Visualizing Your Experience
“People are sent into our lives to teach us things that we need to learn about ourselves.”
My Amal journey started almost 3 months ago. As I vaguely remember, it was the month of December. I was passionate about this fellowship since my 2nd semester when some of my seniors were doing this fellowship and made-up mind to join it in my 3rd semester. I saw the story of my fellow Arfa and I asked her that how and when I can join? and she sent me the link of the form and filled that, luckily I was selected and I was super excited about this journey and to learn new things.
The whole journey has been full of learning but the initial two weeks were of relatively higher importance. I’ve seen that the basic concepts we learned and practiced in the very beginning, are the ones we have been building our progress on. I’ll put some of the learnings from my first two weeks.
AMAL SESSION 1
A night before my first session, I was very excited to start my new beautiful journey. I woke up at 9:30 AM. I started preparing a bit, did my breakfast, and anxiously waited for the time to come. I was excited to see some new faces, excited to make new friends, excited to learn, and excited to improve.
Finally, the time came and we were asked to join the session 10 to 15 minutes before for interactive and healthy discussion so keeping in mind, I joined the session at 1:50 pm, although the official time was 2:00 pm. Our project manager Sir Saad was already talking with present follows and the discussion was very interesting and Sir Saad started asking some general questions, just to make us a bit comfortable and get us out of our comfort zone.
Finally, the time came and we were told to get ready for our first activity. The activity was about telling the story behind your name. Ok, so we were sent to breakout rooms. I started the conversation and here I got another nickname Mini haha. After that first activity, there was a healthy discussion about the values of AMAL and we were also encouraged to share our own values of life. The values recommended by AMAL are Honesty, Humility, Responsibility, Acceptance, and Growth. One can change his/ her life if one would set these as their values of life.
Along with that, there was a discussion about Principles of progress devised by AMAL, and those principles were commendable for me. Those principles are AMAL, Khudi, Kaam Kaam Kaam, and Ek or ek Giyara. After that, we watched an AMAL-customized documentary and it was actually very inspiring. It was about Abdur Sattar Edhi that how he initiated his humanitarian work and eventually got success. We learned that how “Just start, take small steps and eventually you will get success” kind of attitude is momentous to have in our lives.
The last activity of that session was to make dogs by using specific zoom features. We enjoyed it a lot. That activity was a practice of teamwork and how one manages his/her time.
Amal Session 2(Knowing yourself)
Before the start of the session, there was some funny discussion related to our routine and then the time came and the session started at 2:00 PM. Without any delay, there was our first for our refreshment it was getting close and pulling your hand’s couple with arms and it was very fun to do that. Sir Saad told us to raise our hands whenever we have to share something or ask something to get that opportunity.
Sir Rizwan started nominating one member and the game was started. After some break, we moved towards the discussion of the 2nd principle of progress and that is “Khudi”. There was a healthy discussion regarding what is actually Khudi. Khudi has basically 2 major aspects in it, “Self-Learning” and “Self-Reflection or Realization”. Clearing the concept of Khudi brought a very important debate on board and that was which principle should come first? AMAL or Khudi?.Sir Rizwan conducted a poll and around 78% opted for Khudi and 22% opted for AMAL. Two teams came into existence. A member of the Khudi team initiated the discussion by putting his argument. In reply, a member from team AMAL gave a counter-argument, and then the cycle continued.
It was a healthy debate and the best part was, everyone was able to communicate his/her argument pretty well. At the end of the debate, Sir Saad revealed that it is AMAL that comes first. Eventually, it paved the way towards the final activity of Sunday’s session and it was about “connecting the dots and constructing your Life map”. Before we went to the activity part, there was another discussion on why we can’t connect the dots by looking forward rather we can only connect them by looking backward. With that set, we finally got into the last activity of the session and that was to construct our own Life map by the sort of connecting the dots. That life map clearly somehow made us realize that certainly it is rightly said, “We can’t connect the dots by looking forward, we can only connect them by looking backward”. My Life map is in the figure below:
We ended this Sunday’s session with smiling faces and Sir Asked fellows to stay back if they want to discuss something. This session was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot
Amal Session 3(Diving deep into “Kam Kam Kam”)
Kam Kam Kam is the third principle of progress devised by Amal whose concept is based on the fact that if you have a strong belief in yourself nothing is impossible for you. Let’s dive into the actual experience of the session. The session started Officially at 2:00 PM sharp.
Today’s session was about the third principle of progress, “Kam Kam Kam.” It started with the question, “What had we understood about Kam Kam Kam ?”. There was some good discussion on that. Those discussions brought a crucial debate on board, which was about “Hard work” and “Natural Talent.” The question that aroused was What is required for success, “Hard work” or “Natural Talent.” Two teams were created, one team was for “hard work” and one for “natural talent”. The debate began with the initial statement of team hard work, and then it went on. There was a very interesting reflection from fellows on both topics.
