5 days training on Safety and Security in Lockwood Hotel, Murree.
A five-day training workshop on safety and security was conducted in Murree Lockwood. The need for this training came from the Youth Council (YC) in Multan. The participants invited to this training were the YC members from both the old and new YC in Multan.
VISION planned a five days training workshop for this purpose. The first 3 days of this workshop was decided to be conducted by the Bytes for All-the Islamabad based digital security right organization. https://bytesforall.pk/
The agenda is attached below:
On the day 1st, the trainer from the Bytes for All started the session with the expectation of the participants which are as follows:
The trainer introduced the concepts and methods of digital safety and security that are essential for online internet users to understand especially the transgender community to mitigate their online vulnerability on social sites. The facilitator gave an example of the formation of a strong password. It was emphasized that the strong password could be one of the primary keys that are used for online protection at a very basic level. To reinforce the making of a strong password, the trainer asked the participants to come up with making a strong password which was successfully done by the participants.
The trainer further explained the types of viruses and their functions and how they cause harm to digital devices.
At this point, one of the participants shared the incident that happened due to the leakage of the picture and was negatively portrayed by the perpetrators. She told that a birthday party was held in Multan by the transgender community where the invitees were from different walk of life. The birthday party was given the wrong frame and misrepresented as gay parties in the media which jeopardized the lives of the people.
The day proceeded with the introduction of some of the VPNs that online users can approach. In addition to this, the process of the backup of the data on Google drive was shown to the participants. The participants shared that they face problems when their cell phones are lost and that results in losing precious and sensitive data. The trainer practically showed the example of data backup and also shared how the Gmail account/s can help in enhancing data space.
The following feedback on this session was shared by the participants:
Safe video call options:
The trainer, as per the needs of the participants, suggested for the community to use safer online video calling applications. The participants had shared how traditional online video calling apps are putting people's lives in danger. The participants also shared some of the incidents and apprehensions that they face during online calling with their friend/s or peers as well as their partners. The participants shared the following:
The trainer suggested the application named Jitsi Meet for online safer calls. Trainer reflected on the importance of using Jitsi meet and told that it is an open-source application and comparatively safer to use. The option of using Jitsi Meet suggestion was welcomed by the participants.
Psychosocial
In this session, the facilitator reflected on the stress and its management exercises. There were three techniques shared by the trainer:
The participants practiced the techniques with the trainer. The soothing technique was regarding the exercise in which participants were told to close their eyes and inhale from nose and exhale from their mouth. Relax their body and arms and imagine a situation where they feel like walking on grass at some mountain top and also imagine a chilly wind and chirping birds. The participants were allowed to add further things while meditating. This exercise was done for 10 minutes.
Following are the feedback/s from the participants:
Physical Security
This session was mainly focused on the activities that are helpful in the analysis of physical security. The session was started with the definition of physical security. The participants were asked to tell what comes to their mind when they think of physical security. Below are the responses:
Along with the above, the facilitator also asked the participants their definition of risk. The participants said:
The facilitator shared a simple model that was helpful in assessing the level of risk. The model was drawn on chart where the risk was divided in three levels:
The participants were asked to come up with any risky situation pertaining to their lives and paste it on the levels drawn upon the chart to measure the level of risk.
Sand table activity:
One of the activities that were introduced by the board members of VISION was the sand table. In this activity, the participants made a hypothetical map on the chart/s where the participants were having freedom to use any material they think is relevant to making a hypothetical map e.g. placing a glass on the chart and putting a label on it as Hospital building.
The participants build a hypothetical map on chart and labelled the assumed places and made road maps. The activity was done in three groups. Each group had to present a different case reflecting on the problems they face and their solution keeping the map relevant to their real life situations in the field.
Furthermore, the training content was reinforced by the team VISION using the hand puppets. This skill has now been carried out by the field team/s of VISION.
Links:
Awareness videos for protection and prevention from COVID-19
In the current pandemic situation of COVID-19, where the dynamics of work has been changed across the world, the VISION also changed the strategy for creating the awareness among the transgender community by conducting the online session and by sharing using short video messages.
