They Matter — Amal Mega Project
Hula Amigos! I’m here with another update on one of Amal’s activities and you guys must have already guessed it by now. It is about a Mega project.
If you guys follow my blogs, you might remember that I talked about it in my past blog as well. It’s okay if you don’t remember. I am attaching the link. You can go and refer to it.
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Amal Mega Project
So for our mega project, the cause we chose to work towards is the education of intersex / transgenders, the awareness of their rights and their inclusivity in the society.
Initially, we planned to not just carry out awareness through seminars and social media engagement but also decided to raise funds and sponsor a transgender’s education, for which we decided to reach our to trans on our own. As it was easier said than done, therefore, we decided to approach an organization already working in this particular area.
Each of us individually tried . At last, I got in touch with the gender guardian, first transgender school of pakistan. I talked to them and we decided to collaborate. We decided on collecting donations for them so that they could use it to fund their school and employ more trans students.
The Gender Guardian, is Pakistan’s first school for transgender students. TGG strives to provide equal opportunities to transgender people through the provision of free vocational training and formal education. To motivate and promote their cause, they not only provide their services to trans for free, which is no admission or monthly fee but also, they pay 1500/=each month to keep them coming to the school without absence.
Though we wanted to sponsor at least one trans education and follow their progress, it was practically impossible at this stage. Therefore, we chose TGG because our main aim was to provide education of some sort and help them live in this society with dignity and respect.
As we had to collect donations, it required us to first create awareness amongst the masses so that they are willing to donate towards the cause. For that specific purpose we made an Instagram page where we shared videos and posts, to create an understanding and awareness about this third gender and encouraged people to donate towards this noble cause. But before that we made our Logo and some post which were to be shared on the page and other platforms
We shared the content created on not only our Instagram page but also on our Facebook groups, stories, WhatsApp chats and also used word of mouth to create awareness and pushed people to make a donation towards the cause.
Until May 15th, we had no luck. The only donation we got is of 300 rupees, therefore we now have to work much harder than before. However, all hasn’t been that bad. We learnt a few things and some of us even interacted with intersex people. I’ll share reflections of each of my members, but before that I’ll share mine.
So I met this intersex near my house. I have seen him a couple of times but never really got a chance to talk, or should I say never really bothered talking because honestly, I was also a little bit influenced by the society and its stereotypes towards them. So, when I started this project, I decided that no matter what, I am going to talk and interview him. Finally, on 17th May, 2021, my mom saw him passing by our street, so she called him upstairs. As I wished to interview him and share his story with the world on our insta page, I asked for his permission to interview first, to which he declined. He was okay sharing bits about his life but declined taking pictures, videos or providing any audio interview. He said that he doesn’t like being a marketing figure. He doesn’t like being interviewed for tv or anything. He would rather live a quiet peaceful life than a life of publicity and people.
I respected his request and just asked a few questions related to his life to get to know him. His name was Muhammad Mumtaz. He told me that he has been in our area for around 40 years, which was quite surprising for me. He told me that he migrated to Pakistan with his Peer when he was a young boy. It was just 2 of them back then but now he takes care of many more children at his small residence at “Purani Sabzi Mandi”. He told me that he has done Hajj and now wishes to visit Baghdad before he dies. He also told me that he is a learned man in terms of the Quran and Hadis. One surprising thing that I got to know was that he told me that intersex, who are Muslim by religion, are all men. I later confirmed this through My brother’s Qari Sahab. Intersex, from other religions, can otherwise chose any gender but Muslim intersex are all men and all obligations and rules that are applied to men in Islam are applied to intersex. It is for this reason, he did Hajj in Ahram, like a man. He also told me that he prays 5 times and blesses people through Qur'anic verses. He shared with me two rituals to follow to increase rizq, i.e. wealth.
It was refreshing to meet him and get to know him closely. It was also refreshing to know his views on how intersex should live their lives. According to him, they should live a quiet life and submit themselves to the decree of Allah. He believed it was useless to come to the media and raise voice. He rather believed that living a simple life, minding own business and working hard to earn money from rightful means is enough.
It was his beliefs and from where he was coming, I felt nothing wrong in what he believed and followed. He didn’t object on what others do; he just didn’t want it for himself or the little family of intersex he had.
Apart from my experience with intersex, my experience collecting donations was not good. I recorded a video, talked to my fellows in one of the Amal sessions, talked to friends, shared messages and stories, yet I got no donation. They did appreciate the cause and gave me encouraging comments and applauded my cause, but when it came to contributing to the cause, very few came forward.
To be honest, it was kind of really disappointing and my team and I got demotivated. However, we didn’t stop working and pestering people to donate.
