4th May, 2014
SEPLAA Foundation Press Release:
Training of Trainers Conducted by SEPLAA
The SEPLAA Foundation will be holding the first Incubation Cycle from 5th May in the Islamia University of Bahawalpur for which 120 students are registered till now. A rigorous 5 day Training of Trainers sessions was held recently in Lahore to prepare for the incubation of youth to set up their own social enterprises to promote empowerment through basic IT under Impact Change Xcelerator (iCx) SEPLAA.
The launch of iCx in Bahawalpur is designed to do the capacity building of 1,680 university and underprivileged youth in 2014 to promote social entrepreneurship through IT and Youth Mobilization in the region reaching across to over 11,000 indirect beneficiaries in 2014. This makes it an unprecedented step towards innovative capacity building in the region.
The iCx program offers a total of 6 training sessions: iCx Workshop on Social Entrepreneurship Project Development, iCx Workshop on Legal Framework Requirements for Social Enterprises, iCx Workshop on IT & Social Media Leverage for Impact, iCx Workshop on Financial Requirements for Social Change, iCx Workshop on Leadership & Marketing Skills for Social Enterprises, iCx International Workshop on Peacebuilding through Empowerment for Global Change.
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November 2010
Press Release:
SEPLAA Talent of Pakistan: Awards, Exhibition & Conference 2010 at the Ali Institute Lahore on 13th & 14th Talent of Pakistan
The SEPLAA Foundation held a 2 Days event the SEPLAA Talent of Pakistan: Awards, Exhibition & Conference 2010 at the Ali Institute Lahore on 13th& 14th November, 2010.
The SEPLAA Talent of Pakistan: Awards, Exhibition & Conference 2010 is a prestigious event show casing Pakistani talent globally.
The theme of the event on both days was ‘Hope in Pakistan: Innovation, Creativity & Skills Development’ with respect to the core areas of the SEPLAA Foundation namely education, health, environment, law, society, empowerment and skills enhancement.
Several notable and renowned speakers were invited to move, challenge and inspire the audience to ‘Be the Change’! Speakers were carefully picked to cover the core SEPLAA Foundation areas of health, environment, education, empowerment, law and society.
The speakers at the Conference included Mr. Ahmad Qureshi, C.E.0. Friends Diaries and Founder Training Forum, Ms. Uzma Manzar (Senior HR Consultant), Dr. Ali Qazilbash (Head of Department, Law & Policy, Lahore University of Management Sciences LUMS), Mr. Ahmad Rafay Alam(Environmentalist, Founder of Critical Mass (Cycling Movement) in Lahore), Fizza Haider (Visually Impaired Instructor, Lahore Grammar School) and the closing remarks on health were given by Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik, Founder & C.E.O., SEPLAA Foundation.
In the end the Conference Speakers were given shields, conference mementos and copies of SEPLAA publications by SEPLAA Board Member Barrister Ahmad Farooq Malik.
The Awards Ceremony was a colourful event giving Awards to the Best Website ‘Thalassemia.com.pk’ from Karachi, Best Blog ‘iwritealot.com’, Best Flood Relief Efforts by a Youth Group, Best Short Story, Best Photography, Best Painting and Best Musical Band.
The Award for Best Flood Relief Efforts by a Youth Group had the following public nominees through social media sites and SEPLAA’s websitewww.seplaafoundation.org: Youth Parliament of Pakistan, Pakistan Youth Revolution, Pakistan United, Zimmedar Shehri and RescuePakistan Youth Foundation. The top three voted groups namely Youth Parliament of Pakistan, Pakistan Youth Revolution and Pakistan United were invited as guests to the SEPLAA Awards Ceremony. Representatives of each group were given a chance to talk about their groups to the audience. The Award went to Youth Parliament of Pakistan and was held high by all the three groups to show solidarity amongst the youth ofPakistan!
Special Features of the Awards Ceremony included a speech by Mr. Abrar ul Haq, Founder of Sahara for Life Trust followed by a performance by Abrar ul Haq from his soon to be launched album.
