Writers Workshop held in Thal Dir Kohistan


Oct 2, 2023

A one-day writer's workshop and a one-day advocacy meeting were organized by GCDP in Dir
Kohistan. In which a one-day writer's workshop was organized for students and social workers
in schools of Thal and Lamutai held, while a one-day advocacy program was organized in
Khalkot, Barikot and Biyar.

Writers Workshop

Teams consisting of two members of GCDP were formed. One team conducted a workshop for
students and social workers at Thal Higher Secondary School, while another team conducted a
workshop for students at Lamoti Primary School.
Thal Higher Secondary School
Students and social workers of Thal Higher Secondary School were trained to write in Gawri and
motivated to strive for the promotion of their language and to write in the mother tongue.
MPhil, PhD scholars and journalists also participated in the workshop. Students showed keen
interest in writing Gawri Language. The participants including journalists, scholars and students
were not only trained to write the stories, research papers and articles in Gawri Language but
also trained to use the Gawri Language in digital media, especially the tools like Gawri Android
Keyboard, PC Keyboard and other applications to express their thoughts on Social Media.
They installed the Android Keyboard on their smart phones and other devices. Also subscribed
to the GCDP’s Social Media pages and channels.
Lamoti Primary School
Along with the students of Lamoti Primary School, the youngster of the village also participated
in the Writers Workshop. They were trained to use the correct alphabets, characters and
phonetics in Gawri Writings.
The students wrote many stories during the workshop and handed over to the GCDP Team.

Advocacy Visits

On the next day of the Writers' Workshop, the GCDP team visited Thal, Brikot and Biyar.
Banners were displayed in the Bazars of these village and lectures were given to the people on
the importance of speaking and writing of Gawri language and the benefits of keeping their culture alive. They were made aware of the threats to their language through various charts
and banners and were shown strategies to deal with these threats. During this advocacy visits
many poets, researchers and students showed special interest and met the GCDP team separately,
received books and got guidance from them, who are still in constant touch with GCDP.

Outcomes

 Communities of two villages are trained to read and write in Gawri
 Seven students of Lamoti school wrote stories for GCDP.
 Social activists, journalists and students are motivated to save, promote the language and love
to read and write Gawri Literatures.
 Local community are trained to use the online language tools for dissemination of information in
their mother tongue.
 Encouraged the community to write for GCDP’s newsletters, digital media, and online
publications.
 Engaged the community with GCDP to cooperate in its events and projects.
 Youth are encouraged to speak for language rights and MT Education.
 Writers, poets, and singers are encouraged to keep their literary work continue in Mother
Tongue.
 Researcher found GCDP as best platform to get help for their research work.

Group photo of Participants from Gawri Writers Workshop
Group photo of Participants from Gawri Writers Workshop