Bright Home principles developed partly in response to lessons learned a few years ago in a different project where change started to happen too quickly. At that time, we had supported a youth group to make radio programmes about local social issues and injustices. At first, we were excited to hear how young people’s confidence and hope grew. Things could – and should – be different. However, some powerful people felt threatened and pressurised the project leader to stop. The fierce backlash forced the team to bring the project to an abrupt halt. They returned the equipment to us, and we were unable to continue any further activities in that community. Marginalised voices had become too loud, too fast.

A Bright Home approach

Hazeen Latif, CEO of Amplifying Voices Pakistan, told me that Bright Home projects take a different approach. Rather than starting with a media project, local partners provide sewing classes for young women and free medical camps focussing on women and children. These address some very pressing needs in a culturally acceptable way, developing traditional skills to earn income, and bringing healthcare to women and children who are rarely able to travel to a city for advice or treatment.

However, Bright Home classes are also places of conversation. Hazeen told me how, through conversation, aspirations are emerging and possibilities for change are growing. In one Punjabi community, conversations in the sewing classes about food shortages and lack of shade in summer led to a kitchen garden initiative and a tree planting campaign.

“Like my own daughter”

Some of these activities also improved community cohesion between minority Christian groups and people from the majority religion. The Bright Home team extended health camps and healthcare home visits beyond their own Christian community to work with women and children in majority religion homes. People from the majority religion responded, with one of their leaders donating money to buy medicines for the health camps. One older woman said of the Bright Home healthworker, “she is just like my own daughter”.

Home visits -supporting families across the community

The tree planting campaign gave men opportunity to get involved. Men from both communities came together to plant trees in public spaces and in each other’s home compounds. Both religions value good stewardship of creation, and in particular, they see tree planting as a virtuous activity.

Coming together to plant trees, Punjab, 2024

“No one will harm you”

The sense of togetherness became very real after an incident in the regional city, Sargodha. Someone there had used religion as an excuse to provoke a mob attack on a Christian business. But in the village, leaders from the majority community came to the Bright Home team and said, “No one will harm you when we are sitting here”.

Instead of feeling threatened by the changes brought by Bright Home, people with power, whether through gender or through religion, have felt included and found themselves contributors to change.

“I am Light”

In KPK province, some of the young women attending a Bright Home class spoke up and said they wanted to learn to read, write and do arithmetic. In that community, many girls had not been allowed to go to school. However, the literacy and numeracy classes that are now underway are not perceived as a threat, because these skills are necessary for using sewing patterns, and for developing businesses to make money from the sewing skills. The girls called the literacy classes, “Zama Rana” (I am light).

Working with sewing patterns, Nowshera

In each of the Bright Home groups, they use speakerboxes for listening to health advice programmes made in other Amplifying Voices projects. And in each place, some of the young women would ask to learn how to make speakerbox programmes themselves – “If they can do it, we can do it” – They start by discussing topics that are raised in the class setting. The programmes are played within the class to start with, but as confidence, skills, and local acceptance of the Bright Home activities have grown, some groups are now airing their programmes on local FM stations.

Some people may still oppose changes, especially those that offer opportunity and influence to young women in very conservative communities. However, there are now more who support the changes, who even help to make change happen. Bright Home communities are able to amplify local voices, because they do so with care.

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The sisters live in remote village in Punjab, Pakistan, where Amplifying Voices Pakistan recently started the “Roshan Ghar” (Bright Home) sewing centre, at which women can develop new skills and exercise their voice in addressing community matters.

After the first batch of participants enrolled in the Roshan Ghar training, the class teacher gave an update to Hazeen Latif, CEO of Amplifying Voices Pakistan. She told him one of the participating families is very poor and have neither enough to eat each day nor a bread winner in their family. The girls are known locally as “Six-Sister”. Two of them met the criteria to attend the sewing centre. The others wanted to enroll too but they were too young.

