Asif-Aly Penwala has global outlook

karen herland

Asif-Aly Penwala is off to Malawi this summer with the World University Service of Canada’s new Students Without Borders program.

Penwala will put his JMSB Finance education to work as assistant financial manager for a local group working with disadvantaged communities.

“International experience is so important,” Penwala said. He has already traveled to the south of France through Concordia’s study abroad program.

Penwala won’t be leaving until July, because he’s setting up a June summer camp for adolescents in his Shia Ismaili Muslim community. “We help with their religious education by doing more than sitting in room preaching and teaching,” he said, describing the theatre project they have in mind.

As youth leader for his community he has planned various meetings and events. The camp offers a different experience.

“It was a chance to put my business education into practice,” Penwala said. He estimated that he has devoted four or five hours a day to managing the budget, reporting to the Board, putting together a team to staff the camp and planning security for the site.

Penwala will return from Africa in time for a ceremony where he will receive the Governor General’s Medal of Bravery. He and Téodor Hulbar, a total stranger, successfully fought off a group of armed assailants who attacked Penwala’s mother outside of his family’s downtown currency exchange business.

Hulbar suffered a gunshot wound in the melée, but both he and Penwala’s mother survived the ordeal.

Penwala is thinking about returning to school. His volunteer experience has led him to consider education studies.

“Even within the business world, you need people who can teach and write well.” He is also interested in the potential for micro-credit communities, and hopes to more about such projects while in Malawi.