Sir Saad, ultimately, concluded the discussion by remarking that without hard work, you can’t achieve anything. We had talked a lot about hard work, consistency and natural talent. That talk brought yet another outstanding documentary on “Abdul Sattar Edhi,” who is assuredly the most generous humanitarian the world would ever see. In that documentary, the way he claimed “I am Pakistan” clearly explicates how much he owns it. He insisted that “mere education is not enough; you all necessitate to be a human.” This documentary is an illustration of hard work, persistence, and compassion for humanity. The session got opened for comments. Everyone started expressing what they admired the most in that documentary. After a short break, we were back for yet another activity. We all had to make our purpose maps and post it on our Facebook group.
Amal Session 4 (Exploring the significance of “Team Work (Ek or Ek Gayara)”
Teamwork is one of the significant traits one should have in this competent world. At Amal, we use a term called, Most Valuable team player (MVTP). An MVTP is someone, we all should strive to become teamwork and MVTP.
Sunday sessions have always created extra enthusiasm in me due to the motivation I used to get from Saturday’s session. After a few minutes, Sir Saad started asking, “How was your week?” to everyone. Everyone was like, “Sir It was very hectic and busy”. Sir remarked, “It seems like you all have ganged up and given us the same reply so that we won’t give you the next week’s work”. In the meanwhile, the session officially started at 2:00 AM. The session was started with a question, “How is your weather inside? Sunny, foggy, or Rainy?” Haha inside means how we were actually feeling that time. Moreover, sunny indicates a happy inside and foggy or rain indicates sadness or crying inside. Mostly we were feeling sunny which was a good thing.
Moving forward, Sir Saad took the stage and asked some questions just to give us a recap of our course “Teamwork”. The common questions were “What is teamwork?”,” What are the qualities of MVTP (Most Valuable team player)”?.” How an MVTP can lead the team despite not having any authority?”. Those questions really made us recall the fundamentals of our course and set a good base to build on.
Sir Rizwan called for an activity. We were given 2 minutes and we had to list all those supportive people and give them a count. That activity was a good way to recall the important people in our lives.
There are three major characteristics of the most valuable team player. (MVTP). Kindness is one of them and to practice it, Sir Rizwan called for another activity. We all were divided into two teams and asked to think of our supporting people. When the allocated time was over, members from both teams were asked to give their statements. The sole purpose of that activity was to make all of us realize the significance of kindness and how it can create an impact in our lives.
Being a proactive communicator is another significant trait of an MVTP. Another activity was called on in which we had to practice our communication skills. We all were divided into nine groups and put into breakout rooms. There were three scenarios and each scenario was given to three different groups. Each group had to devise a communication strategy for the given scenario in the allocated time. Afterward, anyone from each group had to present their group’s strategy. It was a healthy exercise for practicing our communication knowledge and teamwork skills.
Embodying constructive and positive feedback is another key trait of an MVTP. There was a game between Saleeha and Muaaz to prepare a debate on any topic. Sir Rizwan already told us to give positive feedback to Saleeha and negative feedback to Muaaz. When we were done by giving all the feedback, the stage was given to them to say something about their feedback. Muaaz was a humble person and he accepted all negative feedback. Actually, there was a prank for them.
Finally, we reached the final activity of the session and the aim was to practice all the key traits of an MVTP. The title “Moon Landing activity” again suggests that it was not an ordinary activity. We all had to go to the moon for our last activity.
To stay alive and go back to our planet Earth, we all had to perform yet another activity. Our passport had certain things listed. We all had to rate them according to our needs individually in the allocated time. When we were done with that, we were again divided into groups and put into breakout rooms. We had to replicate the same task in a group then. After all that, we got certain scores. We all were wondering what they actually mean? We were told that these scores would tell whether we would be able to stay alive and go back to earth or not. Eventually, as per score, only a few were able to get back to Earth or stay alive. We ended that activity again on a high. That moon landing was just fun. The aim was to make us realize the significance of teamwork. Finally, we were given an exit ticket and eventually, the session came to a close.
Conclusion:
The first two weeks were really interesting and amazing, we interacted with each other, we came to know about each other and we learned 4principal. This Fellowship transmuted my perspective of optically discerning things and dealing with situations in life. Alhumdulilah, I am completing this fellowship next week and I am authentically proud of my decision of perpetuating this fellowship. I plenarily realize that my facilitators and my fellows played a vital role in availing me make this decision. I am highly profuse of gratitude to all of you for that. I have learned a lot from this fellowship and all the memories will be remained fresh in my mind forever
All in all, the experience I’ve had in the fellowship, from the beginning till the end has been nothing, but beautiful, and one to be remembered
A thing of beauty, is a joy forever -John Keats