Servicing patriotism

It’s hard to pinpoint when the first social movement began in Pakistan, what is easy to say is that the trend has really caught on. Furthermore, while there are more such initiatives now than ever before, there is also a distinct ‘patriotic’ direction that has emerged with the most recent ones. These movements support a number of different causes but aim to further the same idea – to improve Pakistan through service.

Yet, despite their altruistic intentions, many movements fizzle out before making any meaningful impact and although it may prove interesting to examine the reasons why some of them fail, it is equally if not more important to consider what enables the successful ones to stick around. Three such social cause movements include Azm-e-Alishan, Uth Oye and Teach for Pakistan.

Azm-e-Alishan began in 2010 and boasts Pakistan’s fastest growing volunteer network (160,000 strong according to their Facebook page). Until recently, the organisation worked primarily on the azm (resolve) phase to build awareness and support in improving Pakistan through service. Now, the initiative is moving to the amal (action) phase and has teamed up with NGOs and other organisations. The size of the movement’s ‘workforce’ is its biggest strength and could lead to a lot of low level development in the country, such as the Azm-e-Alishan’s Sanwaro Pakistan drive which led to the clean-up of over 30 neighbourhoods in Lahore, the biggest exercise of its kind in the city and the renovation of a derelict park near Katti Pahari in Karachi.

Working on a smaller scale is Uth Oye, a clothing company (and a subsidiary of Nadya Textiles) which promotes Pakistani pop culture by imprinting its products (mostly t-shirts) with truck art designs, images of Mr Jinnah breaking guns or sayings such as chashm-e-baddoor. The company holds regular meetings with its most frequent customers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to determine the causes it should distribute funds to. In four years Uth Oye has disbursed over Rs 70 million; its achievements include providing computers to Mohammadiya School in Lahore and procuring solar lamps to provide the Oan Village in Thar with electricity.

Teach for Pakistan (TFP) began in 2010 and drew inspiration from a similar programme pioneered in America. Aiming to improve Pakistan through education reform, it is the only social service programme in the country which hires ‘Fellows’ from top universities such as IBA, LUMS and SZABIST after a recruitment process modelled on what multinational companies follow. Fellows commit to a rigorous two-year programme to teach at various schools across Pakistan, while learning valuable skills themselves. They also earn a monthly salary, pegged to what they would earn if they had joined an international NGO. TFP has also partnered with a number of multinationals such as Unilever and IBM; these companies not only donate significantly to the cause, they are also looking to benefit from TFP’s promise of a talented pool of candidates possessing some of the core competencies they look for in their employees.

I talked to the spokespeople for these initiatives in order to figure what was driving them.

Ali A. Rizvi, Project Head, Azm-e-Alishan, probably put it best when he said, “As a nation we are always cribbing about what is wrong with the country and now we are figuring out how to do something about it ourselves.”

Rizvi adds that Pakistan’s business community is beginning to realise how negative perceptions affect long term investment in the country and that it is up to them to do something about it. However, Rizvi cautions that to gain any worthwhile traction, social initiatives require not only well thought out plans but mass media coverage to reach out to as large an audience as possible.

Thanks to the backing of the Interflow Group and other media organisations, Azm-e-Alishan has garnered significant awareness through television, with initiative such as the National Song Competition, the Challenge Hai Pakistan reality show (which depicts ordinary Pakistanis working towards a cause) and the Behtar Pakistan talk show (which invites prominent speakers to talk about their efforts to help improve Pakistan).

Judging by the numbers, Azm-e-Alishan’s awareness drive is a success. And with the Amal team it is now embarking on a series of action based projects; so far it organised the Flag Collection drive in August (where volunteers picked up discarded Pakistani flags after August 14) and blood collection drives in partnership with the Fatimid Foundation in Karachi, Lahore and Multan.

Of course, while mass media coverage has unmatched advantages in promoting a movement, there are other initiatives that continue to make a difference albeit with less coverage than Azm-e-Alishan gets via the mass media, a case in point being Uth Oye.

When I asked Babar Javed Khan, Senior Brand Manager, Uth Oye how his organisation was managing to thrive, he told me that a lot of it had to do with social and digital media.

“Social media and digital technologies have given us the tools to mobilise, organise and realise the potential of shared ideas regardless of income bracket, occupation or community.”

Khan stressed that social media enables a more personalised way to interact with a target audience; this he said was a significant factor in the success of Uth Oye, both as a brand and as a movement.

According to Khan, Uth Oye has followers across the world, from Canada to Pakistan and the Middle East and the company is frequently in touch with its ‘fans’ to discuss all manner of things such as pricing models, controversies in the country and the social issues.

“Sometimes our followers don’t even agree with our opinions but we use what they are saying to find the strengths and weaknesses in our own plans.”

Often the company will use Skype to start a video conversation with a group of followers or use Facebook to set up focus groups with loyal customers who, by and large, tend to be young professionals from the private sector. According to Khan, given their profile these customers are easier to approach and engage on social media.

In fact, engagement is a strong driving factor behind such social movements. But for Teach for Pakistan, it is corporate partnerships that are integral to the mission and are core to their success.

According to Khadija Bakhtiar, CEO, TFP, a large part of TFP’s mission involves providing underprivileged schools with quality teachers. By working in resource starved schools, the young people it deploys as teachers not only gain insights about education related issues across Pakistan, they also hone their skills in project management and leadership; skills which in turn make them choice candidate to join leading multinational companies.

“By partnering with us, corporations are in effect training their own future work force,” says Bakhtiar.

In turn, the prospect of a chance to join a multinational after their two-year stint teaching makes the TFP programme an attractive proposition for many young people.

Of course not everyone who becomes a Fellow with TFP goes on to join a MNC the organisation is partnered with, however according to Bakhtiar, whether they join the corporate sector, go to graduate school, or become social entrepreneurs, they will all go forward with an agenda to address education inequity in the country. And that is the change that TFP wants to bring about.

As even more social movements continue to bubble up in Pakistan’s socio-cultural landscape, the model behind their success will continue to evolve. But as Rizvi says, “the aim is not to compete, but to improve Pakistan. As long as the country improves, we all win.”

Shayan Shakeel is Business Development Executive, Business Development & Research, The Dawn Media Group.
shayshakeel@gmail.com