Lahore: Keeping the SOPs of COVID19 in consideration, a webinar was hosted to celebrate the International Day of Peace (IDP). Since the theme for this year’s IDP was “Shaping Peace Together”, the webinar focused on youth actions that helped the community come together to fight this pandemic in Pakistan.
Parliamentarians and bureaucrats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab also joined the webinar along with 50 students from Kinnaird College; Lahore College for Women University; University of Education; Bahauddin Zikriya University Multan; COMSATS Lahore; Qurtuba University, Dera Ismail Khan; Swat University; Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan; Punjab University Lahore and University of Sargodha. Some students also joined from Gujranwala and Multan.
Zoraiz Riaz, founder of a very popular initiative of Corona Recovered Warriors (CRW), said that the initiative started off as a small Facebook group. Zoraiz was also not aware of its eventual impact when he started the group to connect COVID patients in need of plasma. The CRW has now become the go to resource for people to refer to if they are suffering. He has linked thousands of patients with plasma donors and for this service he was also recognized by the Governor of the Punjab.
Ms. Sadia Sohail, MPA Punjab and Ms. RabiaBasri, MPA KP highlighted the need for coming together in these times and youth leading the way. Both stressed on the role of youth in the pandemic as leaders of the community.
Ms. Tehmina Habib, a government official from Punjab also stressed on the importance of Peace in the religion of Islam and how we need to actualize those teachings today to bring everyone together.
Noor Imran, Program Coordinator Bargad said, “IDP is extremely special this year and youth initiatives are more important than ever to ensure sustainability at a community level. Today for harmony to prevail, we all must come together and shape a community that has the potential to come out of this global pandemic peacefully.”
Mr. Ashok Kumar, Professor Punjab University and visiting faculty at LUMS made a special mention of the role of student societies on campuses in promoting student leadership and acting as a means for building community resilience. He shared how leadership examples and culture transcends through the batches in a university through the platform of student societies which is why they are pertinent in shaping youth into a community. His opinion was also echoed by Reha Afzal, Head Girl of Lahore College for Women University who also credited the role of a student body in inculcating a sense of community and leadership.
The attending students also engaged with the guest speakers through questions and comments. The webinar was moderated by Ms. Salma Butt and Ms. Natasha Faisal.
