In a literary event, held in Islamabad, language enthusiasts and researchers congregated to celebrate the linguistic diversity of Gilgit Baltistan (GB). The seminar, organized by FLI, showcased the cultural and linguistic diversity of the region through the presentation of six research papers. The focus was on Shina, Balti, Khowar, Burushaski, Wakhi, and notably, Dawudi languages.

The scholars explained the progress made to strengthen these languages, shedding light on the challenges encountered along the way. Particularly noteworthy was the inclusion of the Dawudi language, a rarity in such forums. Previously known as “Domaaki,” its name has been changed by the language researchers from the community.

The paper presentation session transitioned into a panel discussion, where the focus expanded to all indigenous languages of the area. The discourse illustrated contemporary challenges faced by these languages and unveiled the community’s expectations from both provincial and federal governments. The event, held in the premises of the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in Islamabad during the final week of January 2024, drew an audience of approximately 100 participants, comprising language researchers, activists, students, and writers.

A conclusion to the intellectual deliberations unfolded through musical performances from three language groups—Shina, Burushaski, and Khowar. FLI, dedicated to fostering connections among ethnolinguistic communities in northern Pakistan residing in urban areas, organized this event with the goal of bridging the gap for those distanced from their native environments. The celebration not only embraced cultural festivities but also provided insights into the developmental improvements made in preserving these languages.

Forum for Language Initiatives, in collaboration with the Directorate of Professional Development (DPD), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organized a three-day training for Primary School teachers of the Upper Chitral district in Booni. A total of 85 teachers, half of whom were women participated in the activity. The workshop aimed to enhance the teaching skills of govt schools’ teachers in newly inducted languages with a special focus on the Khowar language.

The government schools’ teachers are usually trained pre- or post-induction, and they are familiar with English and Urdu language books. Keeping in view the importance of the local language, FLI felt the need for training in Khowar Book teaching in primary schools.

The Khowar language has become part of primary education in the Chitral Valley as a subject and teachers find it challenging to encounter the unique sounds, characters, and orthography of the Khowar language. This training has explained many questions the participants had in their minds before they attended training sessions. Many of the participants expressed their views in the pre-training assessment that they were underestimating the importance of the activity, but it was encouraging that their perspective was changed in the post-training assessment.

The Khowar language is being taught as a subject up to Grade VI in Government Schools of KP. FLI initially executed a pilot project by training 85 school teachers, enhancing their skills in Khowar Book teaching as drawn above, and has a plan to cover the maximum number of teachers to make regional language teaching applicable and effective. The idea of inclusion of regional languages was initiated in 2016 and four regional languages; Pashto, Saraiki, Hindko, and Khowar have become part of the curriculum.

FLI adopted a cascade training module and trained Master Trainers from the local government schools’ teachers. Four men and four women attended FLI’s Master Trainers training process who were the master trainers for all 85 trainees. Earlier, FLI in collaboration with DPD carried out a Language Need Assessment (LNA) in Booni to baseline collect data on what was needed in the training which led to the Development of a comprehensive Training Manual which will be helpful for all languages.

The Master Trainers who facilitated this training have been playing a key role in this process from the very start and became a resource for not only FLI but also for DPD. Private schools in the area can also be facilitated by these trained master trainers in their local language. The KP government has issued instruction to private schools in the province to ensure the implementation of KP Cabinet’s notification regarding regional language teaching and FLI’s trained trainers can be handy in this regard. These all efforts will contribute to developing resources for Khowar language reading, writing, and literature development in the future.

Curriculum Reviewers Workshop for Kohistani Shina language is underway in Abbotabad. The five day long workshop is participated by 20 people, mostly govt school teachers who are supposed to contribute to curriculum development in future. The Kohistani Shina is one of the languages, included in the education system and it is very likely that the KP government would initiate the process of its inclusion as subject like Pashto, Saraiki, Hindko and Khowar. Therefore, FLI has started producing resources for the purpose.

The objective of the activity is to enable the participants to work with relevant government bodies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that are responsible to develop reading material for the newly inducted languages of the province. These reviewers would contribute to standardize the writing of the language which has been affecting most of the languages of the region.

