As Pakistanis we know that our creativity is our strength. We also know that if we remain cohesive as a society we will continue to build on very strong foundations. Pakistanis from all backgrounds are starting to look forward in an attempt to put their differences aside and work with what Pakistan already has, which is a bit of everything, including uniqueness and charm in abundance. Nostalgia of Pakistan’s heyday is creeping back but can Pakistanis work in tandem towards achieving stability and social cohesion without neglecting the country’s diversity?

Charter for Compassion Pakistan is already on board with the idea that sky is the limit, if Pakistanis go about putting their heads together and working on respecting others. CfC-Pakistan recently held an art workshop at Compassionate Schools of Khairpur from the 5th to the 8th of August, which focused on diversity, peace and tolerance. Many of us subconsciously adopt these principles already. It is nevertheless still vital to keep reemphasizing them.

We can gentrify cities like Karachi. We can clean up our streets by hiring rubbish collectors while making littering a criminal offence. We can make our culinary spaces and public restrooms more hygienic. We can tax our elite more heavily. We can develop a system of tipping where we give away all of our 100 Rupee notes as a rule. We can even start to invest more money locally and look after our own citizens as well as our military who so bravely paved the way for this national revival but unless we enlighten, educate, emancipate and empower our future generations, there will be no incentive to see through visions like the ones above.

Charter for Compassion Pakistan is committed to helping harness innovation and creativity like the kind that we had the pleasure of witnessing during our art competition. Rewarding creative brilliance can only further encourage our future artists, writers and film producers to conjure up exceptional creative work and use their ingenuity to depict various narratives like many successful Pakistani artists have previously done. CfC Pakistan hopes that these sorts of opportunities will inspire young Pakistanis to express themselves more, as this freedom of expression will allow our society to continue to thrive culturally.

Pakistan desperately needs positive representatives who represent our culture in a forward-thinking way but initiatives like Charter for Compassion cannot do this on their own. We want open-minded yet discerning and patriotic Pakistanis from all walks of life to be an example to the rest of the world. Pakistanis are known for their resilience and raw talent, despite not having all the funds in the world. By hosting art workshops, CfC urges everyone to get on board so that we can give all Pakistanis the opportunity to take the world by storm and do themselves and their country proud.

Pakistan happens to be a haven for Startups and to build from the bottom we need to provide talented students with a functioning support system along with tailored mentorship and methods of motivation. Just as we tailor our behavior to various individuals, art workshops like ours seek to bring out the neglected talents of our students by targeting their creativity. We believe that practicing art in the context of peace, tolerance and diversity can captivate young individuals and help them to visualize the challenges facing our society, while they go about their business in an encouraging environment. Furthermore, promoting concepts like diversity, peace and tolerance is not only good for domestic relations, we want to encourage young Pakistanis to eventually embrace other countries in the region as well.