After mine, let me share you Ali’s reflection:
So we have to select the nature of our mega project which is decided to be the social issue by all of the team members. So after a few days of discussions ,meetings we all agreed to do something for that part of society which is always neglected by us. They still are deprived of the basic rights of education, respectable jobs as our society is not fully aware of their rights. They are usually treated differently from the normal citizens.
So for this purpose, we decided to take the help of our CL and decided to go for an NGo called the “Gender Guardian”. They agreed to collaborate with us in this cause as they were already working for the learning of transgender so they can become independent and important part of the society .
So our plan was to sponsor transgenders for their skill education in The Gender Guardian vocational center and to conduct webinars for the awareness purpose of trans.
As our area was decided, we started working on the name of the project which is decided as “They Matter” a foundation of equality. Logo and social media page designing was done by Afzal and Muhammad Ali. Various social media posts were made by all of the members. Sharing of these posts in the various whatsapp groups by all of the members and also on their personal accounts. So far there have been welcoming responses by the people, in terms of appreciation and motivation.
Various emails are sent to the influential people related to this issue for the guest speaker but so far has no positive response. Appeal for the donation at different platforms. So far little amount is generated and will hopefully achieve our target by the end of this fellowship.
So plan for next to weeks is to conduct a webinar and also make some social media posts regarding the donations
Now for Maria’s reflection:
First Collaboration with my group members ,we decided to choose a topic for our Mega Project that is something very necessary and remain beneficial for our society for a very long time .So we research on different subjects on social media i.e dawn news paper about the current major issues in Pakistan and we came to know about serious problem in Pakistan that ‘’some human beings which a part of our society but not considered one , that is transgenders’’. So we decided to work for the betterment and awareness about transgenders community and make their lifestyle better and more confident.
Our plan was fundraising and making donations from our family ,friends, relatives and strangers by reaching out to them individually and convincing them about this noble journey , and trying to make them comfortable with donations.
I faced so many challenges but overcame those confidentially. I share different post those were made by Umme Hania and Ali about transgender population, and how we can improve and better their lifestyle by providing them different skills and learning . I also share account numbers, Bank names on social media and convince maximum people by messaging in WhatsApp groups and was successful in convincing 5–6 peoples.
I search for different the guest speaker in webinar session and write them proper mail showing Amal totkay (kindness and grateful. One of them response warmly ,however, they didn’t believe that they have proper expertise on this subject ,but I still try to reach out guest speakers to make our work effective and productive.
Last but not the least, here is Afzal’s reflection to the mega project so far:
Too often in discussions about gender identity, the approach taken is extremely narrow. The discourse is largely dominated by the cisgender, binary perspective that there is ‘male’ and that there is ‘female’ — and that both of these are biologically determined stable categories. This is further reinforced when the discourse is situated in the context of children. The prevailing attitude is that any identity, theory or social groups that destabilize such assumptions are too complicated and/or too ‘subversive’ to merit acknowledgement. It is therefore unsurprising that when school staff, policymakers and academics come to discuss gender identity within the classroom, that transgendered children are usually entirely ignored. What can teachers do to support such children?
It is important here to emphasize that pastoral care is about people, not statistics. Having a positive and safe environment in which to learn should not be a luxury for only those belonging to the largest social groups, but a fundamental right that is due to all children. Transgendered children matter in schools regardless of how many of them are ‘known’ to school staff. It is ‘Every child matters’ in written policy — it should be so inactive practice too. Numbers are irrelevant.
Right from the very beginning of schooling, there are opportunities to include gender diversity within the curriculum. Both the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum provide explicit areas where personal development is stressed. Regardless of whether a child is known to be transgendered or is not open about their identity, their experience of school is still likely to be improved by curriculum inclusion. This approach could mean other children — and other adults — become more aware of what it is to be transgendered and how it might feel to be subjected to negative attitudes. In turn, this hopefully would lead to a more positive and accepting classroom community, where all children are aware that different people identify their gender differently, and these choices should be celebrated.
Though we have no luck so far in terms of collection, we won’t stop and we won’t lose hope because in the end, with constant dedication and hard work, we will for sure land somewhere amongst the stars, if not the brightest star!
In the end, I’ll urge all the readers to donate too. Please make some donation. Don’t mind even if it’s a 100 rupees. Just donate and send the screenshot the donation receipt to 03062660681. You can either jazz cash, easy paisa or do direct transfer.
Account title: The Gender Guardian
Account No: 0105431404049
Albaraka Bank (335)
You can even jazz cash on this number, 03062660681, and I’ll forward your donations on your behalf and send you the receipt too for your satisfaction.
