Our Presence on Social Media

We at Move! Karachi are very grateful to people around the globe who have joined us in our cause over the course of five months and have shown support via social media. However this is just the beginning and the Project is still in it's early stages. We still have a long way to go till we achieve our goal - an active and healthy young generation of kids in Karachi.

In order for this campaign to become successful and start to impact the society in the most positive of manner, it is essential that we, with the help of our supporters, keep expanding the Project's network and maintain a strong social media presence.

This Blog is essentially the core of our campaign; everything that we post elsewhere, you will be able to find a link to it here. We have been posting impact stories from around the world and have been sharing useful articles for our readers. We will continue to do that in the future and will shortly start posting local stories from Karachi as well.

Our Facebook page has been very successful, with this social media giant proving itself to be very effective when trying to reach out to the masses - everyone nowadays appears to be on Facebook. It is a wonderful website to share ideas in the form of statuses, photos, videos and links to other websites. Move! Karachi will keep it's Facebook page as alive and happening as possible to keep on attracting those valuable 'likes.'

We understand that sometimes our followers do not wish to read full articles and stories but in fact just want small tid-bits of information that will update them on our progress. That's where the power of micro-blogging comes in and Twitter indeed dominates that area. We frequently tweet out to our followers links to articles and posts related to our cause and we will continue to do so. Furthermore the Project will also be re-tweeting tweets from other organizations that have similar causes and aims as Move! Karachi.

When we start creating fitness plans and flash workouts for kids, Youtube will be the perfect platform to share how-to videos and tutorials. Move! Karachi would also post videos of the progress that the kids make and documentaries of their journeys towards a healthier lifestyle.

Similarly on Instagram, we would post images, accompanied by inspiring stories that would encourage our followers to take the step towards a healthier tomorrow. Our Instagram feed has already attracted health and fitness enthusiast because of the use of hashtags. Hashtags group our images together with similar posts by other users on the Instagram 'cloud.' So when people looking for content related to, for example, 'exercise' or 'dance' search those hashtags, our images are pulled up. The use of hashtags has thus proven itself to be incredibly effective in putting us on people's radars.

For those who would wish to connect with us on a professional level, we have posted the like to Muhamad Abrar's LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a terrific platform if anyone is trying to partner up with us for this cause and would like to see Abrar's qualifications and background. His presence on LinkedIn would also attract professionals that could help the Project expand and develop into a massive citywide campaign.

To sum it up, staying active on social media is the only way Move! Karachi could truly reach out to it's target community and start helping out young Karachiites. We pledge to keep pushing forward and posting, liking, commenting, sharing and connecting till we drop!

Nets Kids Dancers

16 kids puts their hearts, souls and incredible amounts of energy into dance performances at the Barclays Center for Brooklyn Nets games. As part of the preparation for their routines, these kids eat healthy and exercise to strengthen their muscles.

The Brooklyn Nets Kids consists of boys and girls between the ages of 6 to 13 who say dance keeps them in shape. Core and cardio workouts help them develop strength whereas consumption of fruits and vegetables gives them all the energy they need. 

"We try to make sure that they all have water: At the games, before the games, during rehearsal. All of them bring nice healthy snacks. Some of which they share with me," said Brooklyn Nets Kids Assistant Coach Jordan Ramko.

Read the full story here.

Fit Mummies in Ingoldisthrope

Jennifer Shah, in the village of Ingoldisthrope, has started a dance class called Fit Mummies. With her 18 month old Ashton, she gives local mummies a chance to partake in group exercises while their toddlers join in and bust their own moves.

Read full story here.

The toddlers mimic their mums in the class and explore how to move their bodies in different ways. Shah, a former ballet dancer, started the class after being frustrated by not having enough time or energy to exercise. No prior dance experience is required for Fit Mummies and the fee is only £2 for the first session and £4 per adult thereafter.

Karachi should have such group exercise opportunities for mums too, that would help them get in shape, all the while having an environment that is child-friendly.

22 laps around the gym

Kids of STEEL is an amazing program that not only is preparing elementary students to run/walk the final mile of Pittsburgh Marathon May 2, but is also teaching them the value of quality nutrition and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Read full story here.

