By Rimsha Ali Shah.
Who would have thought that a last minute application submitted in a frenzy would make it through to the pool of finalists for the Study of the U.S. Institute for Student Leaders (SUSI) 2011 and land Ahmad Ullah Qazi from Peshawar, then 21 and unexposed to the world beyond Pakistan, on a trip to the U.S. with 23 other students selected from Pakistan.
“I remember when Farhan Bogra, now an alumnus of Center Stage and a member of the famous band Khumariyaan, literally forced me to apply for the program. ‘Qazi, I’ve filled out your biographical information all you have to do is complete your essays and letters of recommendation,’” recalls Qazi, who completed the application without any expectations. Five years later Qazi works with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, serves as a judge for various Model United Nations (MUNs) held across Pakistan, is a part of the youth coalition working on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – 4: Quality Education, and is a mentor for the youth of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Qazi was among the second cohort of the SUSI program on Comparative Public Policy at University of Massachusetts in the summer of 2011. The eight-week exchange for Qazi was the start of having rich stories of personal experiences to share with the world. “It was my first time being independent. Before this, I had never had to manage anything on my own! But once in Amherst, we received our allowances for the program and the strong tug of responsibility I felt at that time forced me to ‘grow up!’ That and taking the wrong bus from Holyoke Mall to Springfield instead of Amherst.” Qazi recounted with a nostalgic smile how that experience was pivotal in instilling a sense of responsibility in him.
Before setting off for the exchange program, Qazi was an active fund-raiser for victims of the devastating floods that left many homeless in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was also actively involved in collecting blood donations for the patients of Thalassemia, Leukemia, and Hemophilia. Once in the U.S., Qazi had the fortunate experience of learning how a food bank works, the amount of fund-raising activity required, and the follow-up shopping and packing of food packages for the destitute. “I loved the idea of the food bank! That is one such project I would like to adapt here, especially considering the poverty and hunger that prevails.”
Fondly recalling the fast-pace of the SUSI program, Qazi shared his experience of being closed in a room with his group members for 48-hours! As political workers, they had to analyze all 52 states of the U.S. and gauge which ones required more campaign funding for Barack Obama. “That time in the U.S. was politically quite ripe and I was able to educate myself more with the ins-and-outs of the political process in the U.S.”
Qazi specifically found the culture of political debates very healthy. “I also noticed how there was a dominant sense of nationalism in the political rhetoric.” Therefore, when he came back to Pakistan, he designed a three-day long event in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, modeled around the MUN and the local parliamentary structure. “I wanted youth to think along the lines of nationalism and through a PUAN alumni small grant, I was able to execute what I had set out to achieve: encouraging youth of Pakistan to discuss and debate political issues in the form of a mock parliamentary session.”
In March 2012, Qazi went on to organize further events that mobilized people in his community. This included the Inter-Institutional Sports Festival leading to a concert of Bilal Khan and Qurat-ul-ain Baloch in the city of Peshawar, which at that time was marred by terrorist attacks. “We wanted to use sports as a peace-building tool to engage the youth. Also, keeping in mind the cultural sensitivity, we put separate enclosures for females in Nishtar hall so that families and women could also be a part of the festivities.” This venture was through his social enterprise “Believers Assures Quality 7”, an event management and social welfare services company, through which their aim was to conduct events that helped in empowering and mobilizing youth who had been restricted to their home and institutes.
Qazi has proved to be a source of inspiration and motivation for many young alumni. His passion for community outreach and connecting people landed him the position of the first and the youngest President of PUAN KP – FATA Chapter’s Young Alumni Body. “I remember discussing in the debrief with Marcia, the Cultural Attaché at that time, how to make the KP-FATA chapter of PUAN functional.” It was an uphill journey that started with just eight members coming together for the first meeting to a closed group on Facebook and an alumni reunion that attracted the attention of passive alumni of exchange programs. Fast forward to 2016, PUAN KP-FATA chapter now is host to 1300 active exchange alumni of various U.S. State Department-sponsored exchange programs. Inspired by the structure of the democratic debate in the U.S., Qazi held the elections for the chapter along the same lines. “I believe, it was important for alumni to know the candidate they were voting for and understand their missions.”
In 2014, Qazi was amongst the group of alumni selected by U.S. Embassy Pakistan, to be a part of an international conference on entrepreneurship at Turin University, Kazakhstan. This year, Qazi was invited to Moldova in May as one of three Pakistani representatives to review and work together to better achieve the targets under SDG 4 – Quality Education. The session in Moldova was a joint venture of UNFPA, Y-PEER and UN Global Education First Initiative (GEFI). UN-GEFI is an initiative taken by UN Secretary-General to ensure achievement of global education targets worldwide.
“I left Pakistan in 2011 with stereotypes of American people that proved to be completely untrue. They were kind, humble, helpful and excellent listeners! The emotional attachment I shared with all my Pakistani and American counterparts from 2011 is still strong. We all are still a close-knit family.”