Almost all children in Kalkoti language community in Dir Kohistan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa learn and speak their heritage language, a rare case in northern Pakistan. No age group in the community appears to be seen leaving their language for another. This was known in a vitality survey, FLI conducted in the last week of August 2023. For the activity, typically a five to six days long workshop is organized involving people from the community and start the discussion. Seven people from the Kalkoti speech community participated in the event as mother tongue facilitators who learned how to assess their native language’s vitality. The mother tongue facilitators then got out to the community and involved more people for larger assessment. A guide, Planning for the Future of Language was used during the workshop helping them plan how to strengthen the language in future in areas of literacy. This planning is based on the said assessment.

According to the results, the Kalkoti language was found to be sound in orality as mentioned that all the age groups, especially the young people were acquiring their language. What concerned the team is that almost all age groups were multilingual from the very childhood. Additionally, no written literature was available, however, Kalkoti speakers, with assistance from FLI have recently developed their writing system and it is hoped they will begin producing literature in their language soon.

At the end of the workshop, the participants developed a plan to promote their language. For the purpose, they are optimistic to find poets within their community to organize first ever Kalkoti Poetry Session in their village. FLI has assured them of its cooperation in strengthening their language.

The Kalkoti language, belonging to the Shina subgroup of the Dardic languages, is spoken in the Kalkot village of Upper Dir district. According to the community people, around 15,000 people speak Kalkoti as their native language.

FLI supported Yadgha Development Network (YDN), one of its partner organizations from northern Pakistan to organize a writers’ workshop aiming to promote the writing of the language among Yadgha community. The event took place in Roi village of Lotkuh valley in Lower Chitral district and 15 young Yadgha speakers including students, poets and singers participated and learned how to write their native language. Alaudin Haideri and others who are trainees of FLI facilitated the event and helped the participants to express themselves in their own language. They oriented the participants to the unique sounds and alphabets of the language. They also helped the participants to install and use PC and Android Keyboards FLI has developed for them.

Yadgha, belonging to the Iranian group of languages, spoken in Chitral, and is facing a looming language shift due to not being transferred to the young generation was provided a writing system with PC and Android keyboard to strengthen it in 2016. Since then, FLI has been supporting various activities to enable the Yadgha speakers to avert the catastrophe of extinction of the language. FLI has been successful in finding and empowering the community researchers but still the language researchers and activists have to achieve a hard goal to save and promote their language.

FLI collaborated with the Initiative for People in Need (IPN), one of its partner organizations from the northern Pakistan to organize an essay writing competition in Indus Kohistani language community in Patan area of Kohistan on May 30, 2023. The activity was aimed at involving the youth in the language development process and making the young generation aware of the importance of using their native language for literature development. This was the first activity of its kind when the Indus Kohistani youth participated in a competition, held for writing their native language. In total, 26 students of Grade 10 from five schools, both private and public participated in the contest to write essays in their native language. The competition was based on spelling correctly, fluency and understanding of writing rules. The judges panel included Dr. HA Faizy and Molana Atif Ahmad Patanpuri who evaluated the efforts of participants. Both the judges are researchers of their language. Distinguished writers and literary persons from the Indus Kohistani group got the opportunity to speak to the youth regarding the language and literature. The office bearers of IPN appreciated the efforts of young people who showed their interest to write their native language. They asked the participants to use their language on social media and to motivate people in their circle to do so. Later, awards were distributed among high performers of the contest.

The Indus Kohistani language researchers have recently resolved some of the orthography issues hindering their language. People working with IPN are constantly pursuing the goal of strengthening their language in literature development.

Indus Kohistani is an endangered Dardic language of the Indo-Aryan family, spoken by about 400,000 persons according to the census of 2017. It is mainly spoken in the Bankad, Ranolia, Dubair, Jijal, Pattan, Kayal areas of district Kohistan lower and Seo and Kandia areas of district Kohistan Upper, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

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“She Can Do It” was this year’s theme of International Women’s Day. FLI collaborated with SHAD Foundation, Rawalpindi and  Space Era School of Booni in Upper Chitral to celebrate International Women’s Day to let the women know their rights and responsibilities. In Rawalpindi, the event provided a platform for female students to showcase their skills and talents through various activities like skits, speeches, songs, presentations, and poetry, highlighting the critical role of women in society. It included a panel discussion also, featuring prominent female entrepreneurs and experts sharing their experiences and insights into women’s empowerment. The discussion was very informative and inspiring, and it provided an opportunity for the attendees to learn from the experiences of successful women. The event also featured food stalls featuring local Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral dishes, and women who run online shops selling dresses, gemstones, and handicrafts also participated and set up their stalls at the event.  The event was successful in promoting women’s empowerment and fostering an environment where women can confidently pursue their dreams and achieve their goals.

