Meet Norin Yasin Chaudhry — Saving 9’s Head of US Operations
We always assume that a leader is born and not made. The other side can also be true, a leader is made and not born. However we want to perceive, we all have knacks for leaderships. It takes a combination of supportive environment, passion and determination to rise above, to recognize one’s talents and to do the unthinkable with our busy lives.
How did rising to Head of Saving 9’s US Operations began for Norin?
In 2011, Norin joined LUMS Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to become a Medical First Responder (MFR) under the mentorship of Usama Javed Mirza, Umar Farooq and Saba Abbas. She later went on to join the Training Department of EMS as Assistant Director out of her deep love for teaching and helping the fellow LUMS community to build the next batch of MFRs. She progressed through to become the Director of Training and eventually the President of EMS. During her last year at LUMS, she along with her team used to discuss about a community development program that would focus on devising first aid workshops for common people outside of LUMS. In US, LUMS alumni came together to pitch their ideas in New York City Pakathon to deliberate about building an organization that less about reinventing the wheel but more focused on spreading commonplace healthcare education in rural communities of Pakistan. It was overwhelming as well as exciting at the same time because the end goal of this initiative was to be of service to people. Norin shared that ambition and passion with Ovais and Usama who then became co-founders of Saving 9. And without a thought, her journey began!
During the early days, we had countless conference calls and meetings to figure out the details and with the continuous passion and drive of Usama and all the team members, Saving 9 was formed and it got its first pilot project to begin the journey. After coming to Iowa State University for my Master’s in 2017, I have stayed in touch with the organization to plan our next milestones, where to bring in funding from and organize Saving 9’s US Operations.
As a woman, what do you have to say about Saving 9 or the experience of it?
I think that as a patriarchal society, Pakistan has for long ignored the needs of the women in the healthcare set up and we have associated so many misconceptions with the role of women as, for example, a lady health worker or a nurse. Although it had never been the intention but Saving 9 has many more female employees than male ones. The best part about it is that this has never been any hindrance in continuing to grow and make progress (against the common expectations of many people in our country).
If anything, our CEO and directors have done justice to creating a conducive environment for everyone to recognize their strengths, to perform above and beyond their skills. I feel both supported and encouraged to keep working hard with gender never being a hurdle.
I also think we can be all a leader one way or another.
What was the best moment?
I have so many!
1. When our organization was finally registered because it was in that moment that I realized that its happening, the change is happening and now we owe to the people to come true on the promise especially all the people who had been mentoring us through the entire process.
2. When we went to Harvard. It was our first biggest achievement in terms of securing funding and we got to share our passion with the fellow Pakistanis and representatives at Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard for Seed for Change grant competition. Presenting at Harvard brought extreme pride for the entire team to showcase all the hard work that went into establishing the EMS system at Pind Bhegwal and to be able to share our dream of filling healthcare gaps with the pioneers in the field.
3. When Maseeha ambulance was launched after so much hard work by the on-ground team, I got so proud of the leaps of progress that we had made and the encouraging response from the local community and how we have already dealt with so many emergencies since it began its operations.
4. When all the people that I had worked with in LUMS came together to work for Saving 9 because they were some of the most hard working and inspirational people I had met in my life. The team of Saving 9 is a real change-maker because of the amazing people that are in the team and who continue to inspire me each day.
If I had to swap a role with someone at Saving 9, who would that be and the why’s?
I would love to swap it with Khaula who is Saving 9’s Digital Engagement Specialist. She is tremendously talented, gifted with words and makes a great impact with her writing. She has a natural knack for narrating a story in a magical way to leave people with feeling both motivated and content. I would love to put on her hat, experience her creative thoughts and make an impact with how I tell the world the adventures of Saving 9.
Fun Facts about Norin:
- Stationery nerd
- Hyper-organized
- Adorns many leadership hats — gets the adrenaline rushing for her!
Norin Yasin is a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan and Head of Saving 9 Operations in the United States. Currently in her final semester and full thesis crazy mode on, Norin is hoping to graduate this year from Iowa State Unviersity with a Masters in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. She can be reached at norin.yasin@gmail.com on her non-thesis days and on her thesis days with caution!
Originally published at https://medium.com on March 9, 2019.
