possibility
of achieving the impossible.
Thus, 5 months of hard work began,
and every second that was put into it, was certainly worth
it.It was when the first participants from Nepal arrived
that it first struck me that it was really happening! Participants
then poured in over then next 2 days, until the 14th of
December had come to us faster than we had imagined. The
participants immediately got working on the YIP banner with
abounding zeal that culminated in a vivid creation that
was to paint the entire event with the colours of human
beauty they brought with them from the very beginning.
The opening ceremony was held at the
auditorium of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The
Karachi coordinator, an energized Ragni Kidvai, made very
touching introductions of the facilitators cum organizers
of the conference. Apart from myself, others from Aitchison
who facilitated were Ahsen Hafeez, Hissam Aziz and Mansur
Alvi. On the commencement of the conference, renowned human
rights activist Asma Jahangir said that HRCP had been trying
to bring the youth of the south asia together, "but
I'm glad you've done it yourselves."
From the very next day the camp took
off in full swing. The day would start with trust building
activities, followed by a study of the geography, history,
culture and conflicts of the country which that particular
day had been devoted to. We, the facilitators had assigned
different countries amongst ourselves to focus on, for the
purpose of the morning workshops. Fortunately, they all
turned out to be very interactive experiences, with some
even theatrical or quizzical in nature. Afternoons would
be spent in workshops ranging from Drama, Photography, Visual
arts, literature and creative writing to dance.
Evening session were used to chalk out country-specific
initiatives which everyone would help draw up. The times
after this were spent for more fun of the spontaneous kind,
also a very essential part of the bonding process. In fact,
I feel that it was during the late night talks and pizza
parades that we learnt the most about each other as people.
Since the theme of the conference was
"activism through the visual and performing arts"
many activists flew in from all over the world to share
their knowledge and experiences with us. Shahid ul Alam,
world famous photographer (DRIK) shared a visually rich
presentation presenting a variety of examples on photography
as a means of activism. In addition, he showed a keen interest
in helping the participants develop a platform for their
work.
Spending a week with Keith Fitzgerald
of Sea Change partners has been on the most intellectually
enriching yet amusing experiences. We had initially met
him at the Singapore Conference, but didn't get to spend
enough time with him to benefit from all he had to give
us. But this time he was here for a whole week, and now
he's even in the process of setting up an office here in
Lahore. It would certainly be nice to see Keith, a brilliant
manager of conflicts at all levels, spending more time in
this part of the world.
"They're afraid of us, but we're
not afraid of them", said Salima Hashmi, Chairman of
the South Asian Foundation (one of our main sponsors), but
more popularly known for her brilliance as an artist, during
her visual arts workshop. This feeling settled deeply in
the minds of the participant's as their feeling of empowerment
as agents of grew. By the time we went to visit the Wagah
border, none of us was afraid to wave across despite intimidation
from the guards. The trip to the border had been a very
stirring experience for all of us. Trina, an Indian participant,
felt the impact of division greater than we did, as she
stood on the Pakistani side of the border, in the background
of very nationalistic war songs. "But the colour of
our blood is one" she exclaimed to the press. At least
for all of us, barriers such as this had been reduced to
nothing more than physical blockades.
Madiha Gauhar, Director of Ajoka, pioneer
of theatrical activism in Pakistan, shared a wonderful afternoon
with us in which she shared with us videos of Ajoka's previous
endeavours, giving the participant's a deeper insight into
this medium. Later, she teamed up with Michael Shank of
Barefoot theatre (America) for a very entertaining activity
session, where the participants used frozen figures to convey
messages.
Michael was the lead facilitator at
the conference. He has been one of our greatest inspirations
at YIP. The very first day that he introduced the participants
to our song, or rather our mantra at YIP, we could see that
things were off to a magical start. It goes something like:"
We who believe in freedom shall not rest….We who believe
in freedom shall not rest until it comes". The word
freedom was often replaced by other powerful words like
"Justice", "Truth" and "Love",
as these were feelings we all continued to discover during
the 2 most amazing weeks of our lives. The song was soon
translated into 7 different languages and on the very last
day as we all sang it in one voice, it made us feel more
united than we've ever felt. We had discovered a power that
transcended all boundaries and physical distances. Our Bangladeshi
participants had to leave a day before. Yet the song reverberated
in the halls of the HRCP auditorium as passionately in Bengali
as well.
There's only one thing that we came
out of the conference lacking in- sleep! But it only took
a few days to recover that, for very soon we saw the participants
overflowing with enthusiasm to launch their projects back
home. And as we continue to work with them, we feel stronger
and more inspired by them than they actually realize. In
fact, there have been so many sources of support for us,
without whom the camp may have not even been a possibility.
Working with the people at ShirkatGah, the ASR centre, and
the HRCP, apart from being a most pleasurable experience
indeed,but we would like to thank the south Asian Foundation
for the huge amout of help they have provided us, has shown
how effective organizations like ours can be when we unite
for a common cause. We only hope the ripples we create can
grow to form waves and one day wash away the layers of misunderstanding
that deposit at the shores of our minds and hearts.
