Organizers

Anjuman Taraqi Khowar

AnjumanTaraqqi Khowar (ATK), founded by the literary people of Chitral in 1956 is one of the oldest literary organizations of northern Pakistan. The purpose of the establishment of ATK was to provide a platform to Chitrali poets and men of letters so that they could work for the promotion of Khowar language and literature. Since its inception, ATK has held hundreds of poetry recital symposia, workshops, seminars and conferences; and has published around hundred books in Khowar language. Most importantly, ATK has hosted two international conferences: “the 2nd and 3rd International Hindukush Cultural Conferences”, in 1990 and 1995 respectively, in Chitral.   ATK is registered with the government of Pakistan and has 22 chapters (halqa-jaat) in different villages/areas of Chitral, as well as in major cities of the country.

Forum for Language Initiatives

The Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) is a non-profit research organization based in Islamabad and works for the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages of Northern Pakistan. Established in 2002, FLI has the goal of preserving these languages by building capacity among the people from local communities. FLI is registered with ICT, Government of Pakistan, has its head office in Islamabad and its regional office in one of its target areas, Swat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It has implemented many multimillion and multiyear projects and has so far covered 20 languages spoken in its target area by having trained thousands of mother tongue speakers from Northern Pakistan in language documentation, multilingual education, organizational management, sociolinguistic research, literature production and advocacy. The organization has turned dozens of purely verbal languages into written form and empowered the ethnolinguistic communities by providing skills, awareness and resources to protect and promote their languages and cultures. Many trainees of FLI are actively involved in preserving and developing their mother tongues. Some have formed community-based organizations and established mother tongue-based education programs. FLI has trained a number of people from the language communities as facilitators. These people further trained and passed on their enhanced skills to other people in their communities, other community people, university students and faculty members