Educating the street children in Peshawar.

Approximately, 10% of the street children in Peshawar are from the areas of Abdara (according to DOST survey on street children 2008). Majority of them are not availing formal education mainly due to poverty as they are the only bread earners of their families. Risks including safe survival on streets, health issues, physical and sexual abuse (both commercial and non-commercial), scavenging rubbish tips, begging, engaging in hazardous labors, drug abuse, drug trafficking and street crimes are lurking before them.

To reduce these risks and make the street children active citizens of the future, the young people who participated in the Active Citizens trainings have initiated a project of establishing an informal educational centre for them.

The Active Citizens held meetings with the local community members and convinced that an informal education centre needs to be established for the street children Secondly, they approached the parents of these street children and informed them how important it was for their children to go to school.

After this, the group of young active citizens identified a suitable place for the establishment of the education centre followed by deciding the syllabus and teachers for the institution. They found an empty suitable place for the institution within Abdara and decided to keep the syllabus very basic.

Once the institute had established, the group began registering the street children in the informal education centre. They enrolled around 20 street children. The young social workers begun teaching them and till date their education centre has 50 registered street children receiving education free of cost.

Careers: Opportunities and Challenges for Young People.

What have you decided to become once you're done with your studies? A doctor? An engineer? A corporate manager?

Do you think the studies you have done/are doing is preparing you well for the current, highly competitive job market?

Do you have the necessary skills that are needed to become a doctor or an engineer? Not just the bookish knowledge, but the attitude and the competencies?

Something to ponder about - uh?

The British Council has just launched its second Dialogue Forum's survey. This time we are talking about "Careers." Yes, we're discussing all the questions that are mentioned above.

We want to know what you have to say. Let us know your career choices by participating in our online survey on "Careers" at: http://www.britishcouncil.org.pk/ .

Remember: NOW is the time for you to sit and seriously think about your Careers. The job market out there is quite tough and with the Great Recession hovering us, job searching has become very candidate's nightmare.

An opportunity to participate in a British Council event.

The British Council is collaborating with the Young Parliamentarians’ Forum, under Mr. Faisal Kundi’s patronage, the National Assembly Deputy Speaker, to launch a series of dialogue forums focusing on Pakistani youth’s issues as highlighted in the Next Generation Report.

These dialogue forums will provide young people and the young legislators a platform where they can discuss the pertinent issues which affect the lives of thousands of young Pakistanis and find a way of responding to them at the policy making level. The Young Parliamentarians’ Forum will then collate all the suggestions from these forums and formulate a document which will be presented to the National Assembly, so the issues could be solved.

The latest survey on “Careers: Opportunities and Challenges for Pakistani Youth” will be on the British Council’s website: http://www.britishcouncil.org.pk/ soon.

We are inviting you to the Second Dialogue Forum focusing on “Careers: Opportunities and Challenges for Pakistani Youth” in Islamabad (for ISB participants only).

The event is scheduled on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 from 1630 – 1830 hrs. Please contact Saad Bajwa at saad.bajwa@britishcouncil.org.pk for confirming your participation and general enquiries.

Raise your voice against corruption NOW!

Dear All,

We're launching dialogue forums to bridge the gap between young people and young Parliamentarians, and start a constructive discussion on relevant issues - outlining future recommendations and concrete steps. The Young Parliamentarians Forum intends to collate recommendations from these dialogue forums as a “policy document” to be presented to the Parliament.

There are four thematic areas we are generating a discussion on:

- Corruption: A source of insecurity amongst the young people

- Terrorism: Influencing youth aspirations in having a secure future

- Economic Empowerment: Opportunities for young people to avail better livelihoods

- Political Participation: Young Leaders as Future Leaders

How will it work?

Every month, we’ll pick one of these themes to have a dialogue session on. The dialogue session will take place with fifty to sixty young people face-to-face and will be facilitated by a famous TV host, Moeed Pirzada. The session will be on aired as part of Mr. Pirzada’s show “Dunya Today” on the news channel Dunya News.

We’re taking up “Corruption: A source of insecurity amongst the young people” as the theme for November 2010. You can participate in the dialogue online by visiting http://www.britishcouncil.org.pk/ and helping us find answers to the questions related to Corruption.

Dialogue Forum

Dear Active Citizens,

We are delighted to inform you the first "Dialogue Forum" will be happening on 09 Nov 2010. The dialogue forum is a series of dialogue events as a follow up to Pakistan: The Next Generation Report. These forums focus on key issues highlighted by young people in the report and provide a platform to discuss these issues with Young Parliamentarians.

The first dialogue forum focuses on “Is corruption a source of insecurity amongst Pakistani youth?” The forum partners are Active Citizens programme, Young Parliamentarians’ Forum and Dunya TV. The forum will be facilitated by Moeed Pirzada as part of his daily show “Dunya Today”.

