Movement News:

Student Christian Movement of Pakistan

2009 March

SCM Pakistan Organized
the Capacity Building Program for Students

Participants from various parts of Lahore attended
the capacity building programme sponsored by
SCM Pakistan. Around 25 students and youth
attended.

SCM Pakistan organized a two day seminar on Capacity Building for students at Naulakha Lahore on March 14-15 2009. Around 25 students from all the units of SCM Pakistan participated in the seminar.

The terms “capacity building” and “capacity development” are used in numerous contexts to describe a wide array of activities. “Capacity building” is the “process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in the fast-changing world,” said Mr. Sohail Akhtar while introducing the programme. During evaluation, it was strongly felt that the students/youth need more opportunities for their development and these opportunities can minimize the gap between the youth/students and the church.

Rev. Dr. Majid Abel facilitated the session on The Role of Church for Youth Development. He said that the youth is the most integral part of the church community and the purpose of church is to develop the youth. The youth ministry’s purpose is to point them towards God and help them in following God’s commission. Young people should be felt very much as part of the Church and Church should help youth to make them understand the important issues within the Church and in general and Church has a lead role in preparing youth for future leadership.

Mr. Suleman Abdiah facilitated the session on The Role of SCM in Leadership Building. He said SCM Pakistan provides a platform where students can express their views and can enhance their leadership skills, become more aware of ongoing situation around their surroundings. SCM trains and equips Christian youth of Pakistan to come in the mainstream of ecumenical work to strive for peace, social justice, humanity, interfaith harmony and gender equality. SCM plays a vital role in building the Christian leadership of Pakistan. Presently SCM has seven units all around Pakistan, and has 700 students as members.

Prof. Hanook highlighted various social, political and economic issues in Pakistan during the session on Socio economic and political situation of Pakistan and the role of students for community development. He said that the students should have leadership skills, their vision should be clear, are able to remove blockages and are flexible, able to transfer power and share resources, reliable and creative, good listeners, open to criticism, energetic.

End of the programme the participants recommended the following suggestions for the future work of SCM Pakistan.

• Small working groups should be established for execution of the programmes & for sharing of information with each others.
• Participation of all SCM Units & other students oriented organizations.
• Encourage and motivate students for their active involvement in SCM.
• Gender balance should be maintained.
• Theological reflections and spiritual nourishment should be a strong part of SCM activities.
• Sense of responsibility is increased by the participants for the upliftment of the community, hence the local Churches may take steps to tap their local resources and create enough space for the second line leadership.

2008 April

RWP-SCM Pakistan Joint Women’s Programme
From Gender Sensitivity to Genuine Partnership

The RWP-SCM Pakistan JWP was scheduled to be held in Pakistan in the year 2007, but due to the political turmoil in the country it was not possible to go ahead with our scheduled plan in that year. Finally the said programe was organized on the theme From Gender Sensitivity to Genuine Partnership which was held from April 4-7, 2008 at the Ecumenical Centre, Lahore, Pakistan.

The Goals of the programme were:

• To create a space for the young women and men in SCM Pakistan for a deeper understanding on gender that would lead to equal representation of women and men in SCM Pakistan
• To critically analyse the root causes of the violence and injustices against women in Pakistan and the impact of religious laws and ordinance for women in the country
• To challenge and transform attitudes, structures and system in Church that limits young women’s participation and leadership
• To re-read the Bible critically with new eyes from the perspectives of gender and partnership
• To experience the realities of women in Pakistan and strengthen the women’s struggles in the country by joining in advocacy programme through exposure.

30 men and women from Multan, Faisalabad, Abottabad, and Lahore participated in the programme representing SCM-Pakistan and Church. The content of the programe were: Gender analysis, Socio-economic-political-religious aspects of Women in Pakistan – Critical analysis, Women’s rights and laws, Bible Studies from the perspectives of partnership and Exposure to the community. The inputs by the resource persons were insightful to understand the root causes of violence against women in general and in Pakistan in particular. Gender analysis defined how it’s constructed and the societal roles given to men and women which reflects the present status of women in the country. Bible studies were conducted from the perspectives of Partnership of women and men, which was welcomed by the participants to promote the concern in collaboration with the Church.

The following resource persons were present to facilitate the sessions Miss Ayra Inderyar (Women Coordinator Lahore Diocese), Miss Nazish Naseem (Women Coordinator NCC-Pakistan), Ms. Tabeta Abdia (Senior Friend, Lecturer, Forman Christian College, Lahore), Mr. Mohsin Zia (Advisor SCM Rawalpindi Unit), Prof. Hanook Fethe Jhung (Advisor SCM Lahore Unite), Rev. Emric Joseph (Advisor SCM Faislabad Unite), Mr. Ezra Shujat (Senior Friend, Advocate High Court)

The organizers and coordinators expressed that organizing the event on the said topic for an Islamic country like Pakistan was a great challenge. The Church and society is very much patriarchal, orthodox and conventional in nature when it comes to women. Hence it is not easy to talk openly about Man & Women in Partnership even within the Chuurch. Nevertheless, the initiative was welcomed by the group from SCM and Church and recommendations were made to advocate the concerns in the community in collaboration with the Church in order to achieve gender justice. The participants felt empowered at the end of the programme and the senior friends of SCM Pakistan are delighted to see the earnest enthusiasm of SCM Team in Pakistan, as this was the first national event of SCMP after a long gape—which also played a role to rejuvenate SCM Pakistan after many years.