Rabtt: Connecting for Change

Team Rabtt

In the chilly winter of 2010, two friends from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, gave birth to a unique idea to revolutionize education in Pakistan. They were inspired by their experience of the LUMS National Outreach Programme – a community development initiative that trains exceptionally bright students from all over Pakistan – and the annual Seeds of Peace International Camp in the United States that brings together young people from South Asia and the Middle East to deconstruct stereotypes through dialogue.

These were the encounters that encouraged Imran Sarwar and Aneeq Ahmed Cheema, both of whom have been Fulbright scholars, to envision Rabtt – a social enterprise in Pakistan working to redefine the way mainstream education is imparted to school students. Though Rabtt began to take shape in Imran and Aneeq’s minds in 2010, it was formally founded in 2011. Since then, it has been a harbinger of positive transformation on Pakistan’s educational scene.

For a society that battles extremism, intolerance, violence almost on a daily basis, the young team at Rabtt (derived from the Urdu term ‘Rabta’ meaning connections) strives to build on the power of connections to carve a society that values four core competencies among young people – empathy, critical thinking, self-confidence and creativity.

How does Rabtt achieve this? By connecting with school students across public and private low cost schools in Pakistan to let education be a wholesome, creative and an experience unique to each student.

Learning is Fun!

It is through Rabtt’s summer camps and year-long workshops with a select set of students from schools in and around Lahore that a wide range of creative skills based on alternative learning techniques have been introduced to the traditional education system in Pakistan. Courses in English, mathematics, public speaking, world history, art and dramatics are taught at these summer camps, not in a traditional sense of classroom lecturing, but through cross-disciplinary learning, interaction, guest lectures, educational trips, and students putting up innovative performances. This facilitates exposure to different perspectives and lets them venture into the ‘real world’ through processes of experiential learning.

In seven summer camps organized through 2014, Rabtt managed to connect with 300 students who learnt about difference, empathy, team building, the concept of tolerance in the early Islamic period and non-violence in ways that stressed conceptual understanding, critical analysis, and open discussion. These were students who belonged to diverse age groups and socio-economic backgrounds.

While connecting with students on a personal level and fostering creativity, curiosity and the spirit of mutual learning, all of which sound exciting to undertake, are quite daunting in reality. The Rabtt team is supported by a pool of volunteers, also known as facilitators or ‘Rabtt Fellows’, who are typically university students selected through a multi-layered screening process. It is these Fellows who engage with students to creatively nurture them with a skill set that mainstream education processes do not equip them with. Prior to the summer camps, Fellows undergo intensive training in skill building and interactive team building, which they subsequently translate to learning spaces full of talented and hard-working students.

Fellows engaging creatively with students

In the process, Rabtt taps the energy and enthusiasm of two significant groups of people – school students and university students (Fellows) since this is the generation that can contribute most to Pakistan, with an emphasis on values such as mutual learning, respect for cultural diversity and empathy with the ‘other’. Harnessing their skills constructively is essential to overcome barriers that mar the traditional learning space. The attempt at Rabtt is thus not to dislodge the existing system but fill in gaps to achieve greater equity and quality in education.

The process of ‘learning to unlearn’ happens for students, Fellows, teachers, parents and school administrations in ways more than one. For students get a much deserved platform for showcasing individual talents, teachers and parents learn about hidden potentials, and Fellows are able to burst the bubble of coming from a sense of comfort and privilege.

Salma Chaudhry, Director, Operations and Human Resources, says, “When the first camp was organized in 2011, we had more facilitators than students. After much initial reluctance, schools have warmed up to our activities and now we receive an overwhelming number of requests from schools to conduct camps and workshops with their students. Last year, we connected with seven schools in Lahore. This year the number is ten, and in the near future we will move from strength to strength. Gradually, we are also trying to bring schools in rural areas within our fold.”

Making a Difference

The Rabtt team has developed a unique course curriculum that allies with core competencies to be achieved by students at various levels. Course packs, especially on English language proficiency and World History, have been developed with insights from experts, mentors and partner organizations. Over the years, Rabtt has done its best to evolve creative ways of engaging students, be it in the form of art work during summer 2013 or through a summer camp in collaboration with a Spanish non-profit organization ThinKids in 2014. Recently, Rabtt, along with other education-focused non-profits, was part of ‘Bridging Barriers’, a six month project meant to train underprivileged students in drama, general knowledge, and public speaking.

That Rabtt’s four years of existence have been momentous is evident from the huge number of applications they received for the teaching fellowship this year. Hammad Anwar, who is Director of Communications at Rabtt gushes, “These are super-talented kids that we work with, brilliant and hard-working, just in need of the right push! Most of them had never performed in front of huge audiences. Now, they do so with ease, with positivity and confidence. It is heartening to have them showcase their talents to large number of people, including their parents, who acknowledge they never knew about their kids’ talent.”

