Aaghaz-e-Dosti’s Friends Beyond Borders: Make a Friend across the Border!

With the aim to facilitate people-to-people communication and create a culture of mutual respect and understanding, Aaghaz-e-Dosti now aims to directly facilitate bonds of friendship between Indians and Pakistanis under the new initiative called Friends Beyond Borders.

The idea of Friends Beyond Borders (FBB) emerged out of the desire expressed by Aaghaz-e-Dosti Facebook group members (Siddharth Bhatia, Aamir Bin Masood, Syed Rubaid Ahmad among several others) to have friends across the border. Likewise, the other aspects of the initiative including its name have also been an initiative of the group members.

With FBB, we plan to pair an Indian and a Pakistani and facilitate a bond of friendship and understanding between them. Through an interaction guided by a mentor over a period of eight weeks, we intend to sow seeds of mutual respect, understanding, critical thinking, resolution for peace and most importantly, of an everlasting friendship beyond the borders.

Course of Action

We will invite applications from Indians and Pakistanis to apply for the session. We will pair an Indian and a Pakistani. They will be guided by a mentor who will give them weekly plans/activities that they will be required to do together. At the end of the week, they will have to report to the mentor about their activity, what they learnt and exchanged. The session will be for eight weeks.

Important Dates

29th March – 8th April: Invitation of Applications

13th April: Announcement of the Selected Applicants

15th April: Commencement of the Session

Application Procedure

We invite Indians and Pakistanis (residing in the respective countries) to apply. We wish to pair people who do not already have friends across the border so preference will be given to them. This initiative will be a regular initiative and so even if one does not get selected the first time, he/she can re-apply.

The procedure to apply is to submit the form. You may be required to upload a scanned copy of your ID proof (which mentions the address) and a photo at a later stage, if selected.

For any queries, mail at aaghazedosti. Visit https://aaghazedosti.wordpress.com/our-initiatives/friends-beyond-borders/