A few years previously when their father had died, poverty pushed their mother into leaving them behind to go and re-marry. The youngest of the six was only 3 years old at the time. Their mother lives a few km away from their village with her new husband who already has several children. The girls used to say that they hated her. Two of the girls come to the sewing centre regularly for lessons. The younger ones also come along with them as there is no one at home. They leave their home door open as it is broken. They don’t have any worries about not locking their home as they say “we have nothing to lose”. There is nothing in it that anyone would want to steal.

When they started coming to class, the middle girl asked the teacher, “Where is God for us? We live in one room which leaks when it rains. The rainwater not only comes from the roof but also through the walls. Even our floor level has sunk down. We have only one bed made locally from grass rope and a another smaller bed which is broken, where my elder sister sleeps. We often go to bed hungry, and we all sleep on one bed squeezed, unable to turn right or left. There is no extra thing to sit on or just for hanging out. Winter and summer are both a challenge for us. Where is God’s love for us? Many men young and older come into the house saying they want to look out for us, but we can tell in their eyes, their intentions are bad. We have an uncle, but he is also poor. Still, he feeds us and supports us from time to time.

However, more recently they say that they thank God for Roshan Ghar as they found respect and something to learn. “People gave us their used clothes but now, after Roshan Ghar sewing centre, one day we will wear new clothes.”

The Bright Home sewing class, Punjab (Amplifying Voices Pakistan 2023)

During the Roshan Ghar sewing classes, participants also listen to programmes on speakerboxes. The programmes are produced by members of their community with support from Amplifying Voices Pakistan. In addition to topics that directly support the vocational training, speakerbox programmes also include health advice and material for spiritual encouragement. The village has a mainly Christian population so the programmes start with a Christian devotional and later a short message. The six-sisters said Roshan Ghar changed their lives and thinking about God and love. They found peace in their hearts where they had been filled with rage and thoughts of revenge for what life has done to them. One of the girls is studying in a nearby school. She decided to start memorising the Gospel of Matthew.

Health worker interviews a community member during a health seminar, Punjab (Amplifying Voices Pakistan, 2023)

When Hazeen asked recently how the sisters were doing, the sewing centre teacher said, “When they started coming to sewing centre, they were shy and would stay quiet but now they talk and talk, enjoy what they do, and they’ve also made some good friends.

Amplifying Voices Pakistan offered to support the girls with new locally made beds and a pedestal fan. They also committed to help with fees for the sister who wanted to stay in school. Seeing that some small steps could be a big help, the community also felt inspired to help. The neighbours next door shared their electricity supply as the girls’ own supply had been cut due to non-payment. The elder sister also felt motivated and found a job selling SIM cards for a mobile company. It’s a tough job as she only earns on commission if she makes sales and some days she can come home having sold no cards. But she perseveres.

When Hazeen met them he asked, “what is your dream?”, they all looked at each other and quietly spoke; “we want to live a peaceful life and have our home fixed, nothing more.” The second oldest said “I want to study and study and study this is my dream.”

The little one, the youngest, said nothing but kept smiling.

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This week, women from a minority community in Punjab started a series of workshops teaching sewing skills to other women and girls. At the end of the first day, participants and their relatives told the coordinator that they see this workshop as a launch pad to greater things.

Selfie-time at the first sewing class, Sargodha.

Setting up the Roshan Ghar workshop in Sargodha came out of listening to community members, hearing local concerns, and helping to identify the skills and resources that already exist in the community. Three women with skills and motivation offered to provide training to other women and young girls. The local partner found a suitable training room and a gift from an Australian media organisation, FEBC Australia, helped to buy sewing machines for the class.

Amplifying Voices encourage our partners to have these “strengths-based” conversations in any community they work with when starting a community-centred media project. This process of listening to what’s strong in a community can lead to inspiring on-air discussions about community members responding to challenges, and can encourage community members to put their skills to use in new off-air activities. With Roshan Ghar, it is the off-air activities, i.e. the vocational skills classes, that are paving the way for media conversations and inspiring people to reach for their dreams.

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