Shaoor Foundation for Education and Awareness organized 5-day long 2 (in number) Peace Labs from 17th till 21st November, 2019 and 2nd till 6th December, 2019 respectively.

The Peace Labs were organized in collaboration with United States Education Foundation Pakistan (USEFP) and Pakistan-US Alumni Network (PUAN) in Islamabad. The week-long Peace Lab(s) (PUAN Master Class) were organized with an aim to promote regional peace and stability in South Asia through equipping participants with skills and knowledge to start their independent social entrepreneurial ventures.

PUAN Peace Labs gathered 80+ PUAN alumni from different chapters of PUAN across Pakistan and also participants from Afghanistan. The opening ceremony of PUAN Peace Lab included brief introduction of the program, followed by opening remarks of Angela Gjertson, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer, US Embassy Islamabad and Syed Ali Hameed, Executive Director, Shaoor Foundation. Moreover, the Peace Labs included people from diverse backgrounds and professions.

It is important to note that, the Peace Lab was extremely effective in terms of linkage development and networking among participants from different parts of the country and across the border.

The ideas generated and shared during Peace Labs would certainly go a long way in disseminating the message of peace and building bridges between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Moreover, PUAN Peace Lab was strategically designed in a way that, it didn’t just enhance the understanding of the participants regarding the subjects of Peace and CVE, but also built their capacities as independent entrepreneurs.

The Peace Labs invited around 30 speakers (each cohort) from different parts of the country well-versed in fields such as CVE/peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, policymaking, marketing, technology and other relevant subjects covered during the Peace Lab. PUAN Peace Lab incorporated a comprehensive impact assessment framework to gauge the overall impact of the master class, wherein the team designed online pre-and-post session survey forms for every session, with an exception of panel discussions and energizers.

The surveys forms were designed on the Likert Scale and featured thematic as well as generic questions. The generic questions revolved around the quality of session, selection of the speakers and their knowledge and understanding of the given subject. Whereas, the thematic questions covered the set of talking points (earlier shared with the speakers) covered during the respective sessions. The participants were asked to fill pre-session survey at the start of the day, whereas post-sessions surveys were shared after every session.

The feedback gathered was quite effective and meaningful, wherein it helped improve the sessions and selection of speakers during Peace Lab (Cohort II). Moreover, the team also gathered qualitative feedback from the participants, which is incorporated in the qualitative analysis section in the report below.

The Peace Lab proved to be a meaningful learning experience for the participants from Pakistan and Afghanistan, alongside helping them build sustainable networks to advance peace and promote regional stability in the region.

Shopping Basket