Annual Human Rights Youth Leadership Camps:

Description of the Training Camp
The main objective of Mehergarh’s Summer Training Camp is to give young people leadership skills for human rights activism. The focus is on identifying progressive young people from rural and urban areas who can be nurtured into playing significant roles in fostering human rights and social change in their own communities.

This program focuses on developing leadership qualities in young men and women who are interested in being at the forefront of Pakistan’s social movement. These young people will undergo rigorous training that is aimed towards undoing their biases, which are created through their normal socialization process. The hope is that their capacity for leadership will organically emerge as they are guided to identify opportunities where they could organize and lead efforts for social change.

Mehergarh is organizing its third eight-week residential Training Camp for young men and women from the 2nd of July to 25th of August 2007. The camp will be held at Mehergarh: A Center for Learning that is established in a village about 15 kilometers outside Islamabad. Being a residential training, the Camp will provide modest accommodation facilities and boarding. The training is open to men and women who have leadership potential and are between the ages of 18 – 25 years. A gender and rural/urban balance will be maintained.  

The training is unique in its approach in that it first facilitates us to look inwards to reflect upon how we ourselves support the current power imbalances, patriarchy and violation of human rights. It then links personal transformation to the collective pains and injustices in our society, leading towards collective social action. To meet this goal, a political understanding of the complexity of our prevailing systems will be acquired. The social realities we have constructed around our history, religious roots, and gender roles will be examined. The training will also contain an intensive component on social movements and activism skills, that will allow students to take a close look and gain an in-depth understanding of local and international social movements, as well as learn specific activist techniques.

Trainers and Resource Persons
The trainers are a group of seasoned activists and resource persons from the country. Most of the sessions are designed using experiential and interactive methods, catering to the learning needs of young people. Experienced trainers with national and international experience in attitudinal change and self-reflection will be conducting the core sessions. The lead trainers will be Dr. Fouzia Saeed, Dr. Kamran Ahmad, Raffiq Jaffer, Khalid Ahmad, Mohammad Waseem, Afshin Kamran and many other social scientists and activists.  Resource persons will include people such as the Chief Economist Pervaiz Tahir, Deputy Attorney General Naheeda Mehbub Ilahi, and parliamentary systems expert Huma Chughtai.

Program of the eight-week training
The program is a mixture of training sessions, theater, fun exercises, educational trips, and films: The camp will organize sessions on the current state of human rights in Pakistan, present an in-depth analysis of these social issues of injustice, provide tools to deal with those issues in order to develop a more humane, democratic and peaceful society. Participants will learn about social movements in the world and within Pakistan. They will understand their own country’s system including the
parliamentary and judiciary systems with a special focus on policy formulation, law making, and budget making. Participants will learn the utility of communication tools, the strategic use of electronic and print media, and will develop their public speaking as a part of their training. Some of the sessions will be self-exploratory in nature and will help the participants to explore their own biases and blind spots regarding social issues, a pre-requisite for becoming effective citizens and activist leaders. There will be educational trips in coordination with the sessions. For example, visiting the parliament house, supreme courts, police station, Taxila, etc.
    
Apart from this, the participants will also become a part of different committees, such as the sports committee, cultural committee, film committee, etc. They will have ample opportunity to express themselves and learn how to mobilize and organize through a number of hands on experiences.

Criteria for applicants

The criteria includes:
Proven leadership record (where the candidate has already  
mobilized or initiated action as a citizen)
Progressive outlook (open to new ideas and learning, willingness to challenge realities)
Committed  and passionate about being a part of a  social change movement
Being able to at least speak and comprehend Urdu
Age: between 18-25 years

Application procedure and deadlines
To keep the focus on nurturing excellence the number of trainees we can accept will not be more than 50. The selection will be at a national level and the criteria for participation will be followed strictly. Applications will be assessed and candidates will be
interviewed before the selection is finalized. Potential participants might also be invited to a one-day orientation before the selection is finalized. The approximate ratio between young men and women will be fifty percent. A similar ratio might be maintained between urban and rural backgrounds.

The applicants have to use the format given below to write their applications.  Address the application to Coordinator Youth Training Camp, Mehergarh. The initial deadline for applications is March 30th. The second and final deadline is April 20th. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted within ten days of the deadline. The final selection will be made after telephone interviews.

Format for Application

Name
Age
Address & contact number
Educational qualification
Profession of parents
Educational institution affiliated with (if any)

Write a two-page description of your leadership ability, your commitment to social change and the reasons why you want to be a
part of this training camp. The following questions will help you write your response.

Questions:

Why do you want to apply for this training?
What’s your prior leadership experience? (explain in detail)
How do you think you can use this training in your situation?
The environment might not be too comfortable with shared facilities, would you be comfortable in staying for the camp for two
months?
Would you pay for this training or would you apply for the limited number of scholarships?
              
Send your applications to:

Mehergarh Foundation                                        Coordinator, Youth Training Camp
PO Box 131746                                                     Mehergarh: a center for learning
Roseville, MN 55113              OR                        House # 26, St. # 55, F-7/4
                                                                              Islamabad, Pakistan

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