Assalam-u-alaikum

Education for Pakistanis in the UAE

Education is the cornerstone of individual and community success. It’s essential to getting and keeping a job with a livable wage and health benefits. And it’s fundamental to a community’s economic prosperity: a well-educated workforce attracts world-class jobs.

A good model of education focuses on outcomes and goals for a community, and drawing on the strength of existing partnerships, relationships, if any, and good ideas. Supportive communities, effective schools and strong families must be in place, supporting strategies and approaches rooted in research.

But what matters most is individual involvement. Research shows the strategies proven to work are those that connect communities to their schools: parent involvement; literacy volunteers in the classroom; mentors for disadvantaged students; business leaders engaged in early childhood advocacy.

For the above to take shape we will have to find a solution to the following:

Do we have a good model of education for Pakistanis? No.

Do we have a world-class education system for Pakistanis in the UAE? No.

Do we have teachers and professors, who can really be called Educators! No.

Are our students coming out of our schools and colleges in the UAE eligible for world-class jobs? No.

When we have so many nays, then what should be done?

Our community leaders should sit down together and thrash out a plan for our despicable education situation in the UAE.

Our affluent community members, we believe are fully capable of raising a world-class University, in the UAE which should be recognized by the UAE Ministry of Education.

But before reforming the education for us in the UAE, first and foremost reform the quality of the teachers. This will be the starting point of any endeavor to correct the problem.

Would somebody try!!!!!

Pakistan Paindabad

Shaikh Ghazi

Oath taking Ceremony – at PAD

Pakistan Association Dubai formed its new wing – Pak-Khyber Wing. The purpose of this wing is to further enhance the support activities to address social welfare needs of Pakistani community in UAE. This wing is an addition to other wings that are working under the umbrella of PAD. Each wing of PAD is bound by association’s constitution in all its activities. The activities of the wings are monitored by the PAD.

H.E Khurshid Ahmed Junejo the Ambassador to UAE, taking the Oath

Click here to view gallery

The main aim of this wing is to look after the welfare of our underprivileged community members in the UAE. Pak-Khyber Wing will work under the umbrella of the Pakistan Association in Dubai and will follow the constitution of PAD.

Mr. Ayoub Afridi a renowned Pakistani businessman in the UAE was elected chairman of the Pak - Khyber Wing and Mr. Khayal Zaman its President. After the oath-taking ceremony which was administered by His Excellency Khurshid Ahmed Junejo the Ambassador of Pakistan to the UAE.

After the oath-taking ceremony, the Chairman and the President highlighted the needs of our community, such as. Students who cannot pay their school fee, people who are incarcerated in the jail for petty matters, and can be released by paying off small amounts of money to the aggrieved parties. Some do not have money to buy air tickets to go back to their motherland, and are languishing in prisons.

The Ambassador speaking on this occasion, said, “60 percent of more than one million Pakistanis living in the UAE are from the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Province which is dominated by Pakhtoon.”There are a number of other smaller welfare groups but they focus on particular tribes from their areas. However, this Wing will help all Pakistanis without any discrimination and political affiliation," He urged all Pakistanis living in the UAE to spare their time, money and resources for their community and for the needy people and there are many.

The President of Pakistan Association Dubai Muhammad Riaz Farooq addressing the presence at this occasion stressed that the association is welcoming all community members to be a part of one or the other wing and contribute for the cause of their liking.

Khursheed Ahmad Shah, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower addressed a community gathering at Pakistan Association Dubai.

Khursheed Ahmad Shah, Federal Minister- addressing the community

Last month Pakistan Association Dubai organized a colorful community gathering in honor of The Pakistan's Federal Minister for Labor and Manpower H.E Khursheed Ahmad Shah.

During his visit to PAD his attention was drawn to the in UAE and other problems as well.. He said the Government is planning to appoint dedicated labour attaches at its missions in the UAE and other Gulf countries to help solve issues facing its citizens abroad. He said "We are going to appoint special labour attaches at six missions in Gulf countries including the UAE which have very high number of Pakistani's [in their] workforce to directly deal with the labour community and solve their problems."

Speaking to the Pakistani community at a reception organized by the Pakistan Association Dubai, the minister said that the labor attachés would work in coordination with the Welfare attaches who are currently handling all affairs related to the workforce abroad.

H.E Khurshid Ahmed Junejo the Ambassador to UAE during his speech

According to the Pakistan consulate figures, there are more than 900,000 Pakistanis working in the UAE and around 70 per cent of them are laborers or in the low-income group. He also added that the government was working on plans to provide skilled laborers to the UAE and other Gulf countries. "We are still exporting huge number of workers to the UAE and are thankful to the UAE government for increasing the quota of work visas for Pakistani workers from 62,000 to 90,000 per year,".

Riaz Farooq Sahi, president of the Pakistan Association in Dubai, in his welcome speech reminded the promises of the Federal Minister he made during his last visit to the UAE. He said "We deserve a little better treatment at the airports back home and need some recognition. Due," He said that overseas Pakistanis were promised special seats in the senate, National and provincial assemblies but there has been no progress on this issue. "We are still waiting for the announcement for a promised programme to help relocate overseas Pakistanis who are going back home,” He also said the government should also look into their long standing demand of increase of quotas in professional colleges and universities back home.

