For a group ofkids from the UK a trip to Pakistan was an eye-openning experience
In a world fraught with fear and danger, taking care of the myths and suspicions is a must. And it is here that cultural exchanges play an important role. One such activity recently took place when the British Council, along with various universities in the UK and in Pakistan, managed to bring to the country thirteen students from the British Isles in an attempt to bridge the cultural divide that exists between the two countries.
Titled, Students Dialogue Project, under the umbrella of the British Council’s Connecting Futures Program, the initiative brought to Pakistan pupils who had either never heard of the country, or when they did, it was almost surely in a negative image.
In this regard we had a word with Shizreen Shah, Projects Manager, British Council. According to her, the Under the Students Dialogue Project is an effort to build mutual respect and tolerance, understanding between Pakistan, the UK and other countries. “At the same time we aim to have a youth network that will challenge stereotypes and myths that exist between the two societies,” she said. The project is primarily aimed towards ‘young adults’. Mind you, these aren’t children we are talking about here!
Shizreen informed us that all the students were from the social sciences and liberal arts faculty. And though, in its inaugural year this project has been confined to the UK and Pakistan only, “In the coming years, we do hope to expand to other regional countries.” If that happens, it would be interesting, because we would have children from all over the globe and come see Pakistan as a normal, important member of the world community. Indian students coming to Pakistan and vice versa. And in this era of CBMs, it’s not too much to ask.
For its inaugural year, students from various universities from across the UK were picked for the program. These included universities of Edinburgh, Warwick, Cardiff and Glasgow. From Pakistan, the universities involved in the project, included Peshawar, Quaid-e-Azam, Karachi and Mehran. “The universities reacted well to our request and were very enthusiastic about the whole project,” said Shizreen. “This year’s theme of the student dialogue is ‘Identity’. As part of the project we conducted workshops as well as videoconferencing, dimension forums. Of course we are going to share with each other, the gist of these activates, the experiences and the work.” When queried if it would be possible to send Pakistani students to the UK in the future, Shizreen sounded hopeful at best. But for the moment, students like Richard Blane from the Cardiff University and Tommy Wan from Glasgow certainly enjoyed the activities. When I met them, these kids sounded quite optimistic and happy that they were part of this ground-breaking project.
“This is my second visit to Pakistan,” said Richard, a young adult with an ambition of one day, being a reporter. Earlier he had been to Peshawar with an NGO. “This is a unique experience from me and it has been simply fantastic.” He was of the opinion that more such activities need to be organized more frequently as one gets to meet a lot of people with whom you share similar interests. But what impressed him the most was the ‘intelligence, the content and the truthfulness of the people’. Of course he was talking about the people he met in the Pakistani student fraternity. “People have not been fake about themselves, they have been open about who and what they are,” voiced a visibly impressed student from the UK. Though he confessed that he was nervous about visiting Pakistan, but once he was here, he relaxed and really enjoyed the stay. So much so that during our meeting, he expressed his interest in wanting to go the Karachi beach. Though he had a look at it in the night, a visit during the day was what he craved for. During his stay, Richard had also managed to grab hold of bits and pieces of the local lingua, as he proudly said, “Dost.” Now that’s good!
Coming to Tommy, the tour to Pakistan really helped take care of a number of inhibitions. Though his parents were fine about his trip to Pakistan, he confessed he was nervous. However, that was taken care of during his visit to the Karachi University. “There I photographed females, with their permission,” Tommy said, sounding almost astonished. Seems like a stereotype was taken care of here. In fact he went to say that his experience in the university was quite different from what he had expected. The journey, to and from the KU was made in the KU Point. And on the way back, he along with other British students, had a song competition, with Pakistani students.
Syed Mohsin Ali Shah, of Mehran University, Jamshoro was one of them and he too sounded quite optimistic of the project.
As is the case whenever you go on the foreign trip, there is always a shopping list, and Tommy had one too. “I have bought Pakistan shawls for the folks back home, and for myself, I have bought a marble chessboard,” he told. Of course these things were picked up during their trip to Zainab Market and the Sunday Bazaar. Of parents who primarily belong to Hong Kong, he drew a number of parallells with Karachi. Still, it was hotter than what he had expected Karachi to be. Nevertheless, the kids went around a whole lot of places, including the mazar of Quaid-e-Azam.
Another student who was happy to be part of the project was Madhur, a British student who is primarily from Chandigarhfc, India. Of course Pakistan held nothing new in culture and traditions for her. Probably that is why she found it easy to make a number of friends here. And then, her interest in cricket would have helped as well.
Johime Lee, from Warwick did have an idea about Pakistan, but above all, he was pleased to find the Pakistani students here were well spoken and intelligent. “They are passionate about the social and economic issues. In fact, the whole trip has been eye opening, though the economic disparity that I have seen here, is really of concern,” said Johime. He went on to opine that the economic and political opportunity is something that should be given to all human beings. Of course this opinion must have come after the group’s visit to the low-income locality of Orangi, where the students visited a house living off the income of one working woman.
Nevertheless, he had really high words for the students he met. “The future is with the young generation, and these are the students. I do believe that Pakistan is in safe hands, because students are really eager to say something; they all have an opinion.” Let’s hope he turns out to be right.
For a group ofkids from the UK a trip to Pakistan was an eye-openning experience 