Interestingly, each batch of students graduates with a ceremony where they put up performances in front of well-known personalities from media, civil society, education and the development sector in Pakistan. The 2014 graduation ceremony had a mime performance by the girls of Government Comprehensive Girls High School, Wahdat Road, presenting the art of non-verbal communication learnt in the camp and a staged performance depicting the story of a girl marginalized by society by the City District Government Girls High School. I am told that both performances were received by thunderous applause from the audiences and tears of joy and pride among parents.

Rabtt is a humble attempt with grand plans for the future. Plans to collaborate with Indian educators are in the pipeline, and so are concerted efforts to reach out to more and more students, link with like-minded organizations, tread on the path to self-sustainability, and embark on an integrated approach to address issues facing education and society in Pakistan.

I ask Salma and Hammad about the current distressed scenario of strife and violence in Pakistan. How is it possible to stay motivated when extremist elements inflict brutal violence on educational institutions and even innocent children are not spared? Their reply leaves me spell bound. It is this extremism, intolerance and hatred they are fighting against, they assert. Attacks like the one that took place in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 have confirmed that it is only through education that society can be made to undertake the path of peaceful co-existence. No society, especially its young minds, is safe when violence and hateful ideas are left unchallenged. Rabtt lives for the dream of a free, safe and inclusive educational space in Pakistan which fosters acceptance, harmony and diversity! A space where children can be themselves, raise questions and seek answers on their own, where the window to life is always left open, for them to fly, to discover. Rabtt is that vision, Rabtt is that space for which Pakistan craves.

Published on The Bayside Journal - http://baysidejournal.com/wp/rabtt-connecting-for-change/

April 22nd, 2015

Making Media, Building Peace

Making Media, Building Peace

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Middle: Master of Communication Studies Student

Twenty four students and the idea of peace! In a world dominated by narratives of hate and violence, what happens when young minds are encouraged to engage with the idea and practice of peace? Peace, not as an illusory ideal to be achieved, but peace with oneself and those around us! Peace which is not as lofty as the goal of world peace! This and something more exciting happened at The Faculty of Journalism and Communication at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Gujarat, India. Junior students of the Master of Communication Studies programme participated in a workshop on media and peace building. The workshop was facilitated and steered by Chintan Girish Modi, founder and pioneer of Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein (FAB) , an innovative platform premised on fostering cross-border friendships between Indians and Pakistanis through story-telling, social media content generation & dissemination, and real-time interactions with people across both countries.

Spanning two days (10-11th March, 2015), Chintan visited the Faculty in Baroda, a small but culturally vibrant town in central Gujarat, known for being multicultural and cosmopolitan. The purpose was to sensitize budding media professionals about concepts like peace journalism, social media in peace building, and content creation through digital citizenship. Speaking about the significance of such an exposure for media students, Dr. Niti Chopra, Officiating Dean of the Faculty said, “It is relevant for media students to be able to engage intellectually with significant issues of their time. Indo-Pak relations have always borne a delicate edge. But journalists, with their power to negotiate change through ideations and projections in their writings and other media manifestations can effectively help to manage and change stereotypical mind sets. Interactive workshops such as these lead to eye- opening exposure which ultimately veers students’ towards alternative lines of thinking and realisations.” In her view, a global, digital and culturally intertwined future albeit with dangers of a strife torn scenario, would require these students to plug into their work in a major way, endeavours towards peace building.

Given the growing presence of new media tools and platforms and their role in information sharing, the workshop facilitated knowledge of important concepts through innovative on-field activities and transmitted requisite skills for students to pursue options quite different from those available in mainstream media.

So what did the students undertake as part of the workshop? Quite a varied and interesting set of activities that included:

• Learning about media’s role in creating and furthering stereotypes
• Conducting surveys about prevalent attitudes towards Pakistan among Indians
• Art activities and problem solving tasks devised around peace
• Preparing and presenting skits on peace building
• Watching short films on people to people contact in the Indo-Pak context
• Exploring existing social media peace initiatives between India and Pakistan

According to Chintan, “The growing interest in peace journalism comes from recognizing that media persons have, in many cases, created or instigated or exaggerated conflict instead of keeping their focus on reporting it. If media folks put their mind to it, they can be tremendously influential as peace builders. Journalists and other kinds of media makers need to radically rethink their priorities if they would like to be peace builders. For example, they will have to stop reporting on an India-Pakistan cricket match like a war. Or they will have to start reporting on India-Pakistan issues from a humanitarian perspective in addition to a national security perspective.”

