Focus
Pakistan: Open Minds
Years active: 2009-2010
IWPR’s Open Minds project in Pakistan seeks to engage youth in public discussion and debate. It works in 42 state schools and madrassas across the country’s troubled areas – Northwest Frontier Province (including Swat Valley), Karachi and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas – training some 4,000 secondary school students, both boys and girls, in basic journalism and discussion skills.
The project’s young trainees have published a number of articles in Pakistani newspapers and a group in the remote northern area of Chitral has launched a radio show with all reports recorded by student trainees.
Pakistan: Feb/Mar ‘10
Student says IWPR Open Minds training contributed to his triumph in regional debating competition.
Pakistan: Dec ‘09/Jan ‘10
Local authorities restore school‘s electricity after IWPR article appears in local newspaper.
Pakistan: Dec ‘09/Jan ‘10
IWPR trainees produce radio programmes and more of their articles appear in the local press.
Pakistan: Oct/Nov ‘09
Students attending IWPR classroom discussions say they’ve acquired a better understanding of rights issues.
Pakistan: Sept '09
Participants in Open Minds project bolstered by publication of first story in national press.
Pakistan: Sep ‘09
IWPR training programme enabling girls to air their views in the classroom.
Pakistan: July/Aug ‘09
Religious leaders and madrassa students in Pakistan keen to embrace the media.