Momal ♥ Being a Girl

Through contacts made in WSYA and Women Deliver, we are happy to present:

Name: Momal Mushtaq, creator of thevoiceofyouth.com and thefreedomtraveller.com

I enjoy doing anything that would fall under the category of social media, social entrepreneurship and/or social work.

I founded The Voice of Youth (tVoY) in June 2010. It is an award-winning youth network spread across 151 countries of the world. Social media as an alternate form of media has brought the conflict zones of the world into limelight. With the vision of a peaceful society, one of the goals of tVoY is to speak to millions about resolution of conflicts, their nature and root causes. Our focus is on the young people. By sharing their story, we feel they can be a great source of inspiration and encouragement to those who are going through similar situations.

Other than that, I recently launched The Freedom Traveller. I call it "a young Pakistani woman's uprising, her desire to be free and her dream to travel the world." I come from a male-dominated society where girls can't go out alone anywhere – be it the store or the university – everything is dependent on males. Considering this, just being abroad has been 'precious' for me, because that's when I got to experience the true essence of freedom, and you can talk about it, think about it, see it in on television screen but you can't feel it. I have launched The Freedom Traveller to continue my journey as a traveler, redefine the word 'freedom' for women and highlight the work of other inspiring women from around the world. 

The world would be a better place if everybody would:

See The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Listen to TED Talks (I ♥ Being a Girl seconds that, see here)

Read The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003) by Mitch Albom

Try following their heart.

Before I'm 80, I'd like to travel the world.

I ♥ Being a Girl at WD'13: Galia

#WD2013

Galia during European Caucus at WD'13

"I honestly forgot to take more pictures during conference sessions, so basically I only have two and they are hilarious in a way, I think"

Galia from the Ukranian MA of IPPF attended Women Deliver this year and shares some of the impressions and frustrations that such a hectic event causes:
 
"...I am not sure if my story is of any interest because really, most of my impressions of the conference were getting together after the flight, getting used to a new time zone, and then flying back. It was all so quick that I didn't have much time to realize what was happening. Now that I have this kind of experience I know that during such conferences you need to think and react quickly to new environment, but I wasn't prepared for that at the time of the conference.

During the Conference I got to meet several people from absolutely different parts of the world and hearing their stories was quite interesting and new to me. Hearing about situation of women's health and rights in African countries was something absolutely new to me, too. I saw that during the conference not too much attention was paid to situation we have in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and that was something I was missing, since I've never wanted to work in African or Asian countries, but wanted to do something good for women in my country which is Ukraine.

I was hoping I could understand what else I could do besides being a volunteer but I haven't received that answer yet. I do know for sure that as a social worker (I am getting my Bachelor's degree in that field in a few weeks) I'll be working and helping women, but haven't figured out how exactly. I did realize that gender discrimination is not that much of a problem in Ukraine - there are problems that are far more serious, like domestic violence or breast cancer. "

I ♥ Being a Girl at WD'13: Fungai Machirori

During our time at Women Deliver, we were happy to meet many active and aspirational young women.One of them, and one of Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders, is Fungai Machirori.

Fungai is the Founder and Managing Editor of Her Zimbabwe, a project she started in order to reach grassroots and marginal communities and women through social media. Fungai named the project HerZimbabwe, "Because it is her vision of Zimbabwe, her experience of this nation in the historical, pphysical, spiritual and futuristic."

She started the platform with zero funding, using her skills as a trainer and editor to other young activists who in tern helped her develop the website and its image.

The website provides a rich palette of personal stories, experiences and views on gender roles, inspirational leaders and development, sexuality, relationships, health and growing up and living as young woman in Zimbabwe. The website takes a honest approach to both the challenges that women face (either in Zimbabwe or globally) and the struggle to transform social-media input into real-life results and actions.

"I can’t put a price on a personal story. In my view, it’s the most precious thing that every one of us has; a narrative that defines us. I would like, through Her Zimbabwe, that these narratives be given freely and by women who have the right support systems to help them face whatever societal or cultural backlash they may experience."

You can also read more about Fungai's views and experiences at her personal blog here!

I ♥ Being a Girl at WD'13: Gehad

In the Youth 2.0: Young People Online session on Tuesday, Maya had the pleasure to share the panel with Gehad El Sayed from Y-PEER who talked about her network's 10 Days of Activism campaign.

We approached Gehad asking for empowerment recipes and tips on how to overcome the difficult moments of activism. She suggested three aspects for successful work:

1. Wishing to do something unusual (unusually beneficial) for the community as the starting point.
2. Having full support from your relatives. And in this case it's not about your blood-related family exclusively, although their support is also very appreciated. You need a social safety net that you can rely on.
3. Trying to find the right approach to the problem, a new way to go forward that hasn't been tried yet.

And for the times when everything seems to be against you, Gehad suggest you keep trying and use the unpleasant, not that successful experience as something to learn from until you find the genuine spirit in which the task becomes bearable. And remember how it could've been so much worse in the first place. 

I ♥ Being a Girl in the social media and young people session, #WD2013

#WD2013

I [heart] Being a Girl presentation at Women Deliver 2013 from jauatkales

Maya just did her presentation of  I ♥ Being a Girl in a session Youth 2.0: Young People Online, talking about where this project came from and what we have been doing since 2010. Together with Gehad from YPEER, Sana from Chanan Development Association and Vanessa from Planned Parenthood Global sharing insights on social media and the nature of the internets.

Off to #WomenDeliver we go!

#WomenDeliver 

Hi,

This year our conference of the year will be Women Deliver. This blog has gone through two International AIDS Conferences (2010 and 2012), so we expect an experience mixing something new and something old.

Here are the sessions that we will be present at (apart from the fact that Maya has been singled out as one of the 100 Young Leaders, yeah!):

• May 28th, 11:30 in room 401 session Youth 2.0: Young People Online will take place, talking about digital natives, peer-to-peer social media and activism online with real life campaign examples.
• May 29th, 14:30 in the Cinema Corner (Exhibit Hall 2, Hospitality Suite 2) we will be giving a brief presentation of I ♥ Being a Girl and screening both of our short films (1, 2).
• May 29th, 19:30 in room 410 the European Caucus with a focus on the diversities in Europe and Central Asia will take place. We will be there talking about challenges and possible solutions!

And we will be reporting on the inspirational things happening and people met here and on YSAFE Twitter!