This Week on Monday Morning Radio: How Two Perfectly Ordinary Canadians Undertook an Extraordinary DIY Charitable Project and Improved the Lives of Thousands of Children

DENVER, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, a special edition of the MondayMorningRadio.com podcast profiles a Canadian couple and their inspiring efforts to help the children of an impoverished school in faraway Arusha, Tanzania.

The guests, Margaret and Riyaz Adat of Sharon, Ontario, are the subject of a newly released book, "Perfect Ordinary, Yet Extraordinary," available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and GutenbergsStore.com.

The full podcast can be streamed from Apple Podcasts at https://tinyurl.com/AppleAdats or directly from MondayMorningRadio.com.

With limited personal resources, no formal organization, and little more than a desire to help make a difference in the lives of others, Margaret and Riyaz Adat of Sharon, Ontario, pledged to personally support the J.K. Nyerere Primary School that they happened upon while on a safari vacation near Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The school, named for the former president of Tanzania, was severely impoverished, lacking every imaginable essential from chalk to textbooks to desks to lighting, and providing its 700-plus children with bathroom facilities akin to what one might find in a third-world prison.

That was back in 2007, when the Adats reached into their wallets, literally, and pledged to do what they could to help the school and its children, most of whom were the sons and daughters of struggling laborers and farmers.

Today, with the Adats still serving as patron saints of J.K. Nyerere, the school has revived, providing its students vastly improved physical facilities, supplies, uniforms, and even meals for underfed students taking standardized tests.

Whereas in 2007, only 20% of the school's children continued to secondary school, today, that number is approaching 100%.

"How the Adats persevered, against long odds and despite a profound family health crisis, demonstrates unmistakably that all of us have the capacity to create a homegrown charitable project and serve others, be they across the street or half a world away," says Dean Rotbart, the award-winning journalist who hosts Monday Morning Radio.

Rotbart and his wife Talya are the authors of "Perfectly Ordinary, Yet Extraordinary," which not only recounts the Adats' 13-year mission to rejuvenate the J.K. Nyerere School but also offers concrete advice for other good-hearted individuals who would like to emulate the Adats. (One-hundred percent of the profits from book sales go directly to the J.K. Nyerere School.)

"Many, many people want to do good, especially in these troubled times. They want to contribute time, creativity, and resources, but they don't know what they can do, nor do they have confidence in their ability to make a difference," observes Rotbart. "Margaret and Riyaz faced similar doubts and obstacles, yet they succeeded, and now have become global role models for do-it-yourself charitable projects."

As the Adats themselves are quick to point out, while they began their rescue mission alone, with only the support of their two young-adult sons, Anil and Seth, like a magnet, their mission eventually drew the contributions – both financial and tactical – of dozens of family members, friends, neighbors, area businesses, and complete strangers.

Of particular note, the Rotary Club of Willowdale (Ontario), a small Rotary chapter with a big heart, embraced the Adats' undertaking and made helping the J.K. Nyerere school part of its own "Service Above Self" mission.

Since 2012, Monday Morning Radio has been produced in cooperation with the nonprofit Wizard Academy, an Austin-Texas based school for imaginative, courageous, and ambitious entrepreneurs.

Rotbart, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize while working at The Wall Street Journal, is chair and editor-in-chief of the Business News Visionary and News Luminary oral history project.

Contact:
Dean Rotbart
3032961200
[email protected]

SOURCE Monday Morning Radio