Mohammad Affan Javed is a Fullbright Scholar from Pakistan, studying at the Columbia University. He is also a resident at the International House in New York, a non-profit organisation which offers international students an inclusive community and leadership opportunities.

This year, students at International Houses around the world were invited to design and implement grassroots projects aimed at promoting peace, for the Davis Projects for Peace Prize valued at $10,000. Mr Javed’s project ‘Puppets for Peace’, designed for implementation in low-income schools in Islamabad’s suburbs was among the 20 projects to receive the grant.

Other proposals were submitted by students in Alberta, Berkeley, Chicago, London, Melbourne, Philadelphia, Sydney, Washington DC and Wollongong.

Dawn spoke to Mr Javed about the project and the motivation behind it.

Q: What activities do you plan to organise under the project ‘Puppets for Peace’?

A: We will be organising interactive sessions with school children aged 8-12 years and introduce them to the concept of peace as a conscious choice. For children of that age, we define peace as being synonymous with compassion and using words to settle differences and not causing anyone harm.

Concepts such as tolerance, celebration of diversity and understanding differences will also be introduced.

The project will use puppet shows, storytelling, moderated sessions and activities to introduce these concepts. The sessions will correlate with the learning outcomes identified in the curriculum.

For instance, in one of our sessions we intend to teach students about using words to negotiate favourable outcomes. An idea for introducing this concept is to give students different kinds of candy and have them negotiate to achieve the target of ending up with one kind of candy. Students will also be taken on a field trip and given goodie bags at the end of the programme, which would include stationary items for use in the classroom.

Q: What were your inspirations/motivations when designing your project?

A: When I decided to apply for the Davis Prize, I knew I would focus on Pakistan. While my professional background was in development, education, youth leadership and entrepreneurship, my affiliation with education as a field has been the strongest. But I also wanted to educate using a method which was fun.

I remembered watching Sesame Street a lot as a child and learning letters, numbers and other concepts with the help of beloved puppets such as Big Bird, Mr Count and Cookie Monster. So, I decided to design an educational project around puppets, which can engage students and help teach concepts such as peace with the help of stories.

I believe that storytelling is essential for shaping values in any society. The stories we listen and we tell, help us shape our identity. Stories of peace, courage, compassion and tolerance help children live these values and relate to them in their everyday life. Stories of war, anger, betrayal have a different effect altogether.

Unfortunately, today, our children are exposed to negative stories a lot more than positive ones. So it is important that we change the narrative and actively share positive stories, so our children imbibe positivity and optimism in their lives.

Q: How will you design the curriculum?

A: I will be working with Amna Yamin, my implementation partner, to develop the curriculum. She is also developing linkages with low-income schools, where we will be holding sessions. The head of one the schools Asma Tughral, who runs Saya School on the outskirts of the capital, is providing us with insight into the needs of students in Maira Aku, Maira Abadi and Daraigh Mori areas.

We also have support from students at Columbia Teachers College. For the sessions involving puppets, we are collaborating with Gogi Studios. Their team will design the puppets and present the sessions in classrooms.

Published in Dawn ,July 16th, 2015

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