By Muhammad Umair and Ján Michalko
In this blog, Umair and Ján reflect on the experience working through the pandemic to complete a project between inHive and CARE Foundation to set up alumni networks in Pakistan. Funded by UKAID, the project turned towards online learning instead of in-person capacity building of school-based committees. They share how a 5-series training video programme was created with the help of alumni and what they learnt as they were pushed out of their comfort zone.
We thought we had it figured out. Why wouldn’t we? Schools had just reopened after the winter holidays and we had an enthusiastic team in place ready to start work again. We had a pipeline of schools lined up for the project’s next phase and 14 months of learning behind our belt. We had fine-tuned an approach to set up alumni networks in CARE run and adopted schools across Punjab. We were on track.
Even in March we thought we would be able to do our work as planned – ‘it will be just a few weeks’ delays’. While the situation in China and continental Europe was deteriorating, in the UK and Pakistan we were not grasping the havoc the pandemic will wreak on our project.
By the end of April 2020, we came to the conclusion that suspending our project was the best way forward. Over the next few months, school and office closures across Pakistan meant that we were not able to ask alumni to come to speak to the students on school premises. We entertained the idea of pivoting our work. Many other education organisations started to do just that. CARE itself started to provide emergency relief and mobilize alumni doctors to help tackle the pandemic. But many teachers, alumni and students did not have the resources to do alumni network building online, remotely. Neither had people the bandwidth to think beyond the bare necessities of basic education as the economy slowed down and more people entered survival mode.
So we waited. We watched the news about the daily COVID cases and the constant back and forth about smart lock-downs and re-openings. We kept in touch, we checked in on each other while we feared that a lot of the knowledge and skills in network building was being lost.
Pivoting the project course
We weathered a wave or two of the pandemic storm. Towards the end of 2020 we started to re-envision what the second phase of our project could look like. We knew that the best results would be if we worked in person with the schools. To be in the communities, which were struggling and in which we saw students drop out, unable to return. Even now, the numbers of learners, especially girls who will not come back into the classroom in Pakistan is expected to be in the tens of millions.
Yet, with instabilities and insecurities of the pandemic, we could not rely on in person work becoming possible to complete a project against milestones and deadlines. So we chose to prepare a series of short YouTube learning videos. It was an easily accessible medium, which would allow us to share information in Urdu with a wide pool of school stakeholders with the help of WhatsApp. The subtitled videos cover practical steps and key information about building transformative, inclusive and growing alumni networks. They will be viewed by dozens of schools across the CARE network and serve for the benefit of thousands of boys and girls who receive their education here.
To make the videos, we decided to enlist the help of alumni, teachers and students from schools, where we worked during the first phase of the project. We were relieved that despite the project suspension, their enthusiasm for alumni networks did not wane. They were willing to participate and share their personal experiences with others. People like Miss Sidra and Ayesha were ready to go on video.
Letting people share their authentic voice
But the process of making the videos was not easy. We entered a new territory neither one of us was familiar with. Some of the challenges we faced were the availability and presence of the alumni, teachers and principals in the school premises. The administration of different schools however, always showed very positive cooperation and made the necessary arrangements. Umair and our videographer travelled to these different places and had to coordinate with three stakeholders. Even when they managed to meet, we did not anticipate how much time people would take in front of the camera.
No doubt, it is a great art and after having gone through the process of recording, and re-recording ourselves, we have huge respect for the people who work with and in front of cameras.
Our alumni, teachers, principals were not given any script because we really wanted to have their genuine thoughts. This meant, however, that it took extra time to get them comfortable and concise. Although this was time consuming, it became a source of happiness and motivation for us because we were indirectly getting their feedback and their genuine views, which were positive and encouraging. It gave us more confidence and satisfaction.
In the end, we are proud to have wrapped up the project amidst the challenging circumstances and having given the voice to some incredible alumni. In the videos you can see for example Amna. She was one of the first handful of girls who started participating in Model United Nations (MUN). She became a ray of hope for all the girls of her school and responded to the increasing desire of other girls for MUN sessions, she created a MUN training guide.
Amna represents many other inspirational women who did not make it to the videos as well, like Sadia. Sadia belongs to CARE 3 High School and was the first girl from her area to get education. At the beginning, it was difficult for her to make it to the school and her biggest support was her mother. Now, she has been working as a principal and is an inspiration for many female students and parents. We hope that after watching our videos and setting up their alumni networks, more people will benefit from being connected to women like Sadia and Amana.