July 2023

The Story of Ibrahim Rashid with long haul Covid

When Ibrahim Rashid suddenly lost his ability to walk he was only 24 years of age and it came as a shock. Never before in his life had he experienced an episode like this. It started soon after he tested positive for Covid 19. Ibrahim was experiencing rare symptoms of the infection that is categorized as Long Covid. He converted his difficult experiences into a memoir.

APF did an interview with him. Below is an excerpt. (The full interview will be published on our website)

What was the main impetus and really your first thoughts when putting together your memoir?

This started as my therapy journal, where my therapist asked me to write about my journey in dealing with the long-term effects of COVID. The book was my way to process and cope through this whole thing personally and in hopes to recognize and reflect on lessons I learned and struggled with, among other day-to-day trials.

For those that haven’t had the chance to read your memoir yet, can you give us a short highlight and background on the content of this memoir and some of the themes you hope the readers take from this book?

As a very high-level summary, this memoir is simply my journey over months and years with long term COVID and illness from previously never having any major health conditions over my 20+ years of life. The first section of the memoir is on resilience and provides insights into how I managed my symptoms and includes a deep reflection on my relationships and identity overall. The second sections go into relapse and really just the day-to-day of the skills I acquired and tools used with symptom management and just failing. The last section of the memoir concludes with the recovery section – really looking back at the previous months and relapsing and getting as sick as I did but coming back to a place of balance.

The themes of the book or at least what I would hope for the readers to take from my memoir, include: resilience, hope, and simply trying to get through a day while dealing with immense and unpredictable challenges.

APF Mentorship Platform

The APF mentorship program has been designed to democratize the networking and guidance seeking effort for Pakistani Americans. It gives all mentees who opt into our platform, access to some of the most successful mentors from the Pakistani American community. Anyone can sign up and take advantage of this opportunity! This platform is here to lift more Pakistanis up in their professional lives and offer them the guidance they seek.

We have 510 users in total out of which 283 are mentors and 227 are mentees. Since September 2022, there have been 21 user interactions between mentors and mentees. Join the activity and become a mentor or a mentee!

Click here (to learn how to sign up as a mentee)

Click here (to learn how to sign up as a mentor)

APF Fellows' Research Updates

The APF Summer Fellowship program is well under way and soon coming to a close for this year. All four APF fellows have been working on their individual research work and will be sharing their final findings with us at the end of the program. Stay tuned as we will share their research with you in upcoming newsletters!

We are excited to share the topics our fellows are working on:



Omaer Naeem, in collaboration with The Atlantic Council, is looking at, “Making the case for Pakistani youth-led climate adaptation initiatives.”

Hamna Khuld who is working with Sehat Kahani, is exploring the topic, "Evaluating the Impact of Telemedicine Mobile Units on Health Outcomes, Healthcare System Resilience, and Disaster Response in Flood-Affected Areas: A Case Study of Sehat Kahani."

Naila Khan is working with Sehat Kahani on her research "Exploring the Impact of Sehat Kahani's Telemedicine Platform on Access to Birth Control."

And Alysha Siddiqi is doing her research with Sehat Kahani on, "Social Determinants of Health and Sustainable Interventions in Marginalized Communities in Sindh, Pakistan based on the Sehat Kahani Model: A Mixed-Methods Study."

Stay tuned for more!