Up in the wilderness
By Huma Khawar
BHURBAN is one of the many small towns doting the slopes, valleys and mountaintops around Islamabad, and creating a truly jungle main mangal scene. Beauty combined with wilderness, Bhurban is undeniably one of the most beautiful hill stations around Islamabad.
The place is busy all year round. In summers, people take respite from the scorching heat of the city, while in winters they throng there to catch a glimpse of the snowfall. But this happens only if Lady Luck is on your side. For it takes oodles of good fortune to be there at the right time to catch the snow falling.
Besides the newly-weds whom you can see just about anywhere, the Bhurban trip being part of most couple’s honeymoon package, the place has become a vital spot for meetings and conferences. In fact, for the past few years it has been labelled as ‘the most luxurious venue’, where NGOs meet with donors to arrange seminars. But, apart from the comfortable environment and the natural surroundings, Bhurban is an ideal workshop venue if you want the invitees to participate fully. Together for two or three days, from different parts of the country, they interact more freely and causally all the time. There is more likelihood of the participants developing a lasting bond of friendship in such relaxing surroundings.
Such was the experience in the second week of May when the restless journalist fraternity were invited to a two-day consultative workshop that brought print and electronic media together to think up of ways to generate more awareness regarding HIV/AIDS and help keep Pakistan a low prevalence country for it.
As of September 2002, 1,741 cases of HIV and 231 AIDS cases had been identified, though the actual numbers are believed to be higher due to underreporting and lack of effective surveillance system. Among the reported cases, the most common modes of transmission are heterosexual transmission (41%), contaminated blood and blood products (17%), followed by homosexual or bisexual sex (4%), intravenous drug usage (3%) and mother-to-child transmission (1%). However, the mode of transmission is not known for 34% of the cases. Despite the low prevalence rates, behaviours and underlying vulnerabilities exist in Pakistan that favour the spread of the disease.
The workshop, organized by the National Aids Control Programme in collaboration with UNICEF and UNAIDS, was meant to sensitize the media to take the lead role in breaking the silence around existing taboos in a socially responsible manner and disseminate information on prevention. The media can play a vital role in breaking the silence regarding HIV/AIDS which is leading to denial and continuous ignorance.
The session on existing misconceptions associated with transmission was a very useful one. For it was felt that until and unless the journalists themselves are clear about the issue, they couldn’t practice responsible reporting. It is very unfortunate that journalists working on health beats are learning the facts on the job, without any training.
KHAADI MELA
Face devoid of any makeup, hair, with strands of white, loosely tied in a bunch or twisted and held with a crab, khussa on the feet, wearing a crisp khaadi kurta — this is the NGO activist women for you, who are not too difficult to recognize. The latest fad with them is wearing short khaadi kurta over flared jeans or pants.
Seems like we are getting more and more indigenized day by day. Gone are the expensive rugs and carpets to be replaced with coarse durries, the crystal have been put away and instead clay pottery adorns the drawing room niches and tables. It is not only the interiors, but the exteriors as well. In fact, the entire architecture of the houses has gone through a change. The outer finish is no pastry painting but a roughcast or Chakwal ka pathar supported by blue and green glazed tiles. The brick-lined courtyards of our grandparents’ homes, where one can nostalgically remember spending one’s childhood, are back in fashion and an integral part of new houses.
Little wonder then that the three-day Khaadi Mela or Weavers Forum, set up by a group of NGOs, was such a great success. Spread out in the Fatima Jinnah Park, in Sector F-9, the mela was an entertaining event for all classes of people in the capital. Stalls displayed different qualities of hand-loom materials available in various colours, shades and prices. The variety on sale was not gender bias and men and women shopped like crazy, buying all shades and qualities of khaadi for kurtas, shirts and trousers.
The government made all the right noises, with the Minister for Industries expressing the need for giving priority to increasing the productivity of the hand-loom sector and cottage industry, thereby reviving the hand-loom sector and offering special packages for the weavers community to come to the mainstream economic activities.
|
