Power to the Youth - A Community Service Project of FJWU

In July 2022, The Norwegian Church Aid in Pakistan signed a partnership agreement with Women Research and Resource Centre, FJWU, to engage in a project on climate resilient projects with low-income youth under its contract “Power to the Youth” project. Under the project proposal, the eco-development initiatives will focus on climate change and environmental issues and will be carried out in various localities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. These initiatives will complement the Ministry of Climate Change’s District Task Force to contribute towards sensitization on climate change issues.

The project aims on providing a cleaner and greener environment in selected communities by engaging students of the Departments of Environmental Sciences, and Gender Studies, FJWU in addition to the youth from underserved localities. The first community chosen for project implementation is that of Rehmatabad, Rawalpindi. Prof. Dr. Shaheena Ayub Bhatti (Principal Investigator), Prof. Dr. Rohama Gill (Co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Shahla Tabassum (Co-Principal Investigator) and Dr. Sofia Khalid (Academic expert) conducted the workshop in the first phase of the project.

The project proposal focuses on the concept of reusing waste materials for vertical gardening and thereby promoting the concept of kitchen gardening amongst the youth. Each student and community leader will, in turn, train 6 youth members of the community and thus ensure that the training is cascaded. The step will prove to be a practical approach in managing the urban heat islands – a phenomenon with which Rehmatabad is seriously affected.