The event also launched the new SEPLAA Magazine ‘IMPACT SEPLAA’ which is a completely rebaranded magazine covering the positive events inPakistan.
A one Act Performance by the cast of the Addams Family (Creative Alley Productions) entertained the guests as well as a Guest Song performance by Laal band vocalist Taimur Rehman.
SEPLAA Foundation also launched the SEPLAA ‘Hope in Pakistan Health Awareness Greeting Cards’ which carries SEPLAA’s signature health message ‘Save a life, save a generation’ urging people to go for compulsory blood screening before getting married.
The Battleof the Bands saw the performances of 3 short listed bands and the award for the best band went to Jabran from Islamabad. The judge for the competition was Taimur Rehman from Laal band and the Award was given by Abrarul Haq.
The audience remained enthralled during the conference speeches and the colourful Awards Ceremony performances.
The second day of the SEPLAA Talent of Pakistan 2010 event focused on the exhibition of SEPLAA work and display of the winning entries. Stalls were also put up to display creative hand made products show casing Pakistani talent.
A separate exhibit was put up to show case and explain the SEPLAA Recycled Water Bottles for Flood Victims Campaign which helpedcollect 6,200 bottles for the flood victims by SEPLAA volunteers in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Wah.
The 2 days event aimed at lauding the efforts of people involved in flood relief efforts and the proceeds of the event also went towards the SEPLAA ongoing projects in health and education and promotes the positive image ofPakistanglobally.
In the end, SEPLAA Foundation C.E.O. Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik thanked all the volunteers, the SEPLAA Team and the audience for making the event a great success.
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Press Release Dialogue on ‘Media and Medical Ethics’ Organized by SEPLAA On 8th April, 2010
SEPLAA for health, environment and socio legal reform launched their ‘Seeds of Education Project’ on 8th April, 2010 by holding an apolitical ‘Dialogue on Media and Medical Ethics’ at their D.H.A. Head Office inLahore.
The house was opened for discussion with the words ‘Dialogue leads to an exchange of ideas which is important for creating an atmosphere of understanding and cooperation.’
The idea was floated by the President of SEPLAA Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik who said that ‘ The doctors and media are both members of the same community and should be able to talk about their differences through dialogue’.
Professor Javed Akram , the Principal of Allama Iqbal Medical College was one of the speakers who maintained that there should be some standard operating procedures which should be followed by all the media persons as well. He suggested for the doctors that even if they had to hold a protest , they could not suspend the emergency services.
Mr. Naveed Nasim , C.E.O. of ICUP Productions and ex. Senior Producer at Dawn News and Mr. Ahmad Waleed, the Bureau Chief of Dawn News Channel, were members of the media who contributed some positive suggestions for both doctors as well as media persons. Mr. Waleed suggested that the doctors could hold peaceful protests but should not suspend their activities at their hospitals as this affected the welfare of the patients.
Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik suggested that the previously accepted SOPs should be distributed amongst the participants of the dialogue so that further suggestions for improvement or their implementation could be made.
The dialogue led to the overall suggestions that some training of media persons in the form of a basic media qualification should be there to ensure that the rules under PEMRA and media ethics were followed.
Similarly doctors should be given training in communication skills in all teaching hospitals to show restraint and patience while dealing with difficult situations.
Civil society members should not side with either the media or the medical community because the matter should be amicably resolved between both groups for the benefit of ordinary people.
The event was held in a congenial atmosphere where all the guests seemed relaxed and enthusiastic about the positive outcome of the discussion. Some excellent suggestions were floated by the audience as well.
All the guests appreciated the effort of SEPLAA to promote the atmosphere of peaceful apolitical dialogues and hoped that such seminars would continue in the future as well.
SEPLAA President Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik, ended the discussion by thanking the guests and hoped that such academic dialogues could become more frequent in the future. She said that SEPLAA would prepare a Dialogue Report on the issue soon.
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