By Majid Mushtaq, 2013 Global UGrad alumnus
I belong to a rural area of Pakistan and my father, being a farmer, couldn’t afford my education expenses alone. But then I started doing freelancing and for the last three years, I have been paying my tuition fee myself. I always thought if I, belonging to a rural area, can help my family, why can’t other young minds in other rural areas of Pakistan do the same?
Majid Mushtaq
I visited Farash Town with my teacher and came to know that there are many girls who have done M.A, B.Ed, or B.A. but due to family restrictions, are not allowed to work outside.
I decided to help them by introducing them to the concept of freelancing, and teaching them computer skills like data entry, article writing, etc. The basic idea was empowering students, especially women, so that they can earn while sitting at home.
I applied for a “Project Smile” IREX grant under the title “Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES)” and my idea got accepted. I conducted the first workshop in Rising Star School in May 2014, where 16 female students and teachers participated.
I introduced them to concepts of freelancing and guided them with sessions on:1) What is freelancing: How people can earn money through internet and help their family; 2)What are different freelancing platforms out there; 3) What kind of jobs they can get from freelancing; and 4) How to write a job-winning proposal.
May 2014 Workshop at Rising Star School
And later on in next workshop I moved to a step-by-step guide on getting a job in data entry. I also helped them out, from writing proposal to getting their first job done.
After conducting a series of workshops in Rising Star School in Frash Town, I conducted a June 2014 workshop in Ali Trust College Islamabad where I introduced 42 students to the concepts of blogging, web design, freelancing and how they can use internet to bring positive change in society.
I believe this project changed the lives of hundreds of poor families. After these workshops, students and teachers have started learning to apply for online jobs and started earning income through the internet. In the long run, what I see is this project will help Pakistan to come out of economic crisis by eliminating poverty.
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Project Smile, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State and implemented by IREX, provides grants to alumni of selected ECA-sponsored programs to implement community service activities that will benefit an underprivileged group.