While in Booni, mothers of students of the Space Era school participated in the event and listened to the speeches delivered by their children in favor of women rights. They also highlighted the social responsibilities of the women. FLI has been collaborating with The SHAD Foundation and Space Era school for celebrating the International Women’s Day as we have observed these organizations have been contributing to empowering women and promoting youth development focusing on those women mostly coming from FLI’s target area.

FLI collaborated with Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi-IBT, a civil society organization, working for the the promotion and development of Torwali language to organize a ‘Yarak” (session) with Torwali community based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The event was attended by Torwali youth, Students, Torwali notables from Pindi/Islamabad, Torwali business men and Torwali poets and singers. The primary aim of the session was to motivate and mobilise the Torwali community regarding revitalization of Torwali language and reconnecting them with their culture while living in urban area of the country.

The participants were briefed about the purpose of holding the event while issues relating to language, identity, and the way forward were also part of the discussion. The participants also expressed their views about the holding of the event and thanked both IBT and FLI for providing this opportunity for them. They also vowed to hold such events in the future. Torwali books published by IBT were also distributed among the participants.

The event ended with Torwali music where different genres of Torwali music were played both traditional and modern. The audience were overjoyed by the live music which was first of its kind in Pindi/Islamabad. More the 70 people representing all age groups attended the event.

FLI has been supporting Yadgha language speakers in the Lotkuh valley of Chitral to celebrate their cultural festival, Pathak, a special occasion, celebrated at the end of winter in the area. This year’s event had multiple programs in it. The event was organized by Modern Youth Development Organization (MYDO) in collaboration with FLI. MYDO is a youth driven CSO in the area working to encourage young people take responsibilities in areas of their interest. Alongside promoting young people’s initiatives, they promote their cultural identity by featuring their language as their intangible asset. Pathak in the region, as mentioned earlier is observed to welcome Spring but here in Lotkuh valley, the festival has many more embellishments as residents of the valley have religious attachment relating to the great saint, Pir Nasir Khisro who, the local believe, had visited the area and preached for Ismaili sect of Islam. This festival used to be traditionally observed to pay homage to Pir’s services every year. Women would wear traditional clothing on the occasion and visit each other homes with gifts. Men would visit the symbolic shrine of the Pir and pay tribute to him and pray for prosperity, peace and brotherhood in the community. All the proceedings are carried out in the Yadgha language connecting people with their cultural identity and language. That is the reason FLI supports the festival and encourages young Yadgha people to continue with the festivities and keep finding ways to promote their culture and language. During the event of this year, high performing students from the community were acknowledged with certificates and some traditional sports were also arranged for the young people. Dozens of young people including girls attended the last event while each item of the event was participated in a large number by the locals.

FLI supported Dameli language group, living in Karachi to get together for a cultural festival aiming to reconnect them with their language and culture. The event, ‘Jashn-e-Daman’, or the Festival of Dameli People was organized under the auspices of the Anjuman Taraqi Damyan (ATD), the newly established organization by the migrant Dameli speakers in the city. ATD has been founded to work for strengthening of their language as the Dameli speakers in Karachi are feared to break away from their language. More than 200 people attended the event. Earlier, a tournament of traditional games of Dameli culture was held at Secretariat Ground in Norther Nazimabad featuring native games like Khosal, Chemtaekh, Kelimastrang, Pilat, Shel, Danda Goli, etc. which were participated by almost age groups of the community, many of young Dameli speakers were participating in their traditional games for the first time in their life.

The participants were initially briefed about the importance of revitalization of their mother language while living out of their native place. Few speeches delivered in their language. They were also enlightened of the language development work and introduced to the publications developed so far in their language. At the end, a poetry session was organized which was the most liked and appreciated item of the festival. A dozen of Dameli poets who came from various parts of the city expressed themselves in their language and entertained the crowed. Although, all items of the festival were new to the participants in the metropolitan city but poetry session in Dameli was much loved by the audience.

The purpose of the event was to relink Dameli migrants in the city with their language and culture. FLI has been supporting this kind of initiatives as the migrant people are prone to language shift due to being influenced by the major languages and the community people being out of their native environment. We hope that the Dameli group would continue to engage in language and culture related activities in future and this event would not be the last one but would play a role of the starter.