Youth Development Foundation organized a Two-days Punjab Tolerance Summit under the umbrella of the Department of Human Rights & Minorities Affairs Government of Punjab. The Punjab Tolerance Summit featured panel discussions and speeches of dignitaries from government departments, parliamentarians, journalists, civil society, academia, women, religious leaders, transgender rights activists and youth of diverse backgrounds from different parts of the country. The main focus of the conference was to back the request of the Department of Human Rights & Minority Affairs Punjab, in which they requested support for presenting the policy to key stakeholders for their endorsement to add legitimacy and backing for it.
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The Punjab Tolerance Summit featured panel discussions and speeches of dignitaries from government departments, parliamentarians, journalists, civil society, academia, women, religious leaders, transgender rights activists and youth of diverse backgrounds from different parts of the country.
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YDF has reached around ONE MILLION people through digital and traditional media and promoted the need for a Tolerant society and peaceful co-existence.
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Youth Development Foundation has organized the ALLY PVE Policies and Practices dissemination session on the 2nd April 2022 at Hotel One Lahore. The main objective of this dissemination session was to introduce the ALLY research publications and key advocacy messages among the relevant stakeholders. The event was participated by 60 participants (including 25 females), including the Director of the Human Rights Department, youth representatives from across the country, government officials, students of various universities, educational institutions, women's rights activists, policymakers, transgender rights activists and researchers.
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Mr. Shahid Rehmat, Executive Director of Youth Development Foundation, gave a briefing to the participants about the Amplifying Leadership of Local Youth (ALLY)
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YDF conducted 2nd national in-person ALLY fellowship training to continue the program's journey and provide fellows with in-depth learning on Diversity and Peaceful Co-existence through peer-to-peer learning and potential knowledge exchange. This training included practical tools on PVE, mediation, negotiation, gender sensitivity and inclusiveness, conflict resolution, consensus building, and positive social norms.
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ALLY Fellows from different geographical backgrounds plan social actions for their respective areas.
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Youth Development Foundation has successfully completed the EU-funded initiative AHA! Awareness with Human Action. Over the past 18 months, the AHA! project contributed to the response efforts of the COVID-19 pandemic by preventing conflict and building social cohesion in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and broader South Asia. Through a collaborative approach, the project aimed at increasing outreach for
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initiatives that promote awareness of COVID-19 and constructive narratives that reduce discrimination, hate speech, and stigmatization against specific communities, primarily targeting religious leaders, and women and youth leaders as community influencers. Youth Development Foundation, a trusted partner of European Union,
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has effectively executed the activities under AHA to denounce the hate speech, discrimination and misconception during the COVID-19. As a result, it reached 10.7 million of the population through Communication Campaign executed on social media, Traditional Media, and offline material to remove misconceptions, hostility, stigmatization and discrimination against marginalized groups in COVID19. The awareness campaign was launched by engaging Religious Leaders of different
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different faiths, Academia, Doctors, Parliamentarians, Women leaders, and other key dignitaries of the country.
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Group photo of AHA! Small Grantees after training at Faletti's Hotel Lahore.
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Consultation meetings were conducted with different segments of society to discuss the topics and issues related to peace promotion among the people of different denominations. Nine Townhalls were organized to address various topics of social cohesion and peace.
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Youth from diverse communities, universities and madrasa actively participated in consultation meetings.
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YDF disbursed 15 Small grants on peace-building initiatives among individuals and small organizations. YDF developed several training modules, including Fact-Checking and training modules on multiple topics of peace-building strategies. Capacity-building events were designed and implemented to educate the youth, peace activists and small organizations on multiple technical aspects.
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YDF executed a dedicated social media campaign to promote Peace, Tolerance and Responsible Behaviors among the communities during conflict situations. YDF has reached around 269K people of diverse religious backgrounds through the above social media handles
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YDF has engaged prominent government office bearers and religious leaders, including those designated by the government or in a leading position amid their faith or sect, to denounce mob violence, hate speech and religious conflicts.
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YDF, with great pleasure and hospitality, hosted the EU delegation visit in a recent month and facilitated them in several meetings with ALLY Fellows, AHA small grantees, YDF alumni, and the Director-General of Council for Islamic Ideology Islamabad. The prime objective of the EU delegation visit and meetings was to strengthen the working relationship and increase interaction and collaboration for peace-building in the area.
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YDF facilitated the EU delegation to have meetings with Director-General of Islamic Ideology and Fellows of ALLY program.
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YDF & Analytics Lab’s Virtual Launch of Case Study on
“Rising Extremism and Civil Society Response in Pakistan amid COVID19”
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YDF and Analytics Lab, with mutual collaboration, have gathered facts and developed a case study on Civil Society Response in Pakistan amid COVID19. The study was launched to showcase the civil society efforts of countering the trends of Sectarianism, Hate speech and Discrimination against marginalized religious groups, and to promote interfaith and inter-sect harmony among the communities of diverse faiths. Ministry of Human Rights, Minorities Affairs and Interfaith Harmony supported this launch. Minister of Human Rights and Minority Affairs joined as a speaker and thanked YDF and AL for portraying the social realities and civil society support to the government in addressing these facts.
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