During the workshop, students were shown films like Nina Sabnani’s ‘Mukand and Riaz’ and Supriyo Sen’s ‘Wagah’. They were also introduced to the work of other peace building initiatives between India and Pakistan such as Aman ki Asha, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, Building Peace Project and India loves Pakistan. What was important was students were allowed to explore different ideas of peace. Their learning, which otherwise may be dominated by classroom teaching, was let loose as they were sent out to explore ground realities by talking to people at the most common of places – railway stations, markets, cafes and the university campus.

Chintan shared that he enjoyed the workshop experience primarily because of the students’ enthusiasm to learn, to ask questions and to face challenges in the form of group tasks allotted to them. At the end of two days, they warmed up to the idea of peace journalism and were sensitized to thinking about how as future media practitioners they could do their bit for India-Pakistan peace.

The students had a similar story to tell. The workshop has set them thinking on many aspects of journalism, peace, Pakistan and their own perceptions about the ‘other’. All of them are abuzz with excitement about the projects they have undertaken post workshop.

For Kaushani Sen, the workshop was no less than a lifetime experience. She speaks with hope, “This workshop has changed me as a person, the way I perceived Pakistan, also the dynamics of media in respect to peace building or conflict resolution strategies. It made me a responsible citizen and somewhere enlightened the fire within me to visit Pakistan someday.” She affirms that the next time she hears anything negative about Pakistan, she will make an attempt to reason and talk to that person and let them know an alternative way of thought. Her friend Aparna Upadhyay felt it was interesting to talk to strangers about Pakistan and understand their point of views which in a way, have been shaped by the media over the years. As students are working on unique project proposals for promoting peace and friendship between the two countries, Aparna is excited about infusing this experience into the research project that she will be taking up in the next semester.

What Manish Yadav liked was the interactive nature of the workshop and that each one of them was participating through their original inputs. He now feels determined to not place blind belief on what media and other information sources tell him about Pakistan. Empathizing with his friends across the border, he says, “Pakistanis too are victims of terrorism. Instead of spewing hatred we should all be one in the fight against terror and violence perpetrated in the name of religion.” He wants to be a travel journalist, visit Pakistan, explore its natural beauty, talk to people, know more about their food, culture, life style, and bring forth the positive aspects of Pakistan. He also wants to run a Skype centre where people from India and Pakistan can talk to each other without restrictions to share their lives and build lasting friendships.

Aman Chhabra narrates a personal nostalgia since his maternal grandmother came from Lahore and had to leave the city during partition violence. “I have this wish of visiting Pakistan as my grandmother was just about five years old when her family had to leave Lahore and come to Delhi. I have read about the immense pain and agony that people underwent during the partition, and have always wondered why! In that sense, it was exhilarating to know that platforms such as friendshipsacrossborders.org are doing some wonderful work to promote peace between the two countries.” Though he himself doesn’t think negatively of Pakistanis, he knows many who do. That is why he feels it is essential to work to alter misconceptions and stereotypes about the ‘other’. His mother too, he says has a desire to visit Lahore, recalling a line from the movie Filmistaan (2014) – “Jine Lahore na dekhya ohne kuch na dekhya” (The one who hasn’t seen Lahore, hasn’t seen anything). 

The process of sensitization that has begun for students through this workshop will open them up to new and innovative thought processes. They have been given assignments to work with, on themes of ‘positive peace’, ‘negative peace’ and have submitted proposals with a scope to encompass different themes such as comparing the food, architecture, fashion and other cultural aspects of both countries. Project proposals include a range of ideas including use of mobile applications, tweeting about positive memories from the past, websites that promote friendship, a food blog and an online portal for games. Many among the students have also started pitching actively on FAB’s Facebook page and have shown a keen interest in contributing to other similar initiatives on social media. 

Dr. Chopra perhaps sums this entire experience in the best way, “There is no doubt about the fact that the deep imprint left on their minds and the internalisation of the spirit of “doing something” after going through the workshop will make these students remember and transfer to their work as professionals in the media - an inclusive approach - which would manifest in a positive way and help bridge and heal the divide and hurt between India and Pakistan.” What the students have indeed achieved through Making Media, Building Peace is not being guided to peace, but charting their own way to it. 

Nidhi Shendurnikar-Tere is an independent researcher with interests in politics, gender, peace and popular culture. She has been a former UGC fellow at The Dept. of Political Science, The M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat. She has recently submitted a PhD thesis in Political Science and is a team member with Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein
She blogs at http://www.68pagesofmylife.blogspot.com and tweets at @mailtonidhi

Written by Nidhi Shendurnikar-Tere and published on 15-April-2015 for the 'Sarhadpaar' campaign at Beyond Violence.