Dr. Saman Nazeer is our Fulbrighter from 2015 batch and is currently working as researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, a leading think tank devoted to theoretical and empirical research in Development Economics. She also teaches in the Departments of Development Studies and Public policy at PIDE. Under Alumni Small Grant (ASG), Dr. Saman has recently completed a project titled ‘Pakistan for All’ funded by U.S. Mission to Pakistan and PUAN.
The project aims to discuss religious pluralism for children/adults through the medium of whiteboard animations. The project has been executed through the whiteboard animations (5 animations in total). The scripts for the animations were developed as informed by the research on the topic. Each script will be 3-4 mins long, in verbal form. The voice-over was recorded, and initial imagery was set. Doodly whiteboard animation software was used to create the animations. After the animations were created, a pre-test was done. Children were shown the animations, and their feedback was collected about what they learnt from the videos. A YouTube channel was created to upload these animations. The dissemination of the project was done through social media marketing and by the contacting the schools directly via email.
Dr. Saman believes that due to many structural loopholes, political and societal biases, minorities in the country have been subjected to continual attacks in hate speeches, derogatory treatments, violence, killings, and discrimination, to name a few. The religious polarization in the country has a significant impact on minorities’ positions and rights and internal peace and security. Therefore, she tried to address the subject matter through her infotainment by producing this series of animations under PUAN ASG.
Animations produced under this grant can be access via:
https://youtu.be/ibsqxsWk4f4 https://youtu.be/zdKE-1GutXo https://youtu.be/c_J459CdJD8 https://youtu.be/o8K4Vv8BL_s https://youtu.be/dBuVCZ_ikkY
