Rising Voices Grantee Update
Following our last workshop, the team at jalaibi.com got together to assess and evaluate how beneficial it was to the participants and how we could improve it for the remainder of our plan. A few of the key learnings we had included the following:
1) Participants would like to spend more time in the actual workshop, the event we had arranged was only a half day event and we tried to cram a lot of learning into those 5 hours.
2) We need to establish a better way of ensuring that the participants begin to contribute following attendance at the workshop. We are still facing difficulty trying to ensure a steady stream of content for the blogsite.
3) We need to target a much wider audience for workshop attendance. We will try to include a greater number of participants, as despite confirmations and commitments there are a significant number of absentees. A greater number of participants will also ensure that break away groups at the actual workshops are more exciting.
4) We need to include hands on experience at the workshop which was neglected in the first workshop.
5) It is always useful to use the Jalaibi.com Facebook page as a means to communicate with the wider audience. Since we launched this page we have managed to generate much more interest in our venture nationwide.
We feel that by incorporating all these changes we will be able to arrange a more successful workshop which will go some way in helping us make jalaibi.com a success.
Currently in Pakistan, there is a lot of political activity due to street protests taking place in the capital. This has shifted the focus of most of the target and online population towards what many are staking out to be one of the largest peaceful protests in Pakistan. As jalaibi.com remains true to it's commitment of remaining apolitical it is proving to be a little difficult in generating greater interest in ventures which do not focus on the political side of things.
The jalaibi.com team will however continue to assert our apolitical manifesto during all our workshops to enable a more constructive online dialogue.
The next workshop was held on the 29th of August, 2014 in Karachi, we'll have an update soon about that activity. Our team has been working very hard to source the right trainers and contact the right participants to ensure the workshop's success. We will keep you all posted on the developments! Meanwhile, please do visit jalaibi.com and send us your comments, or even better- a blog!
We would love to hear from the Rising Voices community about their opinion regarding Pakistan. What positive do you see in our country? It would be a great addition and will definitely aid positive dialogue to be initiated.
9 comments
Hi Sarah, thanks for this update. Regarding your question: I’d love to read more about the vibrant cultural and culinary traditions of Pakistan. I think that would be a great way to find commonalities among different countries.
Hi Eddie, what a good idea. Yes we could definitely dive into the more traditional aspects of Pakistan and make linkages with our geographical and philosophical neighbours around the world!
This would make a great series of good news posts. A country a week :) So, what I think about Pakistan, I love how the language look, more artistic than Arabic IMO, Arabic speaker here. And I loved working with Pakistanis over the years before I switched careers to Social Media, both online and offline. I also love how dynamic the social media scene is there.
Thank you Mohamed. We have planned an entire series of blogs and videos to share with all of you about the Urdu language which is our National Language. We will also tell you about the provincial languages, some of which predate many, many modern languages. We’d love to get your feedback on those. Stay tuned to jalaibi.com!
Something positive I see in Pakistan is the music fusion with traditional and modern music.
I interviewed Tabish Habib and Zain Ali about this:
http://www.mixcloud.com/lakisarah/culture-lens-discussing-fusion-music-from-pakistan-with-tabish-and-zain-june-2014/
and Rezwan covered it: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/06/20/music-pakistan-folk-urban-social-media-sarak-sarak-mai-dhai-band-piphany/
But I am curious to learn more about music in Pakistan. Thanks!
Thank you Lakshmi! Yes fusion music is very popular in Pakistan. We are branching out by not merely using traditional instruments but also folk songs. That’s a fantastic idea. I will start working on this!
Sarah, jalaibi.com is a great initiative!! It’s making a difference in the blogging world! Everyday we read those typical crispy political blogs, yet Jalaibi is a relief from all those news! As being a Pakistani Blogger I think that Jalaibi is a place where you can piece of mind! You can find something different than usual! I agree that people nowadays go with the political blogs as they have occupied the news circles. Yet after some while, we all need something different! And that’s what Jalaibi is all about! I love it and they are many like me! Yet Jalaibi needs more promotion and its my mission now! Thanks Rising Voices for letting us know about such an awesome initiative! Hope to meet the Jalaibi team soon!
enHi Anushe, I’m so happy we reached you through this RV forum! Yes, we would love to have you on board! We are constantly wanting good content from Pakistani bloggers which paints our country in the best light possible! Please do get in touch with me through our FB page and I look forward to having you as part of our blogging arsenal!