The spread of COVID-19 has been rapid in Pakistan; considering this alarming situation, the team VISION decided to create awareness regarding COVID-19 with a special focus to share these messages among the transgender community. For this purpose, team VISION created a video message that is focused to provide information on how an individual can protect her/himself and others from COVID-19. Keeping in mind about the attention span of the transgender community, the team decided to limit the total duration of the video to three and half minutes. The video message was spread through social media using their WhatsApp groups created for the transgender community.
Online awareness session on the Transgender Protection Act 2018
Since, the law for the protection of transgender community is active from May 2018 but at the same time its awareness on the community level is very low, especially among the young transgender cohorts. To create awareness regarding the Transgender Protection Act 2018, VISION conducted an online session with three young female transgender in the city of Multan. Most of the young female transgender use Whatsapp for their communication purposes therefore, the YC members conducted this session on Whatsapp.
Online awareness session on Stigma
This session was conducted online by creating a video clip on stigma and its impact. The team wrote content for creating the video clip. This video was shared in the Whatsapp groups of transgender community consisting 80 to 100 transgender population. Team VISION reviewed the video before sending it out to the transgender population in order to ensure that the correct and appropriate information was given out to the beneficiaries.
The objective of this exercise was to sensitize the participants on:
The Stigma exercise was developed by VISION. VISON have been extensively using this exercise in its different training and workshops to sensitize the Police, mainstream Human Rights organizations, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), students, female transgender community and other relevant stakeholders. The Stigma exercise has been fruitful in terms of its outcomes by creating empathy and letting the participants know how disastrous Stigma can be.
Labour Day
The Labour Day or International workers day was celebrated with the community on May 1st 2020. The importance of this day was shared regarding appreciating the efforts of the labour and working class.
One of the volunteer of VISION offered the idea to commemorate the efforts of labours and to draft relevant messages on the chart paper and spread the same with the transgenders. The Volunteer was inspired by observing the children and elder men working in the scorching sun at his neighbourhood on a construction project. The volunteer added “I felt very much for the children and the elderly men that I used to see working in the situation created by COVID-19 and lockdown.
The messages on charts also included the messages regarding prevention of child labour. Due to the social distancing, this session was conducted online and the developed content was shared online too. Messages regarding abolishing the child labours were designed to create awareness i.e. child labour is crime and should be stopped.
Distribution of ration bags
Team VISION Multan using their contacts reached out to some local volunteers. The team asked volunteers to cooperate by giving funds that they intend to use to reach and help the transgender community in shape of the provision of basic food items.
The volunteers, as proposed, provided Multan team VISION with food packages which included the basic food items such as spices, tea, sugar, oil, pulses and rice. 20 transgender households were given the food packages.
The distribution of food packages were well received at deras in Mumtazabad, KhuniBurj, Dolat Gate, Fatima Jinnah Colony, BakrabadPuli, and Bahawalpur bypass and KotRabnwaz in Multan. This initiative aided perhaps a small fraction of the transgender community members for few days.
Team Multan actively observed the safety protocols of COVID-19 while distributing the ration packages. Team Multan during the distribution encouraged the transgenders community to exercise and share the awareness regarding prevention of the COVID-19 provided to them by the team Multan.
Assess the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of transgenders in Multan.
The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most crucial global health calamity of the century and one of the greatest challenges that the humankind is facing. Under developed countries, especially Pakistan, where the transgender community is already at the margins of the society and is struggling for their basic human right, this pandemic became a life threat for their survival. The main occupation of the transgender community in Pakistan is begging, dancing and sex-work. Due to spread of the COVID-19 in Pakistan, the government imposed the lockdown in the country. Due to lock-down, most of the business remained closed and marriage ceremonies are not allowed during the period of lockdown.
Unfortunately, the means of transgenders’ community earning remains closed and there is no substitute earning. To gauge the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown, team VISION decided to assess the situation by conducting a small assessment with sample size of 15 transgenders in the city of Multan.
Following are some of the findings of the assessment:
Capacity building of team for using online medium to work from home
VISION introduces its team with the procedures for the effective use of online medium in the situation of work from home. Teams was further oriented on the basic technicalities of the online medium. Keeping the available resources and their optimum use along with the easy access, the team/s came up with the suggestion of using the most common platform for their outreach strategy i.e. ZOOM application and WhatsApp for communication.
