R.S.V.P. : Aga Khan Foundation Seeks Friends

It was their first night out in the overextended, formidable world of Los Angeles philanthropy. But the Friends of the Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. were not asking for money, just friends. For starters anyway, they said. And so members of the local Ismaili Muslim community, who support the foundation’s work in Third World countries in Asia and Africa, hosted fellow Angelenos. The event at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday night included hors d’oeuvres, dinner and a film about a foundation-sponsored rural development project in Northern Pakistan.

Getting to know the foundation--and the Ismaili community--were Curtis Mack, president of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council; Andrea Van De Kamp, wife of California Atty. Gen. John Van De Kamp; Operation California’s Richard and Roseanne Walden; developer Malcolm Riley and his wife, Elly; Faranak Van Patten from the Asia Society; Jan McElwee, director for charitable contributions at Carter Hawley Hale, and the Downtown Women Center’s Jill Halverson.

State Controller Gray Davis arrived midway through dinner, stayed for the film and said he was impressed and wanted to learn more about the foundation’s work. About 2,000 Ismaili Muslims live in the area, said Sultan Allaudin, western regional coordinator of the Friends. Most of them are relative newcomers over the past 15 years. Worldwide, about 15 million Ismailis live in 25 countries, all of them followers of Prince Karim Aga Khan, whom they call the 49th Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims.

“In general, we have always been a very self-reliant group who believe in reaching out and helping others,” said Iqbal Noor Ali, the foundation’s chief executive officer, in town from headquarters in Washington. The Aga Khan assumes the administrative and overhead costs of the foundation and also contributes to it so that other contributions--which come from the Ismaili community and individuals and from agencies and foundations--go entirely for projects.

The foundation was founded in 1967, he said, and in recent years has become more active building a network of support in the United States. It supports health, education and rural development projects in Asia and Africa, all of them heavily involving grass-roots participation in planning and implementation. To date, he said, although the foundation is nondenominational and the projects benefit all residents of an area, projects have tended to be established in countries where there is an Ismaili community, mainly because the community lends considerable volunteer support.

The evening ended with national chairman Shafik Ladha of Atlanta inviting everyone to come again, hopefully to a fund-raiser.

“The next time we meet,” Ladha said, “I hope to greet you not as ‘distinguished guests’ but as ‘friends of the Aga Khan Foundation.’ ”