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Establishment of YES Network Pakistan/PNYS

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Establishment of YES Network Pakistan/PNYS

A Brief Biography of the Social Entrepreneur

In 1997, after completing his masters in political science, Ali took a job with Family Planning of Pakistan as a facilitator of youth sexual reproductive health programs by conducting workshops, arranging orientation sessions and Training Of Trainers (TOTs) throughout the country. After working with young people for two years, Ali began questioning whether his work had any kind of impact on the lives of young people. He recalled; “Those young people sitting in front of me had so many other things to think about. They have poor parents, they don’t have medicines, they don’t have enough money to pay their electricity bills, they don’t have something to eat and I am trying to pour wisdom into them.” Ali asserts “You can’t pour desire into people. It has to come from within them.” While post-program evaluations showed that these youth’s knowledge was increasing and that they were building skills, Ali knew that they were never able to use these gains when they were most needed.

Although the project was going well by all standards and according to donors, Ali was still unsure of the impact the project was having on the hearts and minds of young people and knew that something was missing. He recognized the key difference between providing information and being part of the process. He relays; “It would be premature just to enter the communities with skills development programs. At the end of the day the young people will still live in the same community, which often has little to offer. They are exposed to the kind of things they should not because these communities teach them very harsh lessons – to be abusive, to be selfish, to be evasive.”

Ali shared that he had heard countless voices of young people especially young girls saying that there is no one who thinks about us, there is no one who cares about us, we are useless and valueless creatures and please help us find a place in the society. These emotional experiences were motivational enough to stimulate Ali to do something different for young people. In spite of the fact that Ali’s work was highly acknowledged at all levels of the organization and he was constantly getting promotions, he decided to take a big risk in life by resigning from his job to launch first youth-led development (non-military Youth Service) movement in the country; his goal was to help young people arise out of anonymity, make them feel special, help them to re-establish a new profile in their communities and promote them as the most promising resource available to meet their personal and societal needs. Ali still remembers those days when he decided to leave his job; he had to face tremendous pressure from his extended family (uncle and aunts as well as cousins) and colleagues who were strongly against his decision of leaving a job and starting a movement without any financial support. He said that during all these difficult times his nuclear family (parents, brother and sister) especially his mother had provided to him a pillar of strength, the hope and encouragement that he will be able to accomplish his goals in life. Ali shares that his major inspiration in life has been his mother who has given so much back to the society. She established a school for poor and neglected children thirty years ago against strong family traditions; despite of all criticism and hard circumstances she stuck to it and ran the school successfully. She then wanted Ali to continue her good work by enabling and encouraging him to bring change in the lives of young people.

Laying the groundwork for Youth Engagement Services, PNYS was and continues to be an enormous challenge for Ali and the youth with whom he works. Unlike in many countries where such programs receive support from the government, Pakistan’s government has been resistant to such an initiative. The reason, in part, Ali says, is that youth are seen only at the receiving end of service. Even now, when Ali refers to Youth Service among communities in Pakistan, people think that he is referring to programs developed to serve youth. In order to foster the idea of Youth Service as he envisions it, Ali had to start from scratch, without the support of the government, and with the aim “to help young people replant their image within the society.” “I know that once I have created a desire among them, they would be able to take care of themselves, their communities, and their families.” “Desire is such an important thing in life. If you don’t have desire, you will never be able to succeed in anything.”

Rather than traveling around Pakistan and conducting workshops, Ali went into communities with the goal of enabling youth to take the leadership role. “They tell me what we have to do and how we are going to surmount all these challenges they are facing,” he says. In 2002-3, he formally launched Pakistan National Youth Service (PNYS) program under the Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network Pakistan. Ali began working in 3 communities, where through his work in Family Planning, he had already developed relationships with highly motivated and committed individuals. Ali felt these youth were filled with the desire to become the force for positive change of which he knew they were capable. The outcome was the establishment of 3 social entrepreneurship programs run entirely by local youth volunteers and open 14 hours per day. With the support and resources coming from within the community, these youth volunteers, all of whom were young women, were trained in effective communication, group mobilization, leadership, council organization, motivating parents to send their children to school and the development of strategies to engage youth.

Pakistan National Youth Service in 2006: With the positive feedback that the first centers received, it was clear to Ali that PNYS could and should be expanded. By pointing to the success of these centers, Ali found that people throughout Pakistan were welcoming and eager to open centers in their communities. As of 2006, 150 young women throughout Pakistan have created 150 Youth Service centers. At these centers, volunteers are training, learning to train, or are receiving training in Information resources, communication, literacy, role-modeling, building up programs, conducting meetings or information sessions and sexual reproductive health service. The centers have had such success, Ali says that these young women have now started their own social entrepreneurship programs, such as computer centers, fitness centers, coaching centers, beautician centers etc. With the young people involved in leading the way, the Pakistan National Youth Service has a bright future.