{"id":448148,"date":"2010-03-19T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=11653"},"modified":"2010-03-19T14:22:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T18:22:09","slug":"does-the-future-of-pakistan-matter-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/448148","title":{"rendered":"Does the future of Pakistan matter to us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\t\"Shakar<\/p>\n
Shakar Arbab in Blackburn<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday Shakar Arbab, Oxfam\u2019s Programme Officer for Pakistan was involved in a debate at Blackburn Cathedral giving\u00a0his\u00a0perspective\u00a0on\u00a0the development of\u00a0Pakistan. The panel also included Canon Chivers and Anjum Anwar MBE. The audience was a mixed group with 2 councillors attending. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time the Oxfam\u2019s North West team broadcast live an event on the web. After several technical glitches Michael, Serena and myself got the feed working. Although requiring a last minute change to an iphone, it <\/p>\n

\n\t\"Shakar<\/a><\/p>\n
Shakar Arbab, Oxfam Pakistan programme officer, Anjum Anwar MBE and Canon Chris Chivers from Blackburn Cathedral discussing Pakistan’s development <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

successfully, if wobbly, went live.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Canon Chivers and Anjum Anwar posed questions to Shakar on a range of development issues relating to Pakistan<\/a>. It was then opened up to questions from the floor. Watch the video<\/a> and turn the sound up!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0The part of the meeting I found most worrying was the questions posed from the floor. <\/span><\/span><\/span>There was clearly a feeling amongst the audience (some, not all), presumably enhanced recently by the glut of media sources condemning the use of aid money in the past, <\/a>that they would no longer donate cash, even to emergency appeals. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This really worries me as we continue towards climate change<\/a>, a rise in natural disasters and a need for adaptation. It is quite clear that the need for aid will only increase. Shakar correctly explained the ways Oxfam ensures all money is accounted for<\/a>, but the questions persisted. It is hard enough to raise money for development work without people\u2019s attitudes altering. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\"Members<\/a><\/p>\n
Members of the audience listened attentively and asked challenging questions<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The media is there to hold organisations and governments to account, but the\u00a0impact of\u00a0a negative story can be <\/span><\/span><\/span>great.\u00a0So\u00a0Oxfam must increase its effort to accurately portray the methods it has in place to ensure money is accounted for and spent.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Overall a successful event, Shakar clearly emphasised the great work Oxfam is doing in Pakistan<\/a> while also showing the need to work with local communities to achieve the results most needed. I am looking forward to being able to do web feeds in the future, although with better sound and a more stable base than my shaky arms!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And now back to you. How do you think charities should communicate how they spend their money and why? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakar Arbab in Blackburn Yesterday Shakar Arbab, Oxfam\u2019s Programme Officer for Pakistan was involved in a debate at Blackburn Cathedral giving\u00a0his\u00a0perspective\u00a0on\u00a0the development of\u00a0Pakistan. The panel also included Canon Chivers and Anjum Anwar MBE. The audience was a mixed group with 2 councillors attending. For the first time the Oxfam\u2019s North West team broadcast live an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6285,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6285"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}