By Rimsha Ali Shah.
Zoom in: A girl sits with a book in hand, staring at it woefully. You can see the pain etched in her eyes; the anguish of not being able to go to college eating away at her. Unfortunately there was not much that can be done for she is bound by societal pressure and unable to commute to the university situated just an hour away from her town.
This is the plot of one of the 60 second documentary videos produced by the energetic group of 30 participants from across Hyderabad who were a part of the alumni small grant project: “The rise of community journalism,” a week-long community journalism skill-training camp organized and led by International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) alumna Samreen Ghauri. The participants were trained by journalists from the PUAN community, including Samreen, Fulbright alumna Dr. Azadi Faateh Muhammad and IVLP alumna Noreen Khan . A session on exchange programs was also held during the training.
This training was made possible with the help of $5,000 USD grant from the Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network (PUAN). All alumni of various U.S. government sponsored exchange programs in Pakistan are eligible to apply for the grant to enable them to give back to their communities.
Mobilizing Aspiring Journalists
‘I discovered different horizons of journalism by participating in this program. I was encouraged to present my ideas and was assisted by professional journalists in making my first documentary,”
said Sabahat-Us-Saba, one of the participants.
Training session with Dr. Azadi
The week-long camp took place from November 10 – 18, 2015 and trained participants on how to effectively utilize radio, print, television and social media to raise awareness of pertinent issues in their community. Interestingly, media studies students were not the only attendees; students in other fields including computer science and management studies, for instance, were interested in the training and found it equally useful.
“Even though I am a Computer Science student, I am glad I enrolled in this training. I knew what journalism was but this course has practically taught me how I can merely use my smartphone for highlighting issues of my community,” said Hira, a final year media studies student from Sindh University.
Muniba, also from Sindh University said, “The documentary project was a great way to learn. We wrote the script in one day, acted ourselves, captured the shots and also edited to produce it, all within 24 hours! It was difficult, but as a student of media studies, I know that is exactly the kind of pressure faced by journalists.”
Participants brainstorm ideas for effective story-telling
The training camp polished the inherent skills of the participants—turning aspiring writers, bloggers, photographers and videographers in to trained personnel. Recently, Athar Abro, a budding writer and student of media studies, had his first journalistic piece published in a local magazine on the state of education in the Sindh region. Another participant, Yasir, was the first in this cohort to create his own blog focusing on cultural preservation in Hyderabad.
The training also helped some participants realize their true calling. Shadab, a writer for Mehran News who travelled from Sukkur for the training said,
‘For me, this has been a life- changing experience. Now I know I want to a community-based multimedia journalist who acts locally but thinks globally. This training will definitely help me a lot in the work I do as a print journalist.”
As a follow-up to the training, the 30 freshly-trained journalists were given an assignment to showcase their skills: to cover the local government elections that took place in Hyderabad in the month of November. For updates on their journey, you can check out the group’s facebook page.
