“I am attending this gathering to become an Active Citizen. I want to learn how I can contribute to my society actively. I want to bring about a positive change in my country,” commented excited Abdullah, a member of DYA while waiting for the District Youth Assembly (DYA) Orientation Session to begin. DYA Orientation Sessions were a series of events held by the British Council in 10 districts throughout Pakistan – Abbotabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Muzzafarabad, Narowal, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Quetta and Sargodha. The aim was to bring the young DYA champions under one roof, where they could discuss ways of improving their communities and help each other in initiating social action projects. In each district’s orientation session, the vibrant youngsters showed enthusiastic response from the moment proceedings began. Our facilitators used many ice-breaking activities such as “Introduce yourself to one person you don’t know” and “Ask your neighbour about his/her hobby”. These activities brought the young people closer and encouraged them to make new friends. The Project Managers then gave a presentation about the future activities of DYAs which clarified many concepts and gave participants an understanding of youth groups, the kind of training that would be provided to them to help initiate and implement projects, and briefed them about various management teams being formed to run projects smoothly. |
These teams included: Communication Team, Research Team, Monitoring and Evaluation Team, Social Action Project Team, Management Team and Networking Team.
The presentation generated a lot of interest in the young participants. One such participant was Abid Ali, who said, “I am excited to be a part of the Social Action Projects team. I want to develop such projects which benefit our community in the long term like establishing schools and saving electricity. This will help our future generation.”
The Management teams were formed immediately after the presentation, allowing each young member to choose an area of his/her interest. The members of every team presented their ways to help projects run smoothly. For example, Communication team assumed the responsibility of keeping all core group members updated about the latest happenings in DYA while the Networking Team brainstormed on improving relations with other NGOs, the corporate sector, government and so on. Nevertheless, all the teams mutually agreed to keep in touch regularly, and work collectively to achieve the best results.
Active Citizens have the power to influence the world around them. To bring a positive change to your community, vicinity and society, join the Management team that interests you, now!
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