ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN: Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) Pakistan and National Dialogue Forum (NDF) lined up a week full of capacity-building events from December 6-10, 2022 in Islamabad for the Afghan students receiving the Hanns Seidel Scholarship Program (HSSP).
As members of the HSF Fellows Network, the HSSP scholarship holders attended the annual gathering in Islamabad on December 6-7, 2022, which brought together alumni from HSF's various projects. The HSF Fellows Annual Meetup sought to bring together a broad group of young leaders from Pakistan and Afghanistan to network and share ideas on how to become agents of sustainable positive change in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. The Afghan scholarship holders gave a presentation on HSSP and briefed the participants about the program and their learning experiences.
Following that, on December 8, 2022, an advisory day was conducted to advise scholarship holders on pursuing suitable academic and professional goals, as well as to answer relevant questions. The advisory day included an insightful segment that introduced participants to real-life examples of the refugee community. Mr. Zahir Pashtoon and Ms. Jameela Abbasi being the agents of positive change in Quetta, Pakistan shared their life stories, struggles, and accomplishments. Both invested their time, efforts, and limited resources in making education accessible to girls while challenging stereotypes in Quetta's suburbs where schooling was non-existent. Later in the evening, the participants also attended the launching of The Refugee Stories, a docuseries on Afghan lives in Pakistan.
Additionally, a two-day academic skills development training on Academic Writing and Research Skills was organised on December 9-10, 2022. The training was designed as such to equip the participants with skills that will help them improve their academic writing skills. Dr. Saleem Gul and Dr. Muhammad Ali gave the participants an in-depth understanding of academic research skills, research methodology, qualitative and quantitative tools, and software for better academic writing. Dr. Awais Adnan specifically discussed the use of software tools for quantitative data analysis. All the sessions were kept interactive in order to stimulate participation and increase student involvement.
The advisory day and academic skills development training were conducted by experts from the Institute of Management Sciences Peshawar. The training content was delivered in multiple sessions by Dr. Waseef Jamal, Dr. Muhammad Ali, Dr. Saleem Gul and Dr. Awais Adnan.
The events were attended by 22 HSSP scholarship holders belonging to different parts of Pakistan.
HSSP aims to support talented Afghan students in Pakistan in contributing to the rebuilding of their home country when returning to Afghanistan. The students are officially registered as refugees in Pakistan and enrolled at Pakistani universities. In line with the policies of the Government of Pakistan, HSSP offers financial grants, conceptual support, and professional development opportunities.
You may find event photos and more details at http://twitter.com/HsspPakistan. For more information on NDF please visit http://ndf.org.pk and HSF Pakistan http://pakistan.hss.de.