Celebrate Solutions: Chanan Development Association Empowers Youth

By: Linda Nyanchoka, Women Deliver; Chanan Development Association is a winner of the Women Deliver 50

Young people play a major role in addressing the health and development issues affecting their country. At the young age of 12, Muhammad Shahzad protested against the arranged marriage of his 15 year old sister to an older man in his fifties by going on a hunger strike. This action influenced his family and community, and led to his family calling off the marriage. Muhammad has since dedicated his life to being an agent of change.

In 2004, Muhammad and a group of young professional activists came together to form Chanan Development Association (CDA) a non-profit organization in Pakistan. CDA envisions a healthy, just and peaceful Pakistan society though empowering young people, particularly young women, and enabling them to meaningfully participate in each and every stage of program and policy development without any biases of gender, religion, status, or language. The motto of the organization is Changing Behaviors to Change Realities and Muhammad and the CDA team firmly believe that theatre plays a vital role in bringing about change in people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices.

CDA was initially conceptualized as an art-based development approach to social change, through the medium of interactive theatre and media. CDA sets itself apart from other organizations by utilizing theatre, media / videos, documentaries, information, education and communication (IEC) material to communicate advocacy messages. CDA’s Chanan Theatre Group has staged over 1,000 performances to date reaching a total of 200,000 people, mostly women of the rural areas of Punjab, and also has trained more than 15 youth groups on theatre skills all over the country.

CDA has three major goals— i) organize young people into groups and build their capacity as “Agents of Change” so that they can bring sustainable development in their communities; ii) engage in policy advocacy encouraging media, civil society and parliamentarians to foster an enabling environment for the young people to implement their ideas of change; & iii) provide a national platform for youth-led groups and organizations, particularly those serving in far away and rural areas, so that their efforts be acknowledged by the mainstream development sector and they can share their resources and lesson learnt with one other.

CDA’s major programs include the Youth Participation & Leadership Program which provides capacity building around thematic issues and skills, the Young Women’s Leadership Program that provides a joint platform for both university student girls and domestic working girls to learn and explore issues such as leadership, gender, violence, extremism, democracy, human rights and peace. Other programs include the Human Rights, Democracy & Active Citizenship Program which encourages young people to play an active role in the betterment of their society and to become more aware of their rights; the Peace & Interfaith Harmony program which facilitates dialogue between people from different sects, religions and ethnicities, promoting peace and harmony amongst them; and the HIV/AIDS & Sexual & Reproductive Health program which sensitizes young people, particularly young women, about sensitive health and reproductive health issues including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and life skills.

Muhammad Shahzad and the rest of the CDA team are dedicated to addressing the issues of gender discrimination, discriminatory laws against women, violence against women, meaningful youth participation, awareness and sensitization about sexual and reproductive health issues including HIV/AIDS, extremism and human rights issues. The organization has represented the voices of young Pakistani at more than 40 UN & international conferences, including the UN High Level meeting on Youth held at UN General Assembly and at Women Deliver 2010.

For more information about CDA, please visit their website.