Powerful do not have Monopoly on Talent
An admirable achievement by Pakistani underprivileged youngsters
The team of five young people won the Regional Enterprise Award Competition organized by the British Council in London. These youngsters came from Government Vocational Training Institute (GVTI), Jhang and all of them were from poor families whose parents could not afford to pay the fee for training courses. This school is funded with charity funds and only under-privileged boys and girls are given admission after their financial status is verified. These students have never even had a chance to visit big cities such as Karachi and Islamabad in their life before.
All of them are young and in their teens. They include Farida Siddiq, 18, Muhammad Nazim, 19, M Khurram Abbass, 19, Noshabah Nasir, 18, and Kanwal Saeed, 18. This team first competed with vocational training institutes of Pakistan by submitting a social entrepreneurship plan titled ‘Evacuate Plastic Bags’ on how to eliminate plastic bags.
A total of 31 social enterprise plans were submitted by students of vocational institutes of Pakistan. The jury selected top five plans, including the one submitted by VTI Jhang team, to be considered for seed funding (soft loan) by the British Council. The next level of the competition was held on November 15 to 19, 2008 during the celebrations of youth social entrepreneurship week all around the world and at Rawalpindi Arts Council in Pakistan. After training on November 16 and rehearsals on 16 and 17, the teams were given a social problem to work out in eight hours and pitch an innovative idea in 90 seconds along with a feasibility report and budget details. The presentation videos and submitted plans were to be judged by a panel of experts from educational, social and business sectors.
On January 5, VTI Jhang was declared the winner among the participants from Pakistan with census of the judging panel. This gave the winners a grant of Rs 250,000 seed funding (soft loan) for the project. The winning team of VTI Jhang represented Pakistan in regional enterprise challenge held at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre London during March 9 to 11.
The challenge was organised by the British Council and Make Your Mark, while the British Council funded travelling, and lodging. Other participating teams were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. On March 11, the team from Pakistan was declared the winner of the final competition and received the prize money of 2,500 pounds. Pakistani community all around the England celebrated the triumph for their country.
The Enterprise Award Challenge is a national and international competition aimed at encouraging young people to use their skills in social enterprising and innovative ways, ultimately increasing their employability and entrepreneurial talent. The piles of garbage scattered around their City was the main source of inspiration for them to come up with the project.
The success of students from Jhang proves that talent is not the monopoly of the affluent and that the poorer segments of Pakistani society if provided opportunities can outdo even the best in the world. It also highlighted the vast untapped potential of Pakistani girls who were in majority in the team that won the award.
Courtesy: The News
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