Students in class at the Madrasa Tajveed ul Quran, Peshawar, Pakistan.
Students in class at the Madrasa Tajveed ul Quran, Peshawar, Pakistan. © Open Minds Pakistan

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: 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.

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