Expeditions

2010 Pakistan

Six enthusiastic and talented young people from across the UK travelled to Pakistan in October 2010.

Elliott, Fayyadh, Imran, Kyle, Rokia and Ruweyda spent two weeks getting to know the country beyond the media stereotype. 

Watch the films, flick through photos, and read their blogs by clicking on the link below:

Travelling to Pakistan to begin scratching the surface of this complex country, they discovered it to be rich with many languages, cultures, surprising history and breathtaking beauty, but also perplexing and frustrating.

Starting off our journey in Islamabad, the team visited a local market to be measured up for shalwar kameez before we could properly begin our journey. We spent a day with students from the National College of Art in Rawalpindi exploring media and personal perceptions of both the UK and Pakistan. A day painting a truck at a depot on the outskirts of Rawalpindi came as a reality check for the team, face to face with the kind of life and conditions that many Pakistanis live in. Then came a day trip to the Taxila valley, said to be home to the first university in the world, before travelling back to Islamabad to question an Islamic scholar about faith in contemporary Pakistan. The team then explored the hidden and crumbling history of Rawalpindi and travelled on to Kashmir, where we spent a day in a madrassa and a day with young people who have established social action projects in their own communities under the British Council's Active Citizens program. For a bit of reflection time, we headed north into the Murree Hills and went hiking in the Ayubia National Park where each team member looked back over their journey and made plans for change in their own communities in the UK.