Shaan Mehdi
As an overseas Pakistani, there was one thought that constantly barraged my mind. How can I help Pakistan while sitting abroad? One way is to send funds which admittedly has been hugely helpful to the Pakistani economy in the form of rising remittances. Another way is to move back and take your skills and expertise with you. However, the second option is not as feasible for some as it may be for others. In this time of my life, one factor that has been immensely helpful to me has been my exposure to experienced professionals, friends and family members who are able to guide me and provide me with a roadmap on how to achieve my goals. Using this personal experience, I thought why not offer the same type of guidance to students in Pakistan? As a result, I teamed up with my brother Shayaan and our childhood friend Umad, and together we set about on turning this idea, The Mentoring Program, into reality.
Rather than focus solely on soft-skills and career guidance, we thought a mentorship program that connects Pakistanis with Pakistani students with the aim to help the latter practice and develop their English communication skills would also be very beneficial. We sent out surveys, met with different education administrators from Pakistan and reached out to our entire network of Pakistanis prior to getting the ball rolling. Here are some of the integral nodes to The Mentoring Program (TMP):
Firstly, the opportunity to work with the Akhuwat Foundation, founded and run by Dr. Amjad Saqib, has been an incredible experience and one without which the entire program could not have begun. The Akhuwat Foundation provides micro-financed loans to underserved segments of Pakistan’s population and are fast becoming one of Pakistan’s pre-eminent poverty alleviation NGOs. In fact, Akhuwat is touted to be the world’s largest interest-free micro-finance organization with a reach of over 4.2 million families. They also have operations in the Education, Health, Housing and Hospitality sectors. Due to this enormous footprint of Akhuwat, we were extremely lucky to be given a chance to work with their college in Chakwal. Thus in September 2020, TMP’s first cohort got underway with 26 BS English students from Akhuwat College Chakwal. These students were all matched with relevant mentors who signed up from around the world.
The next pillar of TMP are the mentors. The entire life of the program revolves around our mentors and their inspirational desire to give back to Pakistan. The mentoring sessions are once a week for 1 hour, and the program lasts for 13 weeks. For the mentors to give their precious time purely out of the goodness of their hearts, it must be commended. Asides from using our personal network, we used reddit as a major pipeline from where mentors could sign up. Since the Pakistani reddit page has about 60,000 subscribers and many of them are overseas Pakistanis, it was the perfect pool of candidates to pick from. After receiving sign-ups on our TMP website, we then scheduled short 15 minute interviews with each applicant before onboarding them with a final town hall session prior to the start of the program. Our mentors come from all over the world, including Pakistan, and bring with them a vast array of experience in fields such as computer science, medicine, entrepreneurship, politics and much more. The idea was that some of the habits that make these mentors successful would be transmitted to their respective mentees.
Currently we have also started our 2nd TMP cohort with 17 BS Economics students from Akhuwat College Chakwal. There have been some challenges. Internet issues, session scheduling, effectiveness of the syllabus and Covid restrictions have made this journey difficult, but even more rewarding. We hope to continue amending and improving upon the program as the sessions go by based on the feedback from the mentors, mentees and the school. The 13 week syllabus focuses primarily on improving the English communication skills of the student while also guiding them with regards to career guidance.
TMP co-founder Umad Khan mentioned that “having roots from an under-developed country, Pakistan, I have always felt the urge to give back in a certain capacity. In today’s world to succeed, soft-skills are as essential as technical skills. From my personal experience, to develop these skills, having the opportunity plays a significant part. It is a known fact that the education system in Pakistan is quite robust; however, it lacks education in essential communication skills. That is when we noticed the gap and the opportunity to start The Mentoring Program. The program circles around hosting activities that enable the students to practice effective communication. The program encompasses various aspects of effective communication through activities such as interviewing, presenting and collaborating. Our vision is to provide students from under-served communities an opportunity to stand on the international stage.”
Shayaan Mehdi, TMP’s other co-founder, had a similar drive to give back to Pakistan in some manner. “Pakistan is abundant with talent and potential. There is no reason why the youth over there cannot stand shoulder to shoulder with their peers from around the world and showcase their skills. It is our hope that we can inspire all Pakistanis, both within and outside of Pakistan, to take out an hour from their week to guide someone who otherwise may not ever be exposed to such mentorship.”
Our mission is to provide a personalized path to success for underserved students in Pakistan and elsewhere while our vision is to be a partner to every government college in Pakistan. By continuing to improve upon the program and ensure that measurable metrics are being strengthened, we hope that TMP can reach a stage where every student in Pakistan requiring mentorship is connected with a mentor best suited for their needs and goals.
The writer has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Queen’s University and works in fleet management