Multan team was oriented on using the Google Sheets as a common platform to maintain their database for outreach strategy and their activity plan. Taking this further, the team/s created a database on Google Sheets listing the relevant information regarding the transgender community members of Multan. This database helped identifying the transgenders those who have smartphones and can be approached accordingly. The team contacted the transgenders having smartphones and encouraged them on using ZOOM application. This was done sharing the pictures and screen shots along with short video calls. The database on Google Sheet is being updated on daily/weekly basis.
Preparation of list of Transgenders on Google Sheet for Online ZOOM Call
Keeping in mind regarding the changed strategy for conducting the field activities through online medium, Team VISION decided to make a list of transgender covering the following heads which helped the team for contacting the female transgender population for the future activities.
Team VISION has made a list of four hundred plus transgender that can be contacted for purposes of online awareness session. These transgender were contacted using the ZOOM Application. The team VISION will use the ZOOM to conduct the online session.
Swat during the period:
On November 23rd, 2019, two program officers from VISION, traveled to Swat to observe the awareness sessions conducted by the Swat leadership on Transgender Protection Act, 2018, Basic Human Rights, Perception and its impact, and random walk.
The first session was conducted in the afternoon with almost 10 trans-women at Watki, Swat. Second session was conducted in the evening at Sohrab Khan Chowk, Swat with 10 trans-women. These sessions were led by Imrany and Nadia- the identified transgender leaders, and co-facilitated by programme officers from VISION. The Session started with the introduction of VISION’s work that has been done in Swat and others cities along with the detailed objective of the session. An informed consent regarding the pictures and attendance of the participants was taken.
Participants were asked to introduce themselves. The participants preferred Pashto language as a medium of communication as all of them were Pashto speakers, some of them could also understand Urdu language.
The first activity of this session was norm setting. Participants were told about the importance of norm setting as how norm setting brings normality and smoothness in the flow of session. It gives a space and opportunity to each and every participating individual to benefit from the time and content to its maximum. Transgender participants were told that the importance of norm setting becomes manifold as it guides individuals to behave in a certain expected way in order to maximize the benefits of the group discussion or session.
Following were the points set by the participant as norms for the session:
The next activity of this session was random walk; the purpose of this activity was to make participants realize their responsibility towards each other in addition to availing opportunities in their lives without meddling into the matters of others.
In the second part of random walk activity, participants were divided into two pairs of each and asked to walk randomly in the given space keeping the above rules of random walk in consideration. One member of each pair was asked to close his/her eyes and the other member was told to move his/her partner around in the given space keeping the rules of random walk in mind. Once done, the roles between each pair were changed i.e. the partner closing his/her eyes was told to now keep eyes open and the other partner was told to keep his/her eyes closed and walk randomly with his/her partner. The participants moving in the given space would stop or freeze on the call of facilitator.
At the end of random walk activity, participants shared their feedbacks which are as follows:
The two facilitators from the community then explained in details the importance of trust between partners and how they can help each other to live constructively without being counterproductive.
Perspective building was the third activity of this session. In this activity, the two community facilitators wrote a figure 3 on chart paper and placed it on the floor. Participants were divided into two groups with 5 members in each group. The groups were asked to stand on both sides of the chart facing towards it. When asked, one group responded that they see a figure M written on chart and the other group said that they see W on the chart. Next, the groups were asked to switch the places they were standing in. This time, the first group claimed that they saw W instead of M, whereas the second group claimed that they saw M.
The facilitators asked the two groups as who are right and who are wrong in their claims. The participants responded as follows:
The facilitators and co-facilitators explained this activity by giving examples of real world in which transgenders express one perspective of issue to the mainstream, and mainstream explains their point `of view which expresses their perspective.
Responding to the question of facilitator, the participants said that none of us is wrong at this point but we need to understand that issues can be resolved with negotiation while respecting the other person/group’s perspective.
On December 27th, 2019 Team VISION from Islamabad head-office traveled to Swat, KPK to observe the awareness sessions that team Swat was going to conduct with the identified transgender leaders of Swat at their deras.
