International acclaim: A forum for the youth to mingle and share their views

The Voice of Youth came in second at the World Summit Youth Award 2011.


Peer Muhammad October 02, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Momal Mushtaq is proud of her achievement for Pakistan at the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) 2011. Her project, the Voice of Youth (tVoY), which according to its website aims to “create a forum where the youth of Pakistan could mingle and enrich one other by their perceptions and views”, came in second at the summit.


“Receiving international acclaim is a matter of pride not just for the recipient but for the whole nation,” the young National University of Sciences and Technology Business School student said.

WSYA, an international organisation that selects and promotes the best practices in e-content, received more 700 submissions from 99 countries this year. The WSYA demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital contents, according to its website.

In August, an international jury consisting of multimedia and Information Technology (IT) experts and social entrepreneurs from 17 countries selected the very best entries in each of the six WSYA categories. The categories under which projects were invited by the summit this year were 1) Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease! 2) Education for All! 3) Power 2 Women! 4) Create your Culture ! 5) Go Green! 6) Pursue Truth!

tVoY came in second in the Create your Culture! category.

Mushtaq, who is also the chief editor of tVoY, said, “[The project] is an online youth community working to cultivate relations [within the] youth, providing all with a platform to freely pursue their individuality for collective progression.”

The youth portal, since its launch on June 26, 2010, has amassed more than 6,000 fans on Facebook; more than 200 youth from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Philippines contribute to it, according to Mushtaq. She said tVoY is more like a family for its users as it has successfully built a strong relationship with its each and every fan.

The portal aims to promote youth’s perspective many views on popular social issues, thus promoting acceptance, tolerance and broad-mindedness, Mushtaq said.

The portal also acts as a database for events occurring at institutes around Pakistan, she added. The website has a section to electronically preserve Urdu and other regional languages for future generations and also aims to connect young Pakistanis to young people all around the world.

Mushtaq will go to Graz in Austria in November, where she will receive her award during a four-day event. The portal can be accessed on the web at thevoiceofyouth.com

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2011.

 

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