SDNP scores pioneering initiative for Gilgit media

April 22, 2001

One of the cornerstones of SDNP's mission is to empower the people of Pakistan by conducting workshops on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's). Professional groups, however, require specialized training because they have particular needs which need to be addressed. SDNP therefore undertook the pioneering initiative of conducting an Access workshop in collaboration with Northern Areas Conservation Strategy (NACS), a support project of IUCN - the World Conservation Union, Pakistan, in Gilgit exclusively for the media on April 22, 2001.

The workshop, entitled "Use of Internet for Sustainable Development" brought together fourteen participants from the following thirteen media outfits:

1.   Press Club, Skardu
2.   Jasarat
3.   Pakistan Press international (PPI)
4.    Associated Press of Pakistan (APP)
5.   Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) Gilgit
6.   BAEJ
7.   NNI
8.   Daily Khabrain
9.   Daily Siachin
10.   KPI
11.   Baad-e-shimal, NA
12.   Daily Dawn
13.   Press Club Gilgit

Mr. M. Ismail Khan NACS Coordinator Communications, welcomed the participants and briefly introduced NACS. Mr. Shahzad Ahmad from SDNP Islamabad briefly described SDNP's work and traced the history of the Internet from research oriented experimental use to today's global network of information and knowledge. Mr. Mohammed Ashraf from SDNP then carried out a hands on training session on the use of email; and how to open an email account.

SDNP's Pakistan Development Gateway (PDG) generated a lot of curiosity and interest among the participants, which contains vast and in-depth information about sustainable development issues related to Pakistan. They were especially excited to explore the news websites on environment and sustainable development, English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan; IISD, One World, PANOS, and IUCN's Red List of endangered species. Participants were also trained in searching for information using major search engines such as Altavista, Excite, Google and Webcrawler to improve the quality of their work on environment and sustainable development.

Later, some of the participants commented on the workshop. "This is simply wonderful, it will go a long way in improving the skills of the local media to raise awareness about environment.  This is for the first time that NA journalists will have the opportunity and skill to access the vast information available on the Internet", said Eiman Shah, President of the Gilgit Press Club.

"The journalists will definitely advocate for use of Internet among various segment of NA society.  Just and effective use of this technology can bring qualitative improvement in our work and also in the life of the communities," said Nisar Abbass, Correspondent daily JANG, who led a delegation of Baltistan Association of Environment Journalists to the workshop.

"This training was a unique gift for NA media.  It has opened a whole new world to the media working in as remote a region as NA, to the vast information available on Internet about environmental and sustainable development issues", said Mr. Ghulam Hussain, Station Director, PBC Gilgit.

This workshop generated a lot of excitement on Gilgit and Skardu Radios in three languages (Urdu, Wakhi & Shinai), with interviews of the resource personnel, which was also linked to the Earth Day celebrations.