We are change makers because we are actively working with a mission, game changing innovative idea, plan and action bringing about grass-roots level change through empowering Citizen Media Journalism. “Bolo - The Human Voice Initiative” (Bolo, an Urdu word which means ‘Speak up’) represents our mantra of change making that is deeply anchored in helping humanity find voice through a democratic, participative, inclusive, crowd sourced, technology-enabled platform for citizen media journalism that is global and yet local at the same time, scalable and yet replicable anywhere providing real-time, bottom up news where local frontline citizen media journalism goes global, in the absence of which world would be unable to get to hear the voice of people from grass root level, i.e, especially in areas which are inaccessible, repressive regime where media is censored, conflict zones where journalism is banned and places where freedom of speech is still a crime and people fear for their life when it comes to speaking truth. The lack of such a platform has been the primary reason why reporting on affected areas lack geographical specificity and accuracy and there is no actionable, localized knowledge to take reasonable precautions against or report escalation violence from, or devise a common platform where human right monitoring and reporting can be initiated by people themselves, it is here our globally innovative solution fills the void, give voice to people, reinvigorate journalism through crowd sourced citizen media with high-level of accuracy and immediacy in real-time engaging diversity of social stakeholders to bring about a greater change of flat, free, open and transparent society.
I have always liked and preferred organization which is value-centric, performance driven, built around meaning and contribution, giving back to society what it needs the most and where it needs the most, i.e. innovative, organized and structured means to help people find their voice resulting in identification and unleashing of collective consciousness of people heralding a larger positive long term change in society, it is a cause which is larger than life and we are committed to it with our mind, body, heart and spirit firmly believing in the exercise that it is only with helping people find their voice we find our voice too, and this mutual voice finding process is the source which arranges for the sustainable social impact for everyone.
I have learned these tenets of change making at NAYA JEEVAN, our sister/mentor organization which is founded by an Ashoka Fellow, Asher Hasan, it has found its voice in compassion and care connecting and integrating marginalized population with broader health care system for accessible and affordable quality health care, making healthcare system more inclusive for all covering healthcare vulnerabilities preventing them from generational poverty due to vicious cycle of financial destitution. This is the reason why NAYA JEEVAN has earned Schwab Foundation’s World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs of the Year Award for 2011.
We are passionately dedicated to the change that makes society inclusive, transparent, open and democratic where people are able to find collective consciousness harnessing broader change from real time, bottom up, scalable and replicable approach anywhere and everywhere. Our vision of democratically participative journalism truly epitomizes news of the people, by the people and for the people, on a platform which is readily accessible for use by the people, both locally and globally. Because we believe that in this interconnected, globalized ‘flat’ world, every citizen is a journalist, both by right and responsibility, and it is their open sharing of local news and freedom of expression which brings rapid global change. Especially, we want to empower people in repressive regimes, conflict zones and in otherwise inaccessible areas to connect and express themselves fully and tell their story to the world, so the world could reach out to them for greater integration in society.
Doctor-turned-social entrepreneur by profession, living the mantra of ‘Be the source of change’ is my vocation and avocation. I have had wonderful opportunity to be associated with NAYA JEEVAN in the capacity of innovation and new product development, it’s a role which incubates and materializes new ideas as a part of practice, providing innovative and sustainable solutions to protect marginalized groups against health related vulnerabilities, sharing values that complements with collective consciousness of self-realized organization and participating in maximizing positive social impact by helping to save marginalized populations from generational cycle of poverty, while at the same time, helping these come out of financial destitution caused by higher health care cost.
Besides this, I am actively engaged with Mishal Pvt Ltd. Mishal is a strategic communication policy design social enterprise with communication development, strategy and capacity building initiatives which has, in collaboration with the Center for International Media Ethics, Zigron Training, Center for Investigative Journalists in Bosnia-Sarajevo and Naya Jeevan, conducted capacity building and training workshops on Investigative Journalism and Responsible Reporting in Press Clubs across Pakistan. At one Press Club, we participated in launching a special initiative called ‘Agahi’ (meaning ‘Awareness or Enlightenment’) for capacity building of field reporters and investigative journalists from various news media. ‘Agahi’ covers areas such as; Investigative Journalism and Ethics, Anti-Money-Laundering and Tracking and reporting Terrorist Organization Funding, Journalism and Society “Millennium Development Goals’’, Reporting in Terrorism and Conflict, Social Media and Safety Training. We also trained journalists about how they can save and revive lives in emergency situations through life support training since in the race and professional pressure to get the news first, they are often the first one to reach crime scene, even before police or ambulance could reach the place hence they are always professionally exposed to different hazards and threats to their lives, especially during live broadcast coverage of often highly charged political events in Pakistan. In rallies, protests, riots, public demonstrations and strikes they have been a part of casualties, not to mention their investigative journalism often puts them into different pressures and hazards which are a common occurrence rather than exception.
