ISLAMABAD - Aimed to bring the youth forward to work for peace and to enable them to play an active role bringing peace in Pakistan Individualland Pakistan organised a speech competition on Thursday.

A number of male and female students of different educational institutions participated in the competition organised by the Individualland Pakistan at the Aiwan-e Quaid located in the Fatima Jinnah Park.
The Young Ambassadors of Peace (YAP) initiative started in August last year by Individualland Pakistan. The main aim behind this initiative is to provide alternates and constructive means to use the massive energy that youth possess. Individualland Pakistan conducted district level competitions in 24 districts across Pakistan.
After competing in district level competitions, participants were selected to contend in the first provincial round of the Young Ambassadors of Peace initiative. These participants mostly hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab and Islamabad and were given different topics for debate including Aik Nayi Subbah, I am the Hope, Main Hoon Pur-Amman Pakistani and Making Peace.
After completion of district level competitions, the next step was to initiate provincial level competitions. Out of the initial 200 participants that contested at the district level, one hundred participants were selected for the provincial round and out of these hundred some 60 participants from KPK, Punjab and Islamabad gathered here for the first provincial round that elapses over three days i.e. from 14th to 16th February.
All the participants presented their views eloquently.
The competition was judged by prominent personalities belonging to the media and the civil society in Islamabad. The judges were Tauseeq Haider, Irfan Ahmed Urfi(writer) and Farhan Khalid(Individualland). Aneeq Zahid, Sahar Anwar, Sahar Ahmad and Raza Ali Hashmi qualified for the next round.
The next step after the provincial rounds is the training and development of the selected participants, who would then be called as Young Ambassadors of Peace.
These young ambassadors will undergo different training regimens including communication skills, blogging and communication over the Internet etc.
They will also be given training on developing their capacity to articulate peace messages and monitoring, critiquing, developing and articulating counter narratives presented in mainstream media.