The first session was conducted in the evening of December 27th at Imrany’s/Laila’s dera. In this session, 12 identified transgender leaders participated. The session was facilitated by team Swat-Nadia and Imrany.
The session started with the introduction of VISION and the participants. After introductions, purpose of the session explained to the participant was that we as citizen of Pakistan ought to know our rights, and VISION, since it is working with transgenders, wants to build the capacity of the transgender at grassroots level, to make them aware of their basic and fundamental rights.
Keeping in mind the attention span of transgenders of Swat, VISION included the following interactive activities in the awareness sessions. The primary purpose of these activities was to enhance their leadership and communication skills.
River of Life:
River of life is an activity that VISION has been using to engage the participants in trainings and sessions. This activity is helpful in bringing out the stories of the individual in an interactive style. Participants were told to make their own river of life on a flip chart using magazines, scissors and gums that was provided by the VISION team.
All the participants made their river of life and gave a presentation. Through this activity, some of the participants gained confidence of standing in front of the audience, expressing themselves, telling their stories in a chronological and articulated manner. Most of the participants shared that this was the first time that they got a chance to reflect on their lives especially past and future.
Participants shared that they enjoyed this activity and they also got to know how their peers perceive their lives in spite of being having an unfortunate past.
On December 28th, 2019 Team Swat conducted another awareness session with the identified transgender leaders of Swat on Transgender Protection Act 2018 and human rights. The purpose of this session was to make the participant aware about their basic and fundamental rights that are part of Transgender Protection Act 2018.
On 10th of January, the Program Officer and Accounts Officer of VISION visited Swat once again to observe a two days session that was organized by the two identified transgender leaders i.e. Nadia and Imrany. The number of transgender participants in this session was 8.
The session covered the following topics:
The session started with the introduction of VISION and its team. The facilitators of the session introduced themselves and ask the participants to introduce themselves as well. After the introduction session, VISION team asked the participants for their consent to start the session, capturing the pictures and taking the notes of the session. All the participants gave their consent for the requested.
First Aid:
This session started with the emphasis on the importance of first aid basics and linking it with the daily lives of transgenders.
The facilitators gave the example of a road accident and shared the following points that should be taken into consideration when an accident takes place:
The facilitator further explained that if during a dance function a wrist or an ankle of a transgender is sprained, then it should be carefully handled with a piece of cloth.
Negotiation with police:
Facilitators asked the participants about the police behavior post-training by VISION.
Following are some of the responses from the participants:
Nadia added that we should go to the police station in a group of 3 to 4 individuals whenever a need arises so that police does not get a wrong impression of transgenders going to police stations for protest. She further suggested that we as participants should be mindful that negotiation is important instead of being argumentative, therefore, we should keep in mind that whenever we are going to the police stations for filing any report, we must avoid getting into provocative arguments. Nadia continued by saying that only pre-decided focal person/s will accompany the aggreived party and should share their grievances with the police in a polite manner. This will help building a good impression of transgenders in the mind of the police.
Sehat (Health) Card:
The facilitators explained the Social Welfare Department process of issuing health card to transgenders. The facilitators mentioned that health cards are for those who are suffering from major disease. Only one person from a family can get a health card issued which can then be used by the entire family. She made it clear to the participants that health cards are only issued to those who live below the line of poverty and the issuance of health card is done through a proper assessment process. Nadia further added that sehat cards have one year validity.
Health and Hygiene:
Nadia volunteered to add the content regarding health and hygiene. Nadia, who had earlier attended sessions on health and hygiene, was motivated to share the related information with her peers by taking advantage of the session.
Nadia proceeded by throwing light on the importance of health and hygiene in the daily lives of transgenders leading to a healthy life. Nadia shared that washroom are used by random people on deras, therefore, washrooms should be cleaned twice a day to prevent the spread of disease. Hands should be cleaned and washed properly and thoroughly after using washroom, and taking showers should be taken frequently during the week.
Nadia also shared that contaminated water is one of the major cause of the spread of disease and suggested that clean water should be made possible for drinking by boiling and filtering the water. She also added that we can contact water sanitation officers in case the water in taps is polluted. She emphasized that health is wealth and the usage of clear and clean water should be our priority in life.
