possible staff. A director who
will head up things there is first on the list, but we are looking for
other staff as well."

Tabs studied the map, trying to remember the last time she was there.
"We had quite a lot of contacts when we were there a few years ago.
Would any of them be able to help?"

"I have some of their contact information in my files, but they were
active in quite a different region of the country." Sooraya pointed
out the area where she had visited the madrassa and found her mother.
"I am not sure if they want to move. I suspect we might end staffing
the shelter with a mixture of foreign NGO people and local staff at
least until the local staff has developed the necessary expertise to
deal with the girl's unique needs. Besides the director, I have been
focusing on which specialized staff we would need."

"A combination would work if we can't find people with ALL the skills
needed," she mused. "As long as they're not assholes."

"No assholes I cannot guarantee, but a thorough background check is
part of the application process. I want to avoid people like in the
madrassa I visited to gain employ in the shelter and possibly recruit
them." Sooraya explained a little more.

"Thought about asking one of the teleporters for transportation during
the interview process? Could keep that personal touch, and save some
money."

"It is to keep a good thing in mind when we are getting to the actual
interview process. But first we need to have people to interview."
Sooraya paused for a moment and she tilted her head as an idea
occurred to her. "As a librarian... would you say do research is your
specialty? Or one of them?"

Tabs nodded. "I am pretty good at research," she admitted. "And
compulsive organization by whatever category may arise."

"Research and organizing." Sooraya contemplated. "If there is a
profile for a function, like the necessary education, experience and
language proficiency, would you be able to find people who match
those?"

Her fingers itched for a notebook to write things down. She nodded. "I
can totally scour data bases like Plugged In and Career Architect. We
might consider advertisements. But word of mouth is excellent too."

Sooraya scribbled down a few notes for herself on the various options.
"I have been doing some research myself on where we can find suitable
people and I have been gathering some notes, but they are nowhere near
coherent." She pulled over a file and handed it to Tabitha."Okay,
let's think ideal scenario here for a moment... Do you think you can
take those notes and expand it towards a database with people with
qualifications in the area of..." She pulled over another piece of
paper and quickly consulted it: "... education, counseling and the
medical field and experience with working with mutants in NGO setting?
Familiarity with this area of the world and knowledge of Dari and/or
Pashto is important to."

"We could make up a database. I'm sure Doug could tweak the one he
made for the library digital card catalog. It's not THAT much
different." Tabitha struggled not to bounce like a giddy school girl.
This was going to be so much FUN.

Smiling and shaking her head at the restrained enthusiasm of the
blonde woman sitting across her, Sooraya pulled over yet another file.
"Here, this contains an complete overview of the current status and
plans for Malala's Rose. If you think of any other useful personnel to
be added to the database, I give you free reign. I just like to have a
large a pool as possible with people who have useful knowledge. Even
if only to serve as consultants."

Tabs paged through it with Sooraya. "We can set up a screen to look
like a spread-sheet, but also make it searchable. Like those sperm
bank registries. Ticky boxes."

"As long as it's searchable and one gets the highlights without too
much clicking, I am giving you free reign in how you want to format
things. We can stay in touch about which things one should be able to
search, since we probably both will think of other things to add
later."

Tabitha nodded. "I'm going to give Doug a call then. Get back to you
when we have something up and running?"

"That is fine." Sooraya gave a quick nod and smiled. "Thanks for
helping me with this, Tabitha. It should make my job a lot easier. "