National integration: ‘Unity and peace is what I have learnt here’

Students return to homes around Pakistan after Seeds of Peace camp.

LAHORE:

Fifty students and ten teachers from all over Pakistan got together to explore their cultural similarities and differences at the five-day National Integration Camp organised by the Seeds of Peace Pakistan here.

“The aim was to teach children to communicate the differences and acknowledge the similarities between people from all the provinces, in order to break the stereo-typing that exists regarding other provinces,” said Seeds of Peace Country Director Sajjad Ahmad at the conclusion of the camp at the Divisional Public School (DPS) in Lahore.

The national camp initiated on March 22 at the DPS ground which included sporting activities and dialogue sessions. “There is a need to create a dialogue amongst the youth of our country  such platforms provide that opportunity,” Ahmad said.

Four provinces

“We had apprehensions before coming to Lahore, but this camp has been one of the best experiences of my life,” said Ahsanullah Mohsin, who is principal of a public school in Quetta and escorted 10 students from Balochistan to the camp.

He said his students had developed a better understanding of other people. “The children got to know about other cultures in the country and how similar we all are despite our apparent differences,” he said.

Mohammad Ihtesham from Quetta said he would share his experiences with his friends back home. An aspiring mechanical engineer, Ihtesham said the best part of the camp was the opportunity to speak to children from other parts of the country about issues that affected all of them.

Inshara Maqsood, 14, from Karachi said the dialogue sessions had helped the children relate to issues faced by people in other provinces. The eighth grader identified load shedding, water shortages and the jirga system in rural areas as some of the major problems faced by Sindh. She said there was a need to educate the politicians of the country. She said she had learnt a lot about Lahore during the trip and would take fond memories of the city back to Karachi.

Sania Afraz, 17, from Islamabad said the camp helped her realise that people could live in harmony despite their differences. “It’s amazing to see that all these children are exactly like me,” she said. “Unity and peace is what I have learnt here.”

Rubina Shaheen, who teaches Urdu at the Hafsa Grammar School in Peshawar, said that the team from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would try to conduct a similar camp in Peshawar. “We hope to organise a three-day camp in Peshawar where local schools will be educated about the need to understand other people,” she said. A hope shared by the young

Volunteers

Twenty-five young facilitators and counsellors had volunteered for the camp, during which girl participants were hosted at the SOS Village hostel and the boys at the DPS boys hostel.

Faraz Malik, a second year student at GCU responsible for organising sporting activities at the camp, said the biggest challenge was getting the children to speak up. “The participants are in the 14 to 17 age group so it took us some time to help them communicate and express themselves,” said Malik. “In the end it was all worth the effort.”

Counsellor Syed Shahzeb Ali, who has been with SOP Pakistan since 2007, said that many children were of the opinion that Punjab had “stolen” resources from the other provinces. “They were well aware of the issues of each region of the country,” he said.

SOP Pakistan Joint Secretary Fahad Ali Kazmi said it was the first time that children from all the provinces had been brought together since the organisation started in the country in 2001.

With folk dances, cultural songs and parting speeches, the young participants of the five day national camp exchanged their contact details with one another hoping to stay in touch with friends made in other provinces.

“It has been an overwhelming experience to see these children come so close to one another,” said Ahmad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2012.