Amra Alam likes to write about animals and nature. Jhakkad, published by Tulika, is her very first children's book in India. Amra was born in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, in India and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, where she lives. She has published over sixty children's books in Urdu and written scripts for TV serials. She is currently Editor-in-chief of Suntra, a children's magazine.

Batool Nasir has been working with OUP Karachi since September 2002, and is currently employed as the ‘Manager Creative Services/Design’. She has over 15 years of hands on practical experience in graphic/publishing design. Not only is she fully conversant with all major modern design development softwares, but is also a highly skilled photographer who pursues photography as an art form. Over the years, she has attended numerous events, ranging from workshops, conferences, seminars, lectures to courses on design in publishing, marketing, sales, communication arts, photography, and audio-visual materials production. Her specialties include typography, book layout and design, commercial design, communication design and management design projects.

Fauzia Minallah is an artist/writer hailing from the Hazara region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Her passion for art and books is an outcome of her activism for heritage, conservation, environmental and social matters. Through children’s literature, she raises issues of peace, tolerance and justice. Her involvement with children is through a platform that she has provided to them in the shape of an NGO called ‘Funkor Child Art Centre’, carrying out art and book reading workshops for children living in shanty towns, for special children; refugee and Internally Displaced children (IDPs) and so on. Funkor distributes picture books and notebooks with messages on hygiene, sanitation and environment protection, free of charge among children. Funkor was short listed for the Bremen Peace award in Germany in 2009 as one of the nominated projects and organizations which are exemplary in their work for peace, justice and integrity of creation. Fauzia’s book ‘Sadako’s Prayer’ is published by the Asian Network of Trust in six different languages, and is the winner of the Hiroshima Citizen’s Award for Peace Education. She is also the winner of the Ron Kovic Peace Prize, USA in 2010. Fauzia is the only female editorial cartoonist of Pakistan to have won the All Pakistan Newspaper award for best cartoonist. For the CLF 2012, she will introduce her cartoon character Amai – ‘The Bird of Light’. It is a magical bird made of light and a million tiny stars that can turn into a shooting star and take children on exciting adventures around the world.

Samar Minallah Khan is an anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker with an Mphil in Anthropology and Development from the University of Cambridge, UK. Samar has won several international and national awards for her documentaries and her work on the custom of Swara and Vanni (compensation/child marriages).

Samar, will be sharing a her video 'Allaho' and a montage of her documentaries from KP bringing forth the voices of brave and resilient school girls from Buner, Swat, Mardan etc. With a low female enrollment rate KPK still lags behind in the areas of girl's education due to security and cultural reasons.

Allaho---is a traditional lullaby that is culturally addressed to sons. However, with the help of Pashto and Dari poets, Samar made a lullaby for girls too. “Allaho - a lullaby for you my daughter” breaks away from being male- oriented as it is directed towards the female child. This video was made when girls schools were being targeted in the different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Afghanistan. The aim behind it was to challenge the mindset that girls should not be allowed to get education.
This song is being used for awareness-raising purposes by local organizations in the rural areas, schools, and forums in KP and other parts of Pakistan. It has been aired on Pashto television channels and continues to be used for the advocacy at different forums. The message of the poetry, written by Watan Dost, is to celebrate the presence of a girl in the home as a blessing. It goes further to encourage the baby girl to dream big dreams and emphasizes the importance of education to realize those dreams.

LAAL theatre is a voluntary organization that promotes social issues through the medium of theatre for community empowerment. LAAL theatre trains and prepares actors from within marginalized communities and presents them with a cost effective means of entertainment that highlights issues affecting their communities. Since 2009, LAAL theatre has carried out more than a 100 performances in various cities, locales, bazaars and slums, and reached more than 4000 people with its message. The organization will be doing a repeat performance of the original play “Kabhi ham bhi baray honge”. The story focuses on the untapped potential of Pakistani youth and how it has the means to combat the myriad problems the nation faces. The play targets a younger audience and offers them humor, drama and a hope for a better future.

Contact

Mr. Younas Chowdhry
Director and Founder, LAAL Theatre Cell:0323-4372213
E-mail: Younas.chowdhry@gmail.com website: laal.com.pk
Facebook page for Laal theatre: https://www.facebook.com/laaltheater Facebook page for Laal: https://www.facebook.com/laalpak

Mohsin Tejani is the Founder and Executive Director of The School of Writing and the Director of Andover Bread Loaf (ABL), Massachusetts, USA. He has an MA in English from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English – Vermont, USA where he attended courses on writing and the teaching of writing. He has attended and presented at the ABL writing workshops in Andover, Massachusetts, USA and has worked extensively with students and teachers on improving their writing and teaching skills.

Peter Jacob studied Law, Rural Development and Political Science. He has been part of several studies and researches including; 'Working Conditions of Agricultural Labour in Punjab' Published 2001, 'Life on the Margins' a qualitative and quantitative study on the minority women in Punjab and Sindh, published 2012 and 'Taleem Ya Nafrat Ki Abyari' a study that identified hate material in Text Books used in Punjab and Sindh (2012).
He has been active in many social movements including; the campiagn for abolition of Separate Electorate system and Labour Rights. He has been associated with the Natrional Commission for Justice and Peace for past 25 years and currently the Executive Director of the organization.

‘The Little Art’ is a non-profit arts education organization, which uses the medium of art to promote positive social values through innovative learning opportunities among children and young people, especially those who are marginalized and from low income backgrounds. Apart from organizing workshops on film-making and photography, the group is also responsible for the ‘Lahore International Children’s Film Festival’ and ‘Children’s Performing Arts Festival’. ‘The Little Art’ will be screening six film shows over a two day period for the CLF. The films will be chosen from around the word on the basis of their importance to Pakistani children, and will deal with issues pertaining to education, human rights, religious tolerance, peace and the environment.

Contact

81-F Block, Johar Town
Lahore, Punjab, 54000, Pakistan
info@thelittleart.org
+92-42-35220796
+92-315 4036167
http://www.thelittleart.org

Zahra Hussain is an architect, researcher and activist based in Pakistan. She is the founder and Director of Laajverd, currently working on the project ‘Bacha Bulletins’ that is being broadcasted on Aamawaam radio (www.aamawaam.org) which is yet another initiative of this organization. Although active in projects related to documentation of heritage buildings and earthquake affected building stock in Northern Pakistan, Zahra’s special interest lies in city and forces that constantly morph the urban terrain. She has hosted Tea sessions, a discussion forum in Lahore and Islamabad where students and professionals of the art and architecture try to look at the city together. Her recent research is based on the contemporary urban and regional space of Pakistan. Zahra is a 2009 graduate of NCA (Lahore Campus) in Architecture Design and did her MA in Research Architecture, Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University, UK.

A business student and a struggling social entrepreneur, I started my first social venture at age of 19 with my business school, by the name of mumkin kar. I am a social worker at a learning stage and provide social solutions to different ventures throughout Multan. From rehabilitating flood affected widows to re-defining social learning in underprivileged government schools, I will be found working with different youth groups on religious-secular intolerance, compassion drives, education in Baluchistan and anything that favors building our nation. To learn writing is one way a woman can strive to invest in and survive this society, so do I try to write occasionally. Fighting the insecurities of our relations in these times serves as a challenge and that’s where struggle comes in play. I have started my journey to leave back positive behind me, so that my coming generation won’t be there facing the same deprivation and ignorance what I or my generation suffered from. Because I can’t afford opting an easy way out, I can’t afford not paying back to my country.