Arriving in Islamabad at 2:00 in the morning has some advantages: the roads are quieter, the air a little cooler and the check points quicker to navigate. After the usual 'challenges' of long distance travel I arrived in quite good condition. One lesson to take away: grace and generosity, selfishness and impatience are not bound by culture or status - they belong to humanity in all its beauty!
My second visit to the work in Pakistan promises to hold some of its own challenges. This time, in a just over three weeks, I will be taking a look at a few different projects that come under my oversight.
But the big work will be facilitating a workshop on the design of two integrated multi-funded, multi-sectored program models that will seek to address child well-being in a rural and an urban context. This is going to involve some research, some creative dreaming, some pragmatic ordering and a lot of coffee. We'll be building logframes and problem trees, mapping power and influence, analysing partner relationships and at the end of it - working out how best we can use Australian government funding to transform the lives of children - not so that they survive but so that they thrive.
One of the projects is called Pakistan Pinedabad. Pinedabad is an Urdu concept, it captures the idea of "more than survival" - it dares to imagine that people have the right to more than rights. It is the dream that children have the right to life in all its fullness - life with laughter, with learning, with love - LIFE!
So, it's a big ask, but my goal in the next three weeks, is to help the team here in Pakistan dream big - and then shape that dream into a reality that together we can hope for and deliver. Pakistan (children), More than Survival!
Insha'Allah.
My second visit to the work in Pakistan promises to hold some of its own challenges. This time, in a just over three weeks, I will be taking a look at a few different projects that come under my oversight.
- A couple of children's drop in centres where street/working kids receive health care and basic life lessons, they learn how to thrive.
- Education programs designed to help existing schools improve their facilities so that children and teachers are safe - so that kids want to go to school.
- Trafficking/Child labour projects, where we will be investigating the potential of an ethical brick trade
But the big work will be facilitating a workshop on the design of two integrated multi-funded, multi-sectored program models that will seek to address child well-being in a rural and an urban context. This is going to involve some research, some creative dreaming, some pragmatic ordering and a lot of coffee. We'll be building logframes and problem trees, mapping power and influence, analysing partner relationships and at the end of it - working out how best we can use Australian government funding to transform the lives of children - not so that they survive but so that they thrive.So, it's a big ask, but my goal in the next three weeks, is to help the team here in Pakistan dream big - and then shape that dream into a reality that together we can hope for and deliver. Pakistan (children), More than Survival!
Insha'Allah.
