Malala Was Inspired by Her Great Leaders
Malala is a 14-year-old courageous Pakistani who has challenged the local Taliban that she’d do the opposite of what they’re doing. They destroy schools and Malala who was inspired by her great leaders, will spread education in Pakistan by setting up Malala Education Foundation. Read the multiple prizes winner’s inspiring story here.
read more »Google Contractor Accused of Vandalizing OpenStreetMap
Busted! Sometimes, when they try to win the competition they commit crimes against humanity. Millions of people use the open source maps of Open Street Map for humanitarian projects. For full story, link here.
read more »Our Journey to Smile
Ali, Faiz and Abdulai are three young and energetic Afghan peace volunteers. They are taking their journey in India this time under, “What would Ghandhi say to Afghan youth today?” Read what the three youngsters experienced for the first time in life: First time on plane First time above clouds First time having pineapples First time on elevator, travelator First time using standing urinal and automatic sink-tap First time in a big city that’s green ( Delhi ) Read full story here.
read more »Electricity in Nangarhar
There is very little electricity generated by Darunta Dam which is divided between the corrupt officials and a few hospitals and government offices in Jalalabad. Households in Jalalabad buy electricity from these expensive community generators: $1.25/KW. Most families do not use heaters or air conditioners or anything that use a lot of electricity to save on bills at the end of the month. One generator powers about 60 households. These are private businesses and there are no regulations from the…
read more »The World from Under my Mom’s Burqa
Having seen my mom wear a burqa to school and outside home for several years, I wanted to see how it feels to wear one. I took my mom’s ‘mobile jail’ and put myself in it for a minute. I felt so bored and depressed. Everything seemed blurry and I had no peripheral vision for that one minute. I felt dizzy when I took it off. Then I gave my mom a very long hug to show my sympathy. The…
read more »Crowd Sourcing: Reporting and Mapping Incidents
Crowd sourcing tools and applications that are used to report incidents and map them: they can be used in disaster response and relief, election monitoring, reporting human right violation incidents, creating a detailed visual report of an organization’s projects, etc. Following tools and applications are integrated for the above mentioned tasks: FrontlineSMS: to collect raw data and incident reports Facebook, Twitter, E‑mail, phone calls, a GPS for exact locations and other means can be used to collect data as well. Ushahidi…
read more »A T‑shirt in Kabul and a T‑shirt in Islamabad
An Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan wearing this T‑shirt that says, “ONLY A DEAD TALIBAN IS A GOOD TALIBAN”. And in the bottom it says, “Republic of Afghanistan” in Pashto. A store in Islamabad, Pakistan selling these T‑shirts that have a photo of Osama bin Laden and under the photo it says, “Well-known” in English and in Arabic.
read more »Signs in Islamabad International Airport
Translation: All pilgrims are kindly requested to pray for the betterment of their people and their nation (Pakistan). Pakistani pilgrims waiting on a line for their flight to Saudi Arabia Translation: “Warning: Smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia is death penalty.”
read more »U.S. Prepares for a Curtailed Relationship With Pakistan
“Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League‑Q, an opposition political party, summed up the anger that he said many harbored: “We feel like the U.S. treats Pakistan like a rainy-day girlfriend.—: this is a quote from the New York Times article. It’s funny that he thinks that the U.S. treats Pakistan like “a rainy-day girlfriend”. Nobody spends billions of dollars on “a rainy-day girlfriend”. Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. are three countries that have been affected…
read more »Nangarhar Media Office: Collecting and Disseminating Information
Nangarhar Governor’s Media Office uses simple technology to gather information and security updates and to disseminate that, if/when needed. Nangarhar province in the eastern Afghanistan has 22 districts and every morning, the media office calls the district governors and get updates on security situation in their districts. They use a notepad to jot down any notes during their telephone conversation with the district governors. They always check with the provincial director of National Security Directorate (NDS) to make sure that…
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