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I want to leave this world knowing that
I have changed it in some quantifiable,
positive way, no matter how minuscule.
I want to make history, instead of just
witnessing it."
Sonia wanted to internship with
one of the legislators to fulfil her goal
of public service. Once I gave her the
name of a senator I knew and she
told me she could never work for him
because he was a bigot. I was surprised
at her tender age she knew about
politics and had ethics beyond her
years. Subsequently, she worked with
Admiral Sestak in Washington, D.C.
and when he heard about her accident
he was so despondent he called and
spoke about her with a lot of love and
admiration.

	 I don't know why we do not cherish
our girls as much as we should. Please
cherish them for one never knows when
they will be no more. Tagore said about
death, "Death is not extinguishing the light;
it is only putting out the lamp because the
dawn has come." Today, we must rekindle
that flame that burnt and shone so brightly
in Sonia's heart. Let's keep that flame going,
as we are here to champion that mission
she started to build a school for girls in a
village where girls thirst for knowledge but
knowledge is withheld from them. I write
this heavy hearted for I miss her but I also
write this in gratitude because I am sure
many of Sonia's goals and aspirations have
been achieved.

Sonia came to visit us in Philadelphia and had a list of things
she wanted to see from Constitution Center to the Liberty Bell
and Amish country but had no interest in the malls as a young girl
of her age would. She always had a couple of jeans that she wore
and once we were invited to a charity function and I asked her
about buying new clothes but she had no interest in buying things
for herself but was focused on the concept of charity and helping
others.
Sonia always worried about the girls in Pakistan and especially
from our village in Kangra, which is in a remote part of Pakistan
and at that time, was full of Talibans. At that time Sonia was
going to high school in Switzerland, she graduated a year early
and during that gap year she decided to visit Kangra despite our
objections because at that time that area was considered the most
dangerous place on earth. Pakistani summers have extreme heat
and Sonia who grew up in Switzerland, London, and Chicago not
only tolerated the heat and wearing a chador that covers every part
of one's body but she welcomed the challenge. Her only peeve
was that she had been to Mecca and knew that nobody covered
their faces during Hajj, the pilgrimage. She also took note of why
women had to eat after men even though they are the ones cooking
the food; she wondered why they couldn't eat together. It was then
that the seed of the organization was planted in this young girl's
mind to empower the girls of that remote area. With the help
of Sonia's mother, my sister Iram Shah was able to buy a plot of
land for future construction of the school. Now 8 years later, that
dream of Sonia's is very much a reality. A very high standard school,
water filtration plant, and widows vocational school is now up and
running. She started to raise funds when she got back to build the
school. She raised enough funds to lay a foundation wall but then
the tragedy struck!

30 CHESTER COUNT Y Medicine | SPRING 2020

Figure 13: Recognition by former president and
first lady Barack and Michelle Obama
This article was written in collaboration between Mian Jan,
M.D., Chairman, Department of
Medicine Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital, and Maria
Khan, a student interning with
West Chester Cardiology. Her
dream is to become a cardiologist to provide medical care
both here and particularly in the
third world countries.
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