H.E Khursheed Ahmad Junejo, The Ambassador of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan to UAE was also present on this occasion.

Pakistan Association Dubai the sole representative of around 0.9 million Pakistanis residing in UAE organize a FREE MEDICAL CAMP at its premise every month. A group of Pakistani doctors get together every month at Pakistan Association in Dubai to provide free medical care, free consultation to patients who cannot afford expensive treatment.

Suger & Blood Pressure check up at Free Medical camp

These volunteer Pakistani doctors who work in various private and government hospitals and clinics in the UAE work under the umbrella of Medical Wing of the Pakistan Association in Dubai (PAD). They provide their time, skills and consultation free of cost to serve their community with special focus on the underprivileged community members. The Medical' Wing organizes free medical camp on the last Friday of every month and provide free consultancy to patients.

Limitations

The Medical Camp doctors have certain limitation as they cannot prescribe medicines, conduct tests and even administer injections. They only check the patients and advise them on their medical treatment,” The law does not permit volunteer doctors to practice their profession without permission. However, they can provide consultancy at such free medical camps.All they do is to check patients, advise them and educate them about their healthcare needs. Doctors at these medical camp are of the opinion that it is a great service that is being provided to our community and much more can be done.

Having felt the need for a greater facility for the poor patients, PAD & MW are planning to set up a proper clinic at the association with the approval of the authorities concerned as it would help our community and provide proper treatment to the patients.

Dr. Raees “Child Specialist” examining the patient during Free Medical camp at PAD

The Pakistan Association officials are providing all possible support to the medical camp. "We have also started maintaining the list of poor patients who cannot buy medicine or go for expensive medical tests and surgeries...The association would help these patients and provide them with free medicines and arrange free medical tests and even pay the cost for their surgeries. Purchasing expensive medicines is the biggest problem for poor patients who come to the camp. We have requested philanthropists and our affluent community members to come forward and contribute in their project to set up a proper clinic.

Facilities project

The association plans to set up a free polyclinic in PAD to run on a non-profit basis and a Pakistani Hospital to provide affordable treatment to low income group of people from all nationalities. "We are in the process of getting approvals for these projects which will be built with the help of the community.

A Pioneering approach to Communication in business and in life (by William Isaac)

Anyone who works with anyone knows that dialogue is an essential part of our daily drama, whether at home, or at the office, or working in the community. What is more, we know that the more effective our dialogue, the more effective and rewarding are our days. But like any communication, a good dialogue is more than just two people babbling at each other, there’s more to than meets the eye…ear.

If you ask a communication or organizational development professional, dialogue is indeed an exchange of ideas or opinions between two or more individuals, through electronic, print or face-to-face vehicles. But dialogue can also be a more formal communication process in and of itself, employed to work through hurdles, enhance understanding and community harmony, and reveal new and healthier ways of working together. Welcome to Dialogue, with a capital “D”.
William Isaacs develops in a lucid and slush style the importance of dialogue in business and in life.

Modern conversation is lot like nuclear physics, argues William Isaacs. Lots of atoms zoom around, many of which just rush past each other. But others collide, creating friction. Even if our atomic conversation doesn’t turn contentious they often just serve to establish each participant’s place in the cosmos. One guy shares a statistic, he is privy to, another shares another fact, and on and on. Each person fires of a tidbit, pauses to reload while someone else talks, than fires off another.

In Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, Isaacs explains how we can do better than that. Isaacs, who is Director of the Dialogue Project at MIT and a consultant to major corporations, include AT&T and Intel, believes that corporate, political, and personal communication can be a process of thinking together – as opposed to thinking alone, and then trying to convince other of our position by refusing to consider other opinions, withholding information, and ultimately getting angry and defensive.

This is not pie-in-the sky, let’s all hold- hands and sing stuff. He offers concrete ideas for both listening and speaking for, avoiding the forces that undermine meaningful conversation, for changing the physical setting of the dialogue to change its quality. The outcome he says can be quite different from the traditional winner-loser structure of arguments and debates. Businesses can make more reasoned decisions, and thus earn money. Governments can create peaceful resolutions to seemingly intractable problems. (For example Isaacs cites secret conversations between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in South Africa, which occurred over a number of years, while Mandela was still under arrest and led to a new framework for their country.)
Isaacs argues that organizational learning cannot take place without successful dialogue.

Dialogue is conversation that encourages collective observation and thought, enabling groups to think beyond their members’ individual limitations. Isaacs posits an “ecology of thought,” which is typically communication in team(s).

If you have the right people on a team, you must get them to interact effectively. How?
The key is to encourage dialogue, not debate, among members.

Debating is a polarizing and antagonistic process. When debating on issue, people tend to take sides and put the issue in black and white terms. The purpose of a debate is to prove your point and win.

The purpose of dialogue is not to prove your point but rather to explore various viewpoints. In those various viewpoints the team discovers or uncovers a common ground – and from the common ground emerge solutions.

Finally! Dialogue provides an intellectual and practical framework for understanding the way we work together – or fail to. It should be on the shelf of every organization that spends time in meetings, whether in a corporate conference room, Association Hall, or Capitol Hill.

Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together is must reading for all CEO’s, managers, politicians, diplomats, Community Associations heads, teachers, and professors.

Although this is a book primarily geared toward managers, even married couples can learn a few new ways to communicate.

Review by Shaikh Ghazi