Global village: 1,500 students to join volunteer programmes

Interns from several countries have arrived for the event.

LAHORE:

Participants from 25 countries will team up with local youth to promote volunteerism, coexistence and tolerance at a Global Village event to be held on Saturday (today) at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (PILAAC).

The event is jointly organised by Bargad Volunteers Network (BVN) and the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences (AIESEC).

“The aim is to provide a platform to volunteers to work for youth development in various areas and capacities,” Saiqa Rani, head of the BVN Volunteer Management Cell told The Express Tribune.

She said the Global Village would host more than 1,500 youth from Lahore. She said the volunteers would include students from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore Grammar School, Lahore School of Economics, National College of Arts, University of Punjab, the FAST university, Forman Christian College Lahore, and Government College University Lahore.

She said the event would run the entire day from 2pm to late in the night.

She said the BVN had recently restructured its volunteer network. She said the volunteer programme started in 1997.

She said BVN volunteers would collaborate with international AIESEC interns who would participate in the Global Village.

Rani said the BVN was currently appointing volunteers and coordinators from across the country.

She said the BVN team had so far appointed five provincial coordinators, 30 campus coordinators and 80 district coordinators.

“The greater the outreach of such networks, the easier it is for the youth to identify social problems and work on solutions to address them.”

Rani said AIESEC had a presence in more than 100 countries and 80,000 members.

She said members from Germany, Italy, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and China had arrived in Lahore.

Rani said the event would facilitate dialogue between the youth from various countries to evolve solutions for social problems.

“The foreign interns recently held photography classes for children from the red light area of Lahore,” Rani said.

“The Global Village will also showcase work of these children in a photo exhibition,” she added.

“Such activities help create awareness regarding social responsibility for a better society,” said Rani.

She said the global village event would include activities such as country presentations and cultural performances by AIESEC members.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.