This is Fakiha Ali, a gender activist, pursuing M.Phil in Business Administration from Kinnaird College, Lahore. I am also an ELP-2015 fellow at Atlantic council, US and I have represented Pakistan at South Asian Youth Conference-2015.
I am presently working towards bringing
a change in transgender’s life and
eventually aims to bring them in the main stream. I am spreading awareness
through social media, meeting people, sharing their interviews with an aim to
change the mindset of the masses and making transgender believe that they are a
part of our society. I believe that they are integral part of our society and
instead of ostracizing them we should make the way for them and enable them to
empower themselves.
Being a Gender Activist, when I
started working for transgender community, I was startled by the responses I
got, in my family and in my society. I was sort of ridiculed for raising my
voice for them. But with firm determination and my belief that change is
possible, I kept on working for them. Initially when I started interacting,
they seem to be too reserved to tell their stories, their sufferings but with
time, they opened up and shared their sufferings. When I created a Facebook page for
sharing their stories, I got good response and that boosted my confidence. Ever
Since I have been meeting with them regularly, sharing their stories and
raising their concerns on all available platforms. In the past few months I
have attended various meetings in US and Sri Lanka as Young Leader of Pakistan
and representative of Pakistan at South Asian Youth Conference and I have raised
my concern for them.
Coming so far and actually being
able to bring a change in their life has been more than satisfactory for me but
I am aware that road to social change and granting them a status of normal
human being will have many challenges and I am very much upbeat for this.
As a gender activist, when I
started taking initiative, the first reaction of people around me was
demotivating but when I showed some perseverance, their responses started
changing. When I started sharing the stories through social media, I received
support from various sections of society including transgender.
I built a network of like minded
people and started discussing what can be done and how can we enable them to
come into the main stream. I interacted with many NGOs already working in other
branches of social development and studied their working style to make my own
framework.
When I attended conferences in US
as a part of Emerging Leaders of Pakistan Group at Atlantic Council of US, I
got a platform to build more networks. I received a great response for my
vision and that enabled me to make a framework for my future course of action.
When I attended South Asian Youth
Conference in Sri Lanka as a representative of Pakistan, I met like minded and
equally concerned South Asian youths who face problems similar to mine and who
were in a better position to understand my point of view and gave me great
inputs.
Having made networks all across the
globe, and having collaborated with many groups, today I am able to present my
ideas in a better manner and I am able to bring a change in Tran’s gender’s
life through my small initiatives and I hope to continue the same and
ultimately achieve my goal which is to give them equal status as of other
genders and bring them into the mainstream.
As a Grad Student, when I used to
held seminars, conferences and used to discuss various relevant topics, I
started getting a sense of what is wrong in my society, what is being done and
what needs to be done. Since then I started using various platforms be it live
seminary, Radio or TV for sharing my vision for a better society to live for
all.
We are living in an era where youth
of my generation has seen drastic change in mode of communication at the blink
of eye. Radio, Television and Computers have been replaced with Smart Phones and communication has become easy. Introduction of
Social media in the form of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs made it much easier for
all of us to spread our message across the globe at the click of a button. When
I started my initiative as a gender activist I had the good fortune of having
access of Facebook which enabled me to be the voice of voiceless.
Ever Since I got selected as ELP(
Emerging Leaders of Pakistan) at Atlantic Council of US ( Nov-2015) and then a
representative of Pakistan for South Asian Youth Conference in Sri lanka (
Dec-2015), I got to understand the use of sharing your vision with others and
what is it about to receive great inputs from people from diverse backgrounds
and societies.
When I interacted with people from
various walks of life, I automatically formed network of like minded people who
all have just one vision i.e a better society irrespective of the different
type of societies we are living in. Every society has its rooted problems which
needs to be addressed and evil needs to get eliminated.
As a youth of my country, I
believe, that onus lies on me to make a change, to take the first step, to
engage more people in good cause, to get inspired by whatever good being done
and to be the inspiration of others and this zeal keeps me motivated.
I have the ambition to open an NGO
for Transgender community where I could provide basic education and skill
training to them and slowly and gradually make an effort to bring them into the
main stream and provide them equal rights and status as of other citizens.
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