Spreading Awareness! Changing Attitudes!

  ‎"Development cannot be achieved if 50% of the population is excluded from the opportunities it brings" 

             - Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator.

Pakistan has been facing the issue of gender discrimination ever since its formation. Though the issue has diminished to significant degrees in the urban towns and cities, it still persists in the rural and the poverty-stricken areas. The major thing that gets affected due to this biasness is the education of women. People find it very easy to engage girls in the household chores and deprive them of education. Even if the girls are allowed basic education, then they are discouraged to chase their dreams of attaining higher education. This kind of social injustice brings forth uncountable problems which nullify the efforts taken for the progress and stability of our beloved homeland.

                To raise voice against such a social evil, the Constructive Students Network (CSN) stepped forward on 23^rd May 2011 to empower the women of Pakistan at SMB Fatima Jinnah School through various easy-to-impart notions and fun-to-learn activities. SMB Fatima Jinnah School is basically a government school for girls set up in Garden East of Karachi and several of the girls who don’t have access to the lavished lifestyle of the urban class are enrolled there. Team CSN held the workshop in the 8^th class whose basic aim was to build up the confidence in the girls, make them realize their social responsibility and to prepare them for the better future ahead of their present. Sessions of Career Counseling and Social Responsibility were carried out for an hour each. Both were diffused with numerous interactive games and activities which could practically impose the importance of both subjects and instill some positive changes in the mindsets of the students.

                The workshop started with the activity “Rain Effect” and its moral was to delineate the importance of teamwork and unity to the girls. It was followed by the “Direction Hands” Activity which put forward the notion that everyone has its own perception of the direction of North which helped us to tell the students that the interests of each and every one of them was different from each other and so should their profession be. Thus, they should follow what they, personally love to do rather than doing what their best friend does and what their parents impose on them. Next up was the lecture on the career counseling. The students were briefed that its their own will to choose their occupation for the future and they were also notified of the importance of higher education. When they were given the charts to write “How do they see themselves in future?” the answers received were very interesting. Apart from the repetitive comments of Doctor and Engineer, some girls commented “chef”, “News Anchor” and even “An atomic scientist”. This activity reflected that despite having low resources in their pockets, the individuals had great outlook of their future. All of the opinions were highly encouraged. “To be or not to be” was thoroughly discussed among them and then we told them that the world isn’t limited to “Doctors and Engineers” by giving them examples of female role models like Namira Saleem-Pakistan’s first woman in space, J.K Rowling-The author of Harry Potter series, Razia Bhatti-the symbol of courage in Pakistani Journalism, Oprah Winfrey-The famous TV host of “Oprah”. All of the role models had weak backgrounds but their passion lead them to become the distinguished of all. This activity provided the students with a noteworthy insight about some new fields and we received highly positive responses. Then, there was an open Question Answer session that we arranged with them in which we answered the questions they raised about different occupations and professions.

As the career counseling session ended, we held an interactive activity right before the start of the session of Social Responsibility. The activity was “First and Third word activity” which lead the students to think spontaneously and instantaneously. Its basic aim was to sharpen their minds. The Social Responsibility session started along with a brief discussion on “How should we fulfill our social responsibilities?” Charts were circulated among the pupils titled “Things around you that irritate you” and very obvious points were highlighted such as Load shedding, pollution, rough driving, garbage thrown on the road etc. Then, the pupils were asked individually that how would they solve these numerous problems and the answers were highly appreciated. The students were also delineated the one-liners such as “Education is the only way out”, “If trees fall, we all fall”, “Verbal abuse is still abuse”, “Save paper, save wildlife” through a Picture Depiction activity. This brought an end to the session of Social Responsibility as well.

                                                At the last, we received some written feedbacks from the students and they bid farewell to us. Truly, this workshop made a positive impact on the young minds and CSN continues its constructive contribution to the Pakistani society.

- Taha Javaid

Fireflies!

When I was a little girl

I asked my mother, “What will I be?

Will I be pretty, Will I be rich?”

Here’s what she said to me

“Que Sera Sera

Whatever will be, will be

The future is not ours to see

Que Sera Sera

Whatever will be, will be”

While it’s not important for girls to be pretty and rich, contrary to what’s fixated in their minds at a young age, it is important for them to dream big and follow their hearts to be led to their destiny. And the girls at SMB Fatima Jinnah School were nothing short of extra ordinary when it came to the latter. The limited resources and the country’s (seemingly) bleak future have not stopped them from aspiring to become nuclear scientists, pilots, fashion designers and to an extent “cookers” (:P). 

When we’d heard about their “Urdu medium” status, we had been forced to push our plans a step back; however, upon interaction with these girls, we were absolutely stunned to see them grasping everything we put forward to them. Although, Team CSN intended to inspire these girls to make their mark in the world, we ended up being impressed by their brilliance. In spite of belonging to an Urdu medium, all girls’ government school, the girls were chess champions, skaters, magnificent artists and most of all confident and eager to learn which are rare characteristics even in the biggest schools in our country. These little girls come from families, where even playing outside is looked down upon but that hasn’t stopped them from pursuing their dreams. In fact, they barely seemed to be in need of the sort of career counseling we had planned for them. All they wanted to know was how to overcome their basic problems regarding permission and finances. They just needed a gentle push; and that done, all sorts of ambitions came pouring out! They were enthusiastic, persevering and almost ready to take up on the “big bad” world- all by themselves. Behold – Our Future!

