Muhammad Ali Paracha is an Active Citizen from Islamabad, who is now a part of Offscreen Expedition too. The Offscreen Expedition is a project that takes a team of young people from Pakistan on a journey of a lifetime to the UK. The aim of this expedition is to create greater cultural understanding between the youth of Pakistan and the UK through arts.
Ali attended a workshop organised by us (British Council's Active Citizens Programme) back in January 2010 and founded “The Awakening” an organisation that raises awareness about community issues amongst the youth. The workshop involved different activities, lectures, and social interaction with young adults from different localities and schools of thought.
“The Active Citizens programme provided me the platform I had been searching for. I realised that it is we [the youth] who can make the difference, and this difference is my hope for the future”, says Ali manifesting his enthusiasm to bring a change.
We were flooded with applications as soon as we announced the Offscreen Expedition and Ali’s application was amongst the short listed ones. Our interviewers’ got hooked with his passion to serve the local communities immediately, and were pretty impressed with his composition “Duniyadri” that reveals a young person’s fears and confusions about his religion, family and society.
Ali’s efforts paid off when he was selected to join the Off Screen Expedition team to the UK. “This is the platform of learning and education that I had been waiting for. I hope to make the most out of this journey by interacting with artists, musicians and writers, all working for the same cause and the love of humanity.” A very happy and eager Ali expressed before the start of the expedition.
We have selected 5 other young citizens from Karachi and Lahore for the Offscreen Expedition. These youngsters along with youth from Middle East and UK will travel through London, Birmingham and Yorkshire exploring cultures, religions, environment, music and politics.
They will use the latest communications technology to create a visual travelogue of their ‘expedition’, broadcasting their experiences live via satellite to their peers in hundreds of classrooms in their countries.
Sounds interesting?
We’ll hear from Ali soon and he’ll give us an insight to what’s been happening in London so far and how the English are responding.
Till then stay connected to this blog space, but if you’d like learn more about the Offscreen Expedition and read daily updates from the team, please visit: http://www.offscreenexpedition.com/ .
Ali attended a workshop organised by us (British Council's Active Citizens Programme) back in January 2010 and founded “The Awakening” an organisation that raises awareness about community issues amongst the youth. The workshop involved different activities, lectures, and social interaction with young adults from different localities and schools of thought.
“The Active Citizens programme provided me the platform I had been searching for. I realised that it is we [the youth] who can make the difference, and this difference is my hope for the future”, says Ali manifesting his enthusiasm to bring a change.
We were flooded with applications as soon as we announced the Offscreen Expedition and Ali’s application was amongst the short listed ones. Our interviewers’ got hooked with his passion to serve the local communities immediately, and were pretty impressed with his composition “Duniyadri” that reveals a young person’s fears and confusions about his religion, family and society.
Ali’s efforts paid off when he was selected to join the Off Screen Expedition team to the UK. “This is the platform of learning and education that I had been waiting for. I hope to make the most out of this journey by interacting with artists, musicians and writers, all working for the same cause and the love of humanity.” A very happy and eager Ali expressed before the start of the expedition.
We have selected 5 other young citizens from Karachi and Lahore for the Offscreen Expedition. These youngsters along with youth from Middle East and UK will travel through London, Birmingham and Yorkshire exploring cultures, religions, environment, music and politics.
They will use the latest communications technology to create a visual travelogue of their ‘expedition’, broadcasting their experiences live via satellite to their peers in hundreds of classrooms in their countries.
Sounds interesting?
We’ll hear from Ali soon and he’ll give us an insight to what’s been happening in London so far and how the English are responding.
Till then stay connected to this blog space, but if you’d like learn more about the Offscreen Expedition and read daily updates from the team, please visit: http://www.offscreenexpedition.com/ .
Cool stuff.....
ReplyDeleteso are you also associated with this society..?
hey Zehra,
ReplyDeleteThe British Council is one of the sponsors in Off Screen Expedition. Sponsorship in the sense of selecting participants for this project, conducting their interviews and spreading a word around.
Mariam