Southern California Regional Office

Diane Samandi and Sima Mobini, Co-Directors
6793 S. Seawatch Ln.
Malibu, CA 90265
310-459-6911
diane@monafoundation.org
sima@monafoundation.org

Special Link! Interview with Rainn Wilson

Rainn Wilson Event Supports the Work
of Mona Foundation

On a lovely Saturday, September 15th at 11:00 a.m., the roof top of the very posh and elegant Raffles L'Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills was the setting for an event to celebrate Rainn Wilson's Emmy nomination for best supporting actor in a comedy. The televised Emmy Awards were the following evening. The Coach® brand hosted a very delightful brunch. The cast of The Office, Rainn's current television show, were almost all present, along with a few of Rainn's celebrity friends. After guests mingled and enjoyed brunch outdoors, Rainn took a few minutes to thank Coach® and his friends for attending, and then dedicated the event to the Mona Foundation.

Rainn spoke about the fact that he was approached by a few foundations and, after researching, he found that the Mona Foundation was the one involved in some of the projects with the most impact, dedicating 100% of earmarked funds directly to the projects it sponsors. He then introduced Mahnaz Javid, who spoke about the children of Mona. The event was a wonderful opportunity to introduce the Mona Foundation and projects it supports to celebrities in Beverly Hills. Rainn is a great addition to the foundation and his involvement will certainly have sustained impact on its success and will bring further attention to the projects that every year attempt to make a difference in the lives of thousands of children all over the world.

There were about 60 celebrities attending this luncheon including Melora Hardin, Jenna Fischer, and Rashida Jones who joined Rainn to honor his commitment to the Mona Foundation and the projects it supports. A wonderful committee, Melody Kulp, Ashlee Margolis, London Ahlers, Katie Stromsborg, Leah Rowan, and Shann Silver worked with representatives from Coach®, Heather Feit and Raina Penchansky, and the Mona Foundation Southern California Office Planning Team. Sima Mobini, Diane Samandi, Gouya & Payam Zamani, Duy-Loan Le and Mahnaz Javid were present to represent Mona Foundation.

People® magazine and Style® magazine were there, along with celebrity photographers. Coach® will have an interview with Rainn on their site for one month in which Rainn will speak on behalf of Mona, will select a handbag to auction, and all the proceeds from this auction will benefit Mona Foundation.

Many of the guests were moved by these stories and committed to support the Foundation. Several of the guests left the event with a copy of Mona's 2006 Annual Report and Mona's giving cards. The story of the event has appeared on several websites: In Style, Live Journal™, and others. Rainn was also interviewed recently on his religious beliefs for Bahá'í News.

Actor Rainn Wilson plays Dwight Schrute, the pompous assistant manager he plays on “The Office, ” the American version of a popular British TV show of the same name. His show, seen weekly by 8 million people in the U.S. alone, also airs in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, parts of continental Europe, Australia, Saudi Arabia, parts of Latin America, Singapore, and several other countries.

His other acting credits include the character of Arthur Martin in the series “Six Feet Under” and a one-episode stint in “Entourage,” both on the U.S. cable network HBO; guest hosting “Saturday Night Live” on U.S. television; and movie roles in “Almost Famous,” “America's Sweethearts,” “Galaxy Quest,” “House of 1000 Corpses,” “Sahara,” and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”

In a recent interview with the U.S. Bahá'í News, Rainn shared about growing up in the Bahá'í Faith, “When you grow up with a spiritual foundation that asks you to be conscious of the fact that all races are created equal, that men and women are equal and that all religions worship the same (God), it helps you see the world as one family and not get lost in the traps of political, social, and economic belief systems that can lead you astray. I always think of myself as a world citizen. It's a powerful thing.”

He also shared, “I'll be working as a spokesperson with the Mona Foundation, a Bahá'í-inspired not-for-profit organization that tries to provide quality education to all children, raise the status of women and girls, and build community.” Please follow the links in this article to read more of each of these stories.

Chances for Children

Chances for Children (CFC) is a new organization created by members of the Bahá'í Faith in several Los Angeles area communities. It has been adopted by the Southern California Regional Office of the Mona Foundation. The organization is working with children, their teachers and parents, placing the health and education of children at the center of efforts to build happier futures for underprivileged children in the area.

Their goal is to help as many children as possible change their lives for the better. To make a lasting change, the health and nutritional needs of children must be addressed. They must have books and equipment for their physical development, access to competent and supportive instructors. The support must take the form of a sustainable project, involving participation of parents and people living in this area.

As a pilot project, books were collected for children for an elementary school in Compton, CA with predominantly single-parent, low-income, African-American households. In a matter of a few weeks, hundreds of books were collected and donated to classrooms. School officials and principals there are looking forward to collaborating with us on future efforts.

Ideas for our next project include providing books for the classrooms, school library, teachers and particularly children on an ongoing basis, providing role models for students by bringing professionals and skilled workers to the classes, providing health promotional and education classes on subjects such as obesity prevention for children and parents, and providing parenting and child development classes for parents.

Regional Office Guidelines

Mona Foundation support of its adopted projects contributes to a process through which people of all nations become the protagonists of their own development and learn how to direct their own affairs. Mona Foundation Regional Offices are established in order to build the Foundation’s infrastructure for growth and hence increase the circle of the Foundation's friends in support of these projects. These offices are considered the regional agencies of the Foundation and are governed by these guidelines

An Office shall be established in an area where a strong nucleus of Mona Foundation supporters already exists, and at which a core team of supporters have demonstrated their commitment and support of the Foundation goals through a variety of activities.

Each Office shall be guided by the same mission, guiding principles, goals, objectives and all other policies of the Mona Foundation reflected in its legal documents, and as outlined by the IRS code for 501 (c) (3) organizations including adherence to all necessary accounting procedures that assure legally binding accountability and transparency.

The Office shall have a Director, appointed by the Board of Directors, who will hold the responsibility of managing the daily operation of the Regional Office. The Director is responsible to the Board of Directors of Mona Foundation and works directly with the President in execution of its various activities. The Director works with its core team (selected by the Director) to devise an annual plan for the Office, outlining its scope of activities and goaals in support of the Mona Foundation’s adopted projects.

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