Mega Project Blog 1: Nisf Emaan
Main Idea
The main idea of our megaproject is about filling the gap in waste management which has been the primary cause of rapidly intensifying environmental pollution. We actually as a Pakistani direly felt the need of awareness regarding waste management among the people of Pakistan. So, we thought of developing an NGO that will work for this cause.
Our Plan
Since we finalized the main idea, it was the time to take the next step and refine it to make a plan. We planned to execute physical campaigns in different areas of Lahore to create awareness and practically cleaning the areas. We would execute the cleanliness campaigns by joining hands with garbage collectors of the nearby area and would try to make them clean those areas by talking to the people of that area. We have even planned to arrange dust bins, if possible, and we would ask support from different NGOs for this. We have planned to execute 2–3 campaigns for this cause. Furthermore, we have even planned to recycle waste plastic with the support of an NGO, School of social responsibility.
How do we achieve it?
The primary tasks that were needed to be done are:
- Name of NGO
- Official Logo and Cover art
- Mission statement
- Creating social media handles
- Official Slogan/Motto
- Finalizing the areas
- Involvement of volunteers and Media
- NGOs and social circle to get support
Name of NGO
We had already thought of developing an independent platform for meeting our cause but we were yet to think of a good name for our NGO. One of our fellows, Abuzar Qasim, suggested a name for our NGO and that was Nisf Emaan (نصف ایمان).
Official Logo and Cover art
After deciding its name, we had to create its social media handles. But before that, we had to have an official logo which would represent our NGO. I gave this responsibility to Sarah since she and especially her sister was very handy at graphic designing. Finally, we had four designs and we chose one as our official logo. Furthermore, we are working on our cover art and will be completed by today.
Mission Statement
We even developed our mission statement and that is:
To educate people about the significance of waste management and practically executing cleanliness drives..
Creating Social media handles
Right after the creation of Logo and cover art, I decided to create all the social media handles myself. Firstly, I created an official Gmail account and then created accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. After creating our social media handles, we all teamed up to publicize our handles as much as we can and we reached to 200 likes on our Facebook page within few hours and close to 100 followers and subscribers on Instagram and YouTube respectively. Below is the screenshot I took when we reached 200 likes on our Facebook page within a few hours and thanked the followers through my Whatsapp story.
Until now, we have reached to 284 followers on Facebook while over 100 followers on Instagram and 85 subscribers on YouTube.
Official Slogan/Motto
After getting active on social media, we felt the need for a slogan or motto which we would utilize in our future content as well as in our physical campaigns. We all jumped into deciding a good slogan and had a lot of suggestions. However, a random suggestion from one of my circle members Farah won overall and we decided to pick that as our official slogan. Our slogan is:
Finalize the areas
We were yet to finalize the areas where we would execute the campaign. For finding the area, the strategy was to look up for the areas near our own houses since we would be familiar with the garbage collectors of those areas. No one was able to recognize any area near their house so I went outside to find such an area. I asked shopkeepers and found areas where there was an issue of waste management. When I was roaming in that street, I asked an old person there about the situation of waste management. He replied, “Garbage collectors come once in 10 days and they focus on taking the pictures than to clean the street”. So, we finalized the area near my house.
Involvement of volunteers and Media
To execute our campaigns successfully, we decided to involve volunteers as much as we can. Those volunteers can be from our social circle or any NGO. We even decided to give our volunteers an e-certificate since it would attract them and even boost their morale. We decided to even involve the media as well to make it more impactful since one of our fellows, Tehreem, do have a link in Duniya Media group.
NGOs and social circle to get support
As I mentioned above, we will be contacting different NGOs for support so we identified few NGOs for this purpose. Their names are Nisf Iman, Safai Nisf Iman, Go Green, Green Earth etc. For support, we even thought of collecting funds from our social circle since we would require money for our This is all about what we had planned and done in the first 15 days. Let’s dive in to find what we have planned to do in the next 10 days.
Next 10 days
The tasks we had to do in the next 10 days are as follows:
- Creating content for our social media handles
- Volunteer drive
- Call for donations drive
- Approaching NGOs
- Talk with the garbage collector
- Design of flyers
- Design of e-certificate
- Approaching Media
- First Campaign
We have divided the tasks which we would do in this week. Since, Abuzar, Tehreem and Shehryar were busy in their semester so we divided accordingly.
Creating content for our social media handles
For creating the content for our social media handles, I decided to do it with Sarah since I can do a bit of video editing and Sarah has some experience in both graphic designing and video editing. We decided to upload some content on our social media pages regarding the campaign, volunteers and call for donations this week. We have already posted a post to let people know what we are and what we are planning to do. We asked to stay tuned and stay connected with us.
After this, we even did ask a question from our audience through our social media handles. We asked, “Which areas in Lahore have issues regarding waste management?”. We did get a few responses, however, as per our resources, it was very difficult to look up for those areas.
We are working on our video content and have gathered some animated videos from YouTube. Since no one knows how to animate videos, we decided to pick copyright-free videos from Youtube and customize it as per our theme. Lastly, we have planned to publish content of our upcoming campaigns on our YouTube channel to reach more people and spread awareness.
Volunteer drive
The core responsibility of ensuring the volunteers was given to Usman. However, the drive will be publicized equally by every one of us. For this, we are designing a poster and a google form to get the registrations for volunteers. An incentive of e-certificate will be mentioned as well in the form.
Call for donations drive
For this drive, everyone will be equally responsibly and try their level best to collect donations from the social circle. For this, a poster is already under progress. We will be initiating both volunteer and donations drive-by 21st of January, 2021. We even thought of making a 30 second-1 minute clip individually (Ones who can) just to spread our cause in a more convincing and innovative way. However, it is optional and would depend on our routine.
Approaching NGOs
The responsibility of approaching the NGOs is given to Farah. We decided to make a document about Nisf Emaan as it can be useful while approaching NGOs. After discussing a bit, Farah made a fine document about Nisf Emaan. You can access it here.
Farah has already started approach NGOs and even I have received a call from an NGO named Nisf Iman and they wanted to join hands with us. We are yet to discuss details with them.
Talk with the garbage collector
I was given the responsibility to talk with the garbage collector and discuss the details about our campaign. I am going to talk with him by tomorrow about his availability and related stuff.
Design of Flyers
For our campaign, we need flyers as well to distribute among the people. The design of it will be decided as per our choices and will be made by Sarah. Furthermore, to get them printed at a cheap rate every one of us would try to get a printer in our circle.
Design of E-certificate
Sarah again along with her sister will undertake the duty of developing an attractive e-certificate for our volunteers.
Approaching Media
As mentioned above, we have planned to involve media as well. For that, apart from Duniya group, we are planning some new news channel startups who have recently started their channels on YouTube. One of them is Sahafi Tv. We will start approaching them when we will ensure the support of volunteers and funds.
First Campaign
We all are trying to execute our first campaign by the end of next week.
