MY IVLP STORY:

They say ‘will & determination’ can take you to places and destinations sometimes beyond your expectations. For me this became true when one fine day I received an invitation from the US State Department via the US embassy in Pakistan inviting me to visit their country as a guest of the State to share and learn all there was to offer in the field of Education with reference to Primary, Elementary and Secondary levels under the auspices of International Visitors Leadership Program.

I got a lot of support from the Karachi office of the Public Affairs and then also in Islamabad for my Visa and other travel details and briefing. Finally the day arrived when I said goodbye to family and friends and embarked on this journey full of excitement, knowledge and opportunities for meeting with diverse groups of people. For this particular group I was the only one representing Pakistan and was to be joined in Washington D.C with people from the South-Asian region namely, Maldives, Nepal and India. After a long journey I finally reached the Dallas International Airport and was received by the representative of the State Department Ms. Jackie, who then introduced me to the rest of the group members who had already arrived. I felt proud being the youngest member of the group and representing Pakistan.

Traveling is my hobby which proved to be a good thing as this was a really stormy trip from one part of this large country i.e. Washington D.C to the other end Los Angeles in California with mid stops in various other States. Every day was jam packed with scheduled meetings with Government/State officials, Non-Govt. Organizations and then visits to various institutions like Schools, Libraries, Museums, City tours and other amazing places. Then there were official lunches and gatherings and we were also invited on various dinners by American families who opened their doors for people from the other side of the planet to share their culture and get to know what we had to offer each other.

Everybody we met greeted us very warmly and apart from briefing us about their work also answered several queries which we asked time and again as this exchange of ideas was very informative for the group as well as the people we met.

The comments I received from different people I met on several occasions were very interesting, like when I told them that ‘I am from Pakistan’, many of them in a very polite way asked me how is that possible, Pakistani girls are not allowed to come out of their homes, or work or for that matter travel!! And you are this young Pakistani female who has done so much work and now you are here, how is that possible? And my response was always simple, with a smile I said, ‘here I am standing in front of you and that in itself is an answer of the misconceptions that are unreal and created by those who do not like the nations of the world to develop, unite and live in harmony’.

Throughout this visit I found people quite eager to know what kind of a country Pakistan is, how are the people, culture and traditions, what aspirations do we have and what kind of festivities and celebrations are there. This was all very encouraging as I got to speak passionately about my homeland and I was so happy to enlighten the American people about so many beautiful things Pakistan has to offer including the gift of friendship. Some of the people actually became quite eager to visit Pakistan! It was most wonderful when we were invited at a big school gathering in Alabama and I gave a presentation on Pakistan and then all the hundreds of kids, staff, the City Mayor and other people sang “Jeeway Jeeway Pakistan” (A national anthem “Long Live Pakistan”) with me. It was just so amazing.

I had taken with me souvenirs from my beautiful motherland and whomever I presented these different items, they were most amazed of their uniqueness and thanked me immensely.

I am therefore very glad that there is such a program and I know of some others too where through exchange these misconceptions can be removed for good and people can come closer to each other and understand the beauty of the diversity there exists.

“The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.”
Abraham Lincoln.