03 Days Theatre Training:
On October 30th, 2019, VISION conducted a three days theatre workshop in which the 10 trans-women from the theatre team of VISION along with Multan staff were brought to Islamabad. The purpose of this workshop was to develop a theatre play for the transgender community which brings unity between the transgender community and reduces the gaps that have been highlighted in the research that VISION had conducted.
On day first of this workshop, the entire focus was on developing a story for theatre. The first story that community theatre participants had developed was very much victim narrative in which chelas are supposed to as victims and guru were shown as a greedy person.
VISION was keener to develop a story that shows the old-age relationship of guru chela where there is a lot of respect of a guru and guru treats their chelas as their children. This idea was shared with the theatre participants and they agreed with the suggestion of VISION that instead of showing negative parts of the community, we should reflect the positivity of this relationship. The participants had decided that through this performance they will highlight the advantages and effectiveness of this relationship and will show the necessity of this relationship so that the gaps between the relationship of guru and chela get minimize.
One the second day of this workshop, theatre participant started rehearsal on the story that they have developed on day one. As this group was already trained by VISION in one of its previous projects, therefore, VISION had not to puts its energy on dialogue delivery, voice range, expression, etc. The areas that VISION has to work upon is to trained the participants in stage positioning and movement on stage because this group previously had performed a street theatre in which angle and movement are not important whereas in this theatre these things are important as they have to keep in mind that the audience is only sitting in front of them and their faces should be visible to the audience so that audience can clearly see their expression and hear their voices while performing this theatre.
On the third day of this workshop, theatre participants had finalized their theatre play and do a mock rehearsal in front of the management staff of VISION. After this rehearsal, the theatre team went back to Multan for purposes of performing theatre at the living spaces of the female transgender community of Multan.
02 Theatre Performances in Multan:
On November 9th, 2019, the theatre team of VISION conducted two theatre performances at deras on different locations. The first performance was conducted in the afternoon in which 25 trans-women viewed this theatre.
The second performance was conducted in the evening in which 35 trans-women viewed the theatre.
After watching the theatre, the following is the feedback by the audience:
Links:
VISION team: Guru Mumtaz, Asad (Mahi), , Qasim Ali, Abdul Qayyum, Tahir Khilji
Date: 26-September-2019
Submitted by: VISION
Police Training in Multan
Multan is one of the largest cities in the Southern part of Punjab province of Pakistan and has a population of approximately 2000 to 2500 transgenders living in different parts of the city. The need for police training arose from the complaints regarding police behavior towards transgender population and harassment of transgender population were communicated by the local transgender population of Multan. The training was conducted by using the police training manual developed by VISION for purposes of sensitizing the police force on basic human rights of transgender population and the Transgender Protection Act 2018. Along with the manual, VISION also developed two posters that are described in the later part of the report.
The manual was developed by VISION on the request of National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Islamabad Capital Territory Police (ICTP). It was funded by a Washington based group. The cover page of the manual and both the posters can be viewed in the attachment.
The police training in Multan was conducted in collaboration with Punjab Social Protection Authority (PSPA) and the local administration of Multan.
In total there are 32 police stations in Multan but for purposes of training 9 police stations that were named by the local transgender population as the monitoring stations of the cruising sites, streets where mostly begging is done and the neighborhoods where generally the transgender population resides.
In addition to this, the local transgender population reported these police stations as the most problematic police stations for them.
The immediate response of the training was excellent and the police force, encouraged VISION to hold a similar training for the larger police population in Multan along with a request to come back for a follow-up.
The transgender community members volunteered to take the two posters developed by VISION; one poster illustrates the basic human rights of citizens of Pakistan under the Constitution of Pakistan with special emphasis on transgender population, and the second poster illustrates the duties of the police while dealing with the transgender populations, to each police station and hang the posters themselves at all the 9 police stations participating in the workshop. The police happily agreed and welcomed them to visit the police stations for purposes of hanging the posters.
Soon after, some of the transgender community members from Multan in one of their travels to VISION’s head office reported that there is a marked change in the attitude of the police personnel from these 9 police stations. However, VISION still has to conduct the two month evaluation process of this training in Multan.
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
