 Spend
Your Summer for Pakistan!
By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer
Summer is a great opportunity for young Pakistanis to spend their time for
the improvement of Pakistan. Here are some ideas that will help you to plan
your activities to help improve Pakistan.
Adopt
a Public School
According to the Human Development in South Asia's 1998 report, 70 per cent
of the schools in Pakistan have no toilets, 68 percent no drinking water, 92
percent no playgrounds, 60 per cent no boundary walls and 16 percent are without
a building.
You can sponsor the education of one child or even two. But why not do something
on an even larger scale? Sponsor or "adopt" a public school and help
provide for its needs. That way you'll be benefiting not only a few children,
you'll be helping a whole neighborhood.
Sponsor
a Village in Pakistan
In Pakistan, villages come in different sizes, from the one made up of several
different clans, for instance to the smaller units of less than 100 people.
Sponsoring a village does not mean that you would have to provide for the livelihood
of each person in each village. Rather, what it actually means is providing
for some of a village's basic needs like immunization from diseases, clean water
and a basic education.
You can help provide for these needs with a very minimal financial commitment.
One American dollar a month can provide immunization and clean water for a child
in a village, along with an education. That's the power of a dollar. That's
the power of 25 cents a week. You could sponsor the needs of a village of 200
children with just $200 a month. On a larger level, you could sponsor these
needs for a year.
Initiate
a Media Watch Group
Pakistan has two media-related problems in the U.S.: biased reports and minimal
coverage. Storiesare typically limited to the negative: a military takeover,
sectarian killings or honor killings to mention a few.
Some may consider such coverage propaganda or just journalistic bias. Whatever
it is, it's time for Pakistani-Americans to take a firm stand against the way
Pakistan is covered (or not covered) by journalists.
You can play a role in improving your local media's coverage of Pakistan by
starting a media watch group in your area.
Organize
an Essay Competition
Urdu is slowly dying in America. Amongst young Pakistani-Americans, it is rare
to hear the language spoken, even to their immigrant parents. And let's not
even mention reading and writing Urdu. That also seems to be a disappearing
communication skill amongst the young generation.
Of course, this is not true of everyone. And the good news is, many Pakistani-American
youth do feel badly not knowing their mother tongue or Pakistan's official language
well enough.
You can use this sentiment to fuse life into this issue by hosting an essay
contest for young Pakistani-Americans. The topic to be written about: why Pakistani-Americans
must keep Urdu alive.
Organize
an Iqbal Night
Muhammad Iqbal is one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. But for
Muslims from the Indian subcontinent, he is much more. Iqbal advanced the idea
of a separate homeland for Muslims on the subcontinent. He planted the idea
in the hearts and minds of thousands of Muslims who later supported and worked
for the establishment of Pakistan.
But many Pakistani-Americans, especially those from the younger generation,
have hardly heard of him nor understand the impact he has had.
Pakistanis of all ages and from all walks of life should be familiar with this
great personality. Here's one activity that can help: Iqbal night in your home
or on your campus. It's not difficult to organize and simply requires some effort
and cooperation from those involved.
Start up
a website about some aspect of Pakistan
When it comes to Pakistan, most websites focus on music, lollywood, fashion
and food. But there's much more to our great country than that.
There are about 360 million websites on the world wide web today. From the
informative to the weird, to the fascinating and the beautiful, there are all
kinds of sites that provide not only information, but unique perspectives on
issues as well.
You can do something for Pakistan by building a website that focuses on some
aspect of the country that has not been covered before. Or, you can take an
existing topic and give it a unique perspective.
To get more ideas visit ‘Just
do One Thing for Pakistan’
Date/Time Last Modified: 6/2/2006 4:54:25 AM
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