Uzma Khan “We need to have quality conversations with young people.”
“TThink of obstacles simply as challenges,” says Uzma Munaf Khan, leaning forward with an aura of a motivational speaker. “You have to keep walking, the second you stop, you will fall down.”
Uzma is used to having the odds stacked against her. From being a single mother living in the post-apartheid South Africa to a rising banker in the male-dominated banking sector. However, now Uzma seems to be in a new uncharted space, running INJAZ Pakistan, a member of JA Worldwide; a global non-profit which trains and equips young people for a changing global economy.
“It’s my career that saved me,” she says referring to the financial stability she was able to sustain after her husband’s death back in 2003. “If the mother is educated, even if she’s a housewife, she will be able to have quality conversations with her children,” adding, “that’s critical to the child’s foundation and upbringing.” For Uzma education begins with conversations, and without that quality engagement between parents and their children, the children will likely fail to think profoundly about the environment and the world at large around them. “This is why at INJAZ we have mentors from the industry and the business world coming in and sharing their real-life work with young people.” This means a lot especially to those young people who don’t have exposure to these quality conversations at home.
Before INJAZ, Uzma spent over a quarter of a century in banking, including rising to become a Global head at Standard Chartered Bank’s Regional Head Office in Singapore. At Standard Bank South Africa, she chaired the Corporate & Investment Banking Transformation forum and led the strategy in relation to the post-apartheid transformation charter. “The South Africans understand the importance of a clear message to the disempowered that change won’t happen overnight,” adding that “in Pakistan, the progress needs to be to communicated to young people. We need to make them believe that a better future is possible but one has to keep making those steps in the right direction.”
Now, Uzma is bringing JA Worldwide’s almost-century-old mission to Pakistan. Since INJAZ’s inception in 2012, the NGO has trained over 40,000 young people through providing them with co-curriculum education in entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy and work readiness. The mentor-driven model has helped the establishment of more than 38 youth-run businesses in Karachi alone.
“In Pakistan, anybody can open a school,” she laments, “everyone asks non-profits for their impact, no one asks universities and educational institutions about what impact they have had.” For Uzma, Pakistani schools and universities focus on the number of their graduates, on how many degrees and certificates they hand out, however, “none of them talks about the quality of their alumni.” This is why most Pakistani educational institutes shy away from publishing data and successes of their alumni. “Where’s the quality?” she asks.
The problem, Uzma recognises, begins at primary school level. “We are not even talking about children who can’t go to school now,” adding, “someone also has to do something about the people in their 20s who didn’t even go to school.” Even those attending schools aren’t been trained in the right skills. “For me, education is being aware of the things, skills and possibilities which will help you survive in the real world,” she adds.
However, Uzma is optimistic about Pakistani youth. “One of our alumnus from Korangi now runs an operation that breeds and supplies Quails (batters) to most restaurants in Karachi,” adding, “once you encourage them to think about entrepreneurship, they do think about it.” It is the pressure from the family, not the lack of ability of young people, particularly women, which is a hindrance for young Pakistanis to take risks.
Uzma has big plans for INJAZ, “we plan to expand nationally and impact over 20,000 lives every year, to begin with,” adding, “if you believe in yourself others will too.”
This is part of our #BeyondClassrooms series, you can view it here.
If you want to know more about the work by Injaz Pakistan visit their website here or follow them on Twitter here.
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