We tend to thrash our “not so up to mark” schooling systems. Yet, it is we, who deserve the battering. We don’t even bother to attempt to fix the problems we so often criticize. These girls have humbled us by giving us an insight into what the rest of the country is like. They have the aptitude and persistence to bring Pakistan out of the dingy path to self destruction but they lack resources. And they deserve that much because unlike their adults they are neither hopeless, nor helpless!

It is up to us, the privileged, to provide them with the resources they require or at least give them good directions so they can utilize their own. And that is OUR-MARK to make. We might not be able to see the future, but we can mould it and then we can let it be because que sera sera (it will be what it has to be)!

- Fatima Hafsa

A report on the visit to SMB Fatima Jinnah Girls High School

Team CSN (Constructive Students Network) organized a symposium on the theme of ‘Development And Change Through Education’ which was immensely successful. Mr. Shezad Roy was also invited to the symposium. He excused himself due to various pre-scheduled engagements. After receiving a briefing from members of CSN on the completion of the symposium, he invited CSN to one of the schools run by his NGO; Zindagi Trust to help them further spread this message.

After receiving the invitation Team CSN geared up for a motivational workshop to be conducted in the SMB Fatima Jinnah Girls High School. The main topics selected for presenting to the students were ‘Critical Thinking’ and ‘Social Responsibility’. The CSN team also planned to give some basic career counseling to the students and to make them realize that they had the power to do anything they wanted in this world.

This school is co-education till class 5 and then it separates the girls and boys into different branches. Team CSN was invited to conduct the workshop in the girls’ branch, to all the sections of class 8. Class 8 had six sections, from 8-A to 8-F. Members of CSN were divided into five groups to conduct the workshop simultaneously in five sections, from 8-A to 8-E. The sixth section was to be divided equally in the sections 8-A to 8-E.

The girls of this school were predominantly from lower class income households. They come to the school for their basic education which their parents allow them. Some parents are eager to educate their female children, others not so much. But most of the girls in this school did not have any ambitions of education beyond matriculation. Through the untiring efforts of Mr. Shehzad Roy and the school administration, the girls are beginning to realize their potential and starting to aspire towards intermediate or higher education. It was in this regard that Team CSN also came to this school to provide a further morale boost to the girls and to encourage them towards education.

The five groups into which Team CSN was divided were classified according to numbers, they were groups 1 to 5. Each group had a team leader, a coordinator and four or five group members. These groups were allowed freedom in dissipating the message that CSN had brought. They only had to follow the basic two themes of ‘Critical Thinking’ and ‘Social Responsibility’. Other than that, each group devised their own activities to keep the children interested in the workshop. These activities and events were thoroughly discussed, practiced and perfected by each group during the days leading to the workshop.

I was the leader of Group 2, my coordinator was Mubasharah Babar and the group members were, Abdus Samad, Zehra, Jamshaid, Mubashir Ashhar and Abdullah. Our group worked hard to present the topic in the best possible way that we could. We started off with the ‘rain effect’ activity. The instructors for this activity were Abdus Samad and Mubashir.  In this activity the instructors called out a number, e.g. 2 or 3. The students were to clap with that number of fingers on their palms. This clapping with fingers produces a sound like rain, clapping with one finger gives the impression of light rain while a higher number of fingers like four gives the impression of heavy rain. Alternating the number of fingers gives a rain effect. This activity was to be continued for 1-5mins, as long as the students appeared to take interest.

The second activity was ‘scramble and introduce’. The instructor for this activity was Jamshaid. This activity involved asking the students the name of the person sitting next to them and one of their neighbors defining characteristics. This activity produced a lot of giggles in our class, and the students had fun describing each other. This activity took about 15 minutes

The third to come was the introduction of our team and our purpose of coming to this school. This was given by me. The students by this time had become quite engaged to whatever we were discussing. I gave a brief introduction of the objectives that we had come with. Then I introduced my team members and gave a more detailed description of the workshop. I then asked the students to freely interact with our team and maintain an informal atmosphere in the class.

After that Ashhar and Abdullah did an activity named ‘first to first word’. They would pick a random student from the class and give him any word. The student had to answer with the first word that came into his mind. For example Abdullah said ladder and a student replied construction. This activity was also appreciated in the class.

After this activity Mubasharah came to the front to present the first main session of career counseling. The students were given a thorough understanding of the place that girls have in society. The need for them to get education, and create a respectful place for themselves in society. Mubasharah used charts and diagrams to good effect to illustrate her point. The students listened with concentration and seemed to follow the topic. This session lasted around 40 minutes.

Then the class was distributed into groups of five each for the next two activities, each group was given a facilitator to help them understand the activities. The first of these was a puzzle activity. Each group was given a maze on paper from which they had to find the correct path leading out. One student was given the pencil and then blindfolded. The other students in the group were allowed to only guide her by calling out instructions, they couldn’t guide her hand by touching it. Many of the groups who finished this activity asked for more puzzles, everyone of the students had a lot of fun.

The social responsibility session came after that. The groups of students were given a scenario each. The scenario dealt with daily life examples of individuals behaving irresponsibly. The students were asked to read the scenario and decide which person is doing wrong. The groups decided to act out the scenarios, helped by their facilitators. Each of the groups did a commendable job. After each skit they were told the moral of the scenario, which further cleared in their minds the responsibilities of citizens.

A final conclusion was give by me in which I repeated the objectives I had outlined in the beginning. Then I went over the whole workshop outlining what they should have learned and discussing it. Feedback was also taken on charts. The girls used different colors and markers to give vibrant feedback.

It was an enjoyable experience for our team and all the members of Team CSN. We learned a lot of things ourselves while teaching them to the girls of SMB Fatima Jinnah Girls High School.

- Tawheed Rabbani Khan