Pakistan: Quetta - Celebrating International Youth Day

Youth International Day Celebration in Collaboration with Baluchistan Rural Support Program

College of Youth Activism and Development partnered with Mercy Corps Pakistan in establishing an exciting program called “Global Citizen Corps”. The program aims to inspire and equip an expanding network of young leaders to take informed actions that build secure, productive and just communities around the world.

As part of the program youth celebrate international days as social action project in their respective localities. CYAAD’s youth leaders brainstormed and came up with an exciting idea for the celebration of International Youth Day. The idea was to raise funds for deprived communities and orphans, youth and adolescents. A dinner would be held in order to give them a chance to interact with youth and adolescents of different socio-economic background. After the dinner, a two hour workshop on life skills based education was to be given.  

The youth leaders worked in four fundraising groups in the city of Quetta.  The youth identified city shopping malls, mosques, universities as good locations to approach locals and ask for personal contributions. The networking was an opportunity for youth to interact with more than 1450 people of different cultures and religions. Youth leaders came to know how the communities hold perceptions and stereotypes about different cultures, and divides between the communities.  Based on the youth’s experience CYAAD organized three hour sessions for youth leaders, on how positive and negative perception & stereotypes develop and their effects.

CYAAD’ Youth leaders raised funds up to 28300 PKR. for the dinner for underprivileged communities. Meanwhile, CYAAD co-organized the event with BRSP in order to garner more support. BRSP gave a space for the activity, where youth could gather and share their experience with elders of the communities, parliamentarians, youth ministry, mentors, and CYAAD’s support groups.

Female Youth leaders organized a two hour lesson with adolescents and their mothers focused on better nourishment and protection of the children. The discussion covered topics ranging from positive attitude, to responsibility, reproductive health, exploring emotions and coping with fear. 50 female adolescents participated in these sessions which were followed by a dinner with elderly women of the community. One of the women participating, Farzana, a mother of four, said, “These sessions were very productive for us, I didn’t hear anything about child protection neither bearing positive attitude before attending these session.”

We appreciate the efforts of CYAAD youth leaders and BRSP for organizing a valuable session for our community.

There are 80 orphans being accommodated in the village of SOS and most of them have lost their whole family members in target and honor killings. Youth leaders from CYAAD and SOS, Brg. Abdul Razzaq and Ms. Sakeena, connected in order to co-organize a lesson between the groups.

CYAAD’s and SOS youth participated in dialogue on “youth role in development of society and challenges faced by youth in contemporary world”. It was a productive dialogue among youth and enhanced their sense of responsibility.

The broken down into seven components, dialogue, global connection/exchanges, social action, global issues, trainings, community service projects and job placement.  The participants of the program were four new youth leaders, four old youth leaders and one representative of civil society organization, parliamentarian and a minister.

It was the first time when the new leaders and experienced leaders were at the same table and working on the same issues. It was great to see them work and learn together. The youth had discussions about positive and negative impacts and all the people present were able to participate.

Discussions of positive changes and solutions for the community were debated. Such kind of contribution from youth and erudite members of the society is always needed so that we can make our society a better place to live in. As well as, the activities work as a bridge between the youth and the government representatives.

The minister of equality of education, Mr. Jan Ali Changezi, shared his thoughts. He talked about in the importance of the youth’s responsibilities towards society and how that awareness among the youth leads to greater progress.