Mega Project Blog #2

The three months long Career Prep Fellowship by Amal Academy is about to end and Mega Projects are in full swing. Everyone is busy finalizing their Projects and Getting ready for the Presentations this week. Circle 5 is also in it’s Rock and Rock mode and getting things done related to the Project on priority basis. A detailed insight on our Mega Project "Raah-e-Raast" was given in the Blog number one. In this Blog we’ll be sharing our progress up-till now.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”.

By Edward Everett Hale.

Progress:

Over the course of time my circle made commendable progress and were able to achieve the smart goals following the timeline we had made while devising our goals. Following are the key points of progress made by Raah-e-Raast.

1. Setting up of the Office
2. Taking Volunteers on Board
3. Conducting a Survey
4. Organizing an Introductory Webinar
5. Maintenance of the Social Media Accounts
6. Promotion of the Business Idea
7. Website and Mobile Application
8. Designing a Business Card
9. Providing the Services

An Insight of the Progress:

Setting up of the Office:

Social Media Management:

Facebook:

Instagram:

LinkedIn:

Twitter:

Introductory Webinar:

Conducting a Survey:

Taking Volunteers on Board:

After we started working on the project, we realized that we need a bigger team so that we can expand our horizons. Our Circle consists of 8 members from different field of studies. So, we can provide good guidance in terms of these 8 fields. We came up with the idea of taking volunteers from different fields so that we can have experts from different areas of study. In this way we can divide the workload and also provide better guidance to students. Currently we have added 15–20 people to our list of Volunteers from the backgrounds of engineering, medical/health sciences, social sciences, humanities, computer science and information technology and various others.

Promotion of Raah-e-Raast:

Our goal was to reach a bigger audience so that we can provide our services to maximum number of people in need. For this purpose we promoted our platform by most the use of social media, by sending people links to our pages. Texting the introductory message to all of our contacts and asking them to send it further. Conducting the survey was also helped us in promotion. In person introduction of the platform was also done to attract more people.

Business Card:

Providing the Services:

Raah-e-Raast is already up and running. We are trying our level best to guide the students around us and helping them in securing an admission in University of their choice. I Jareer Ahmed the Circle Leader have gone extra-mile in helping my juniors from school, college and also in my family or friends. I helped my cousin in choosing a degree program from three options, which she was confused between and also helped her in the application process of GCU, Lahore. I helped two students in applying for the entry test and admission of IUB, Bahawalpur. I helped my brother in applying for Foreign Scholarships. Recently Coordinated with a junior in switching from IUB, RYK to Concordia College. I went on Campus with 2 students and walked them through the admission process of KFUEIT, RYK. I and my group members dealt with many such cases in the past weeks.

Challenges & Solutions:

Whenever a new idea is introduced in the market, various problems and challenges always come up. The person who face these challenges sensibly and with strength, prospers. It’s all about finding a good or innovative solution to the challenge. Various challenges that we faced and the solutions that we came up with are explained as follows.

1. First of all, a new idea needs to be promoted so that people are aware about the work that is being done. Promotion is indeed a difficult task, especially when it is being done by using free and virtual means. Sharing the links and putting up stories was just not enough. We were not getting good reach. So we started sending messages and invites to people individually and request them to reach out to our social platforms. We observed our reach growing.
2. In start, we were getting worked up due to the excess burden and also facing difficulty in guiding people due to lack of knowledge of all the career options available. After taking volunteers on board, both the issues were solved.
3. Another challenge is to make people trust you and convince them that we are working for your best interests as a social service and not getting anything in return or not for making a profit out of it. This problem was solved by customer testimonials. The people who were happy with our services became the source of promotion and making a positive image of Raah-e-Raast in the market.

Change in Approach:

As time passed, we realized that some changes were need to be made in our approach and work strategies.

1. In start, we decided to start this idea physically but later on we switched totally to virtual means due to the pandemic situation and lack of funds.
2. We decided to target and guide only the students of FSC (Intermediate), but now we are also offering services to students of Matriculation.
3. Initially, all the tasks were to be performed only by the circle members, but with time we started working on the idea of recruiting volunteers.
4. We were considering limited options of degree programs and education institutions, but now we are expanding our spectrum of work.
5. Initially, we were also interested in making money out of it, but now it is completely a social service.

Impact:

Raah-e-Raast is indeed a strong concept with impactful outcomes. As a social organization we are able to make a change in the society and making people realize that money is not everything. People will surely understand the concept of helping someone when you’re good at something and not expect anything in return. Education is something really important, and choosing the right career path is more important. Most of the people do not have access to proper guidance at the right time and realize later on that they made a mistake or chose the wrong career. I myself am of case of this situation, which is why I don’t want more people going through this. Raah-e-Raast wants to change this and make everyone able to freely choose and study what they love, or be able enough to make the right choice.

If you stay true to yourself and true to your vision and your own values, you can power through and make an impact on modern life.

-Steve Bannon

Sustainability:

Sustainability in terms of funds or profits is not something that we are worried about for now as Raah-e-Raast is a social idea and will solely work for the welfare of students, especially the needy ones. Hard work and Motivation is all that we need to keep our platform up and running. To maintain a good level we’ll keep refreshing things such as replacing the volunteers, getting new and motivated ones on board, organizing events and interesting activities to attract people and keep the group motivated. Devising new and innovative methods of work so that the new challenges will keep us busy and the team will stay connected. We can also think of introducing new services under the platform. In future, this Idea can be converted into an entrepreneurial idea to keep things running smoothly and the mode of work can be switched from virtual to completely physical.