‘Youth Volunteerism Initiative’ concludes

Islamabad

A day-long activity engaging the young students of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad brought the curtains down on the ‘Youth Volunteerism Initiative’. The initiative was launched by the UNV (United Nations Volunteers) in collaboration with the ‘Act’ (Aiming Change for Tomorrow), an Islamabad-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).

A group of 30 students, both female and male, were engaged to brain-storm and come up with workable solutions to three major issues facing the society. These were the ‘Conflict Handling’; ‘Gender Issues’; and ‘Handling Power while Conducting Social Action Projects’.

Zunaira Nauman worked with the students as the Trainer/Training Coordinator while Asiya Perveen Mughal, the Media and Communication Manager from ‘Act’. Abaid Ullah, he Assistant Manager, Career Development Centre coordinated with the two on behalf of COMSATS.

The students, divided in three groups, come up with different ideas, focusing on ‘improving environments’, ‘engaging the transgenders in self-employment activities’ and ‘saving food’.

The idea of the group working on taking tangible steps aimed at controlling and improving the quality of air and controlling soil contamination received a lot of appreciation.

The students came up with the idea of selecting the suitable varieties of indigenous trees and plants after conducting scientific soil tests in a selected area and then conduct a meaningful plantation campaign over the selected area to bring down the air pollution as well as sub-soil contamination and improving water level. They were of the view that results of this initiative will start showing over a period of 5 years, expressing hope that those would be positive and encouraging.

The other team came up with a project of selecting a transgender who is willing to live a respectable life in society instead of joining those whom we see around us, indulging in anti-social and disliked activities. The team of students had planned to offer him run a tuck-shop on the COMSATS campus with the permission of the administration. The selected transgender will be given the opportunity to lead a respectable life through this project, which if succeeded, could become a role model for many more transgender.

The third group came up with the idea of preserving the ‘left-over food’ from the cafeteria on the campus in a systematic manner and pack that at the end of the day and distribute it amongst the needy found in the surrounding localities.

At the conclusion the CEO Act, Mubashar Nabi, the Executive Director of Human Resource Learning Centre, Riffat Shams, Zunaira Nauman, Asiya Parveen Mughal and Abaid Ullah gave away shields and participation certification to the students.