If you reside in Islamabad/Rawalpindi and are interested to join the forum and contribute your input, please feel free to contact Asif Muneer at asif.muneer@britishcouncil.org.pk for more details.

The young people in Lahore celebrated "five" peace days. Read what these peace days were and how did they celebrate them?

International Peace Day Report By Alyas Rahmat

You must have read about Chanan Development Association's (CDA) work on the blog.

Well, they are back with a bang this time.

What have they been upto? Read more to find out...

Chanan Development Association (CDA) celebrated the "International Peace Days" from 20th to 25th September 2010. The celebrations were organized in collaboration with the Youth Parliament of Pakistan (YPP) and the British Council, Lahore, Pakistan. More than 100 youth from different areas of Lahore participated in the "Peace Days" activities which included things like "4th Annual Cricket for Peace, Peace Seminar, Peace Walk and Media Consultation for Peace".

Highlights of the 4th Annual Cricket Match on Peace Day:

The 4th Annual Cricket Match was titled "LET’S BRING PEACE TOGETHER" and aimed to "Build a Peaceful Society by the Youth". Nearly 100 youth from across Lahore and civil society organizations participated in this activity. The British Council and YPP donated their T-Shirts for the teams. At the inaugurating ceremony of the tournament, the youth members lit "Peace Candles" and promised they will promote peace.

The main objective of the cricket match was to bring awareness amongst the youth about the International Peace Day, peace situation in Pakistan and how can the youth promote peace.

Mr. Alyas Rahmat (Managing Director-CDA) presented the welcome note, briefing about the organization, partners, participated teams, project objectives and its activities, while Mr. Saad Bajwa from the British Council encouraged the youth and CDA for such an initiative.

Highlights of Peace Seminar with Women:

A theater seminar on "Peace" was organized on 25th September 2010. Nearly 150 women participated in this theater seminar. The seminar was held in Pak Methodist Church in Nishat Colony, Lahore. Bishop I. Paul. was the chief guest of the program. The community groups coordinators talked about the importance of peace and did activities that showed the females how can they bring peace in their homes and communities.

Bishop I. Paul, too, delivered a message on "Peace." At the end of the seminar, women also celebrate the International Peace Day 2010 and lightened Peace Candles.

Joel Henricus and his group mates are working on a SAP called "Awareness for Voting." Read his objectives and the difference he wishes to make.

(S.A.P) “Awareness”
By: Active Citizens Youth Group

Group members & their designations
Sir Earl West:- Idea of suggestion.
Joel Henricus:- Project manager, & video maker.
Suleman Shaukat:- Video anchor & interview taking.
Raheel James:- Video Editing.
Sharjeel Munawar :- Information gatherer.
Sara Shaukat:- Interviewing of ladies.
Maria Amjad:- Interviewing of ladies.
Sharoon Hamid:- Some Interview taking, & project helper.
And Everyone participated in decision making & area suggesting.

Summary of (S.A.P) “Awareness”

The project “Awareness” from our Active citizens youth group , is to make people of backward areas or those who are illiterate, “aware” of the actual issues that should be for the welfare of their community and the country. (e.g.) to make people aware of the vote casting of any level of the political elections, that they should vote the right person who knows the correct procedures and ways to run the issues concerning their community..And our main purpose is to make every man & woman in any particular area to be aware in that issue and use their vote in the right place because one vote can bring someone up or down.

Aims & Objectives

To make people aware of the issues concerning that they may vote for the right person.

To create a passion & desire in them to vote, because this is the responsibilities of every citizen.

To encourage the youth & guide them to vote & elect a right person for their country.


Need Assessment

The people in the backward areas or illiterate people think that they should not vote & do not participate in any elections, so that’s why we need to aware them because that’s their obligation and a lots & lots of people need awareness in those areas, so legally that’s their need.

And they need to be awared if we do not do it someone else should.

Benefit assessment

The people nowadays have started to think that all the political leaders here in Pakistan are fraud as in saying..somehow that’s true & somehow that’s not. And that’s not it, they also have came to a point that they will not vote any longer. So we have guided them and awared them that they should vote and elect such a person who will be beneficial for both the community & the country..so by that they will have the following benefits.

They will have a good leader.

Their community would be prosperous.

The future of their children will be better than before.

The country will have an uprising development process.


Action plan or Methodology

Firstly our action was to visit the backward areas & find about the thought of the people.

Then we have done door to door visit & interviewed them.

And with the interview we have created an encouragement to vote for the right person.

Then as the day suggests we arranged a small Eid-Milan Party for people in those areas to create a positive effect of us on them.

And with that we also shared some conversations with them which was awaring for them & they further have exploited it.

Monitoring & Evaluation

We monitored ourselves as we did the project step by step. And after the project was completed we surveyed to those people in which we were working & checked our checklist, And the result was positive, they said we were really nice & helpful to them. The people were most likely to vote for the best person.