Learning initiative: After English language course, Lyari youth ready to take on the world

An English language training initiative focuses on improving lives of 150 boys and girls.

KARACHI: When Adeel Hayat, a 22-year-old resident of Aath Chowk, Lyari, was offered an opportunity to participate in an English language and peace-building training initiative, he did not really believe it would serve to be a life-changing event.

On Saturday, after a span of six months of participation, the ambitious graduate was, however, able to articulate his ideas before an audience of several hundred at the Pak-American Cultural Center (PACC). He now believed that through better employment opportunities and community service, the youth have the power to bring a real change in the impoverished and strife-hit neighbourhood of Lyari. The speech was a part of the graduation ceremony comprising 175 young boys and girls who had completed the rigorous six-month ‘English Learning Programme for Peace’, especially designed for the youth of Lyari by the PACC in collaboration with the Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI). The programme was free-of-charge and the participants were provided a transportation facility by the KYI.



“The 150-hour programme was not only about teaching them English, it was also about helping them grow as potential leaders and contributors in the social and economic development of Lyari,” said the PACC English Language Programme director Madiha Rehman. She added that the programme was designed to help develop a sense of pride and self-confidence in the students so that they can achieve their life goals. “I believe that we have achieved the objective of equipping the students with good communication and leadership skills that will enable them to serve their communities.”

Another participant, a 19-year-old Zamzam Saeed, who also bagged the ‘top student’ award agreed to participate in the programme as she genuinely felt it would be a good learning experience. “The purpose of education is to refine an individual and these six months were all about that,” she said.



The participants, aged between 16 and 25, were inducted in the programme through KYI recruitment camps that were arranged in all the 11 union councils of Lyari. “Of around 1,000 applications that we received, we chose those girls and boys who we felt displayed the will to do something for themselves and their community but had just not been provided with the necessary opportunities to do so before this,” said the KYI spokesperson Farhan Iqbal.

“The youth of Lyari is exceptionally talented and it is the duty of the authorities and the society to guide that talent in the right direction,” said the chief guest of the ceremony and PACC president Rafiq Tabani.

Tabani also thanked the parents of the students for encouraging and supporting their children through the programme, and distributed awards and certificates to the students.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2014.