By Hira Nafees Shah
Musab Khan sat down to take a look at the past question papers for an upcoming engineering exam. Despite surfing the internet for hours, he remained frustrated when his searches returned few useful results.
Many students in Pakistan face the same situation when they are searching for important information relating to their university courses, Khan says. But help came along with the announcement of a “Society of Webpreneurs” (SOW) workshop, to be taught by blogging expert and International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Alumnus Ghulam Sarwar.
The blogging expert visited the United States in 2013 for a three week program on “Activism through Social Media.” After returning to Pakistan, the alumnus was eager to share his experience with local students.
That’s why he developed the SOW workshop, which aimed to introduce Bahawalpur students to blogging, so that they can express themselves, develop international contacts, and promote their culture, country and entrepreneurial ideas on the web.
“I initiated this project because I felt that only one person was aware of blogging out of a hundred in Bahawalpur,” said Ghulam Sarwar. “The idea was also to create a community or a society of professional bloggers so that the word would spread out.”
The Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network awarded Sarwar a $5,000 dollar Alumni Small Grant for the innovative project. All alumni of U.S sponsored exchange programs in Pakistan are eligible to apply for the grant to enable them to give back to their communities.
Four workshops took place during the project, including sessions on how to set up a blog, the difference between entrepreneurship and traditional business, how to monetize web-based content, success stories of famous bloggers and evaluations of students’ work. More than 60 participants took part in the workshops, which were more than 70 percent women.
After attending the workshops, one participant Syeda Kamal Fatima decided to make a blog on photography to showcase her photos. (Visit the blog at: http://konanphotography.blogspot.com/)
“People are visiting my blog and calling me to cover their events after seeing my photographs,” she said. “My blog ‘Konan Photography’ already has 900 likes on Facebook.” Mohammad Ahmad, a YES alumnus said he had previously attended an online session on blogging, but learned much more by participating in Sarwar’s workshops.
“This workshop taught me how to bring traffic to my blog, because if you don’t get traffic you are not successful as a blogger,” said Ahmad. “By using Sarwar’s tips, we have received 500 visitors on our Deeds’ blog in just two weeks.”
The YES alum said as a result of the increase in traffic, he and his friends have received many online offers to help with a ration drive to feed needy families in Bahawalpur. (Visit the Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/deedsbwp)
For Nimrah Nawaz, a university student studying botany, the project enabled her to explore her creative side.
“I created a blog to inform people about the relationship between Science and Islam,” Nawaz said.
Visit the blog at: http://quranandmodernscience12.blogspot.com/
Sarwar is thrilled by the blogs his mentees have created. If half of them continue the initiative, the project’s aim will be achieved.
“We are going to launch a professional domain of custom blogs, so that the participants can have a forum to hold discussions,” he said, while discussing how he hoped to make his project sustainable.
As for Musab Khan, the trainings have enabled him to set up his own blog ‘Akileez’ on which he intends to upload e-books and assignments etc. He has also requested the Ministry of Education to give official recognition for his site. Visit the blog at http://yesucet.com/Vice%20President.html
In this way, Khan will not only benefit students across the country, but will also pay homage to SOW’s mission of teaching students how to use blogging for valuable purposes.
For more on the Society of Webpreneurs project, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/SOW.Bwp