Students at Waynesburg Central Elementary School arrive half-hour early to walk at least 22 laps around that gym (equivalent to a mile.) During the four-month training period, the kids would have walked 22.6 miles, which is a full marathon. Along the way, they will also try new fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts.

We at Move! Karachi believe, it is about time that schools in Karachi too start encouraging kids to eat healthier and develop the love of exercise, such as walking a mile everyday!

Year of Healthy Children, Uzbekistan

How wonderful it must have been for a country to dedicate an entire year to the health of its youth. Now that is what we at The Move! Karachi Project consider resources and wealth of a nation being put to good use. Kudos to you Uzbekistan!

Read the full story here.

The Uzbek President Islam Karimov had always established a themed for each year since 1997 and 2014 was the Year of Healthy Children. The country budgeted almost US $2.1 billion on the several different projects throughout the year. The government now plans to build about 1,700 gyms in all Uzbek provinces. Summer camps for kids were also arranged during this year, to which 82,000 kids received free trips. Mothers and their children were provided medical checkups and now the country has several new 'child fitness camps' under construction.


2015 has been declared the Year of Elders, with focus on respect and care of the senior citizens. Pakistan should really consider this idea of themes for each year; it will allow the authorities to tackle social issues much
more effectively. Our project will definitely follow in the footsteps of the Uzbeks and who knows, maybe someday we will be able to organize summer camps for Karachi kids and construct fitness camps for them. 

The Project now on Youtube!

The Move! Karachi Project is now reaching out to people on Youtube, the world's largest video streaming website. Check out this short one minute elevator pitch video and comment away!

60 minutes of physical activity for Ontario kids

Another wonderful story through Google Alerts; The Ontario government in partnership with Active at School is trying to ensure that the kids participate in minimum 60 minutes of physical activity everyday. Their goal is to spread the campaign all across Canada and build a generation of healthy and sharp kids.

Read the complete story here.

Personally I feel the most important bit in this story is the quote by Education Minister Liz Sandals. She says "This isn't about 60 minutes of phys-ed. This is about 60 minutes of physical activity during the course of the day; this might be before school, during phys-ed class, at noon doing extracurricular ... or after school with some sort of community recreation activity.” And that is so important to note. Move! Karachi too is not about conducting intense workouts, but in fact aims to incorporate some necessary amount of physical activity the everyday lives of Karachite kids. Maybe we could start arranging cricket matches for kids in community parks, Pakistanis absolutely love cricket. What do you think? Comment away.

Kids enjoy fitness training at Brummitt Elementary

What a wonderful work this teacher is doing to encourage her students in gym class to stay healthy and set realistic fitness goals. I am so glad this story popped up in my e-mail via Google Alerts because I really am inspired by the work of Ms. LouAnn Hopson from Brummit Elementary.

Read the complete story here.

Students in Ms. Hopson's class enjoy sports like kick ball, dodge ball and hokey, keep a personalized fitness journal, learn about the importance of stretching and "like to be strong and healthy" as 8 year old Marie Dandinidis puts it.

This story has actually given me some great ideas. Like Ms. Hopson, I too would like to incorporate the FIT principle in my campaign - it's just something that I'm learning about in my Advanced Fitness class and I think it's pretty cool. Maybe I could create "virtual posters" about it and post them here. Thoughts? Comment away.

The Aim

It is absolutely heart-breaking to see young kids become targets of bullying because they are over-weight and have never in their lives received proper guidelines to maintain a healthy diet - I've seen people very dear to me, whom I shall not name, lose confidence and struggle everyday in school as kids called them names. I believe it is now time for Karachites to take a step towards a healthier tomorrow and become more active in their daily lives.

The Move Karachi! Project is a 'social media for social change' campaign that will target this important issue in the city of Karachi. I believe social media posses an immense amount of power when it comes to reaching out to the masses. More importantly, is has now become the easiest mode to get a message across to younger audiences and effectively grasp their attention towards a good cause.

The aim for Move Karachi! is to encourage kids to eat healthy and try to increase the amount of their daily physical activity. Parents would be able to help kids find posts about easy-to-follow dance routines, fun flash-workouts and healthy diet plans, on several different social media platforms. The links to these will shortly be posted on this blog (so stay tuned!). Furthermore, through the campaign, I would like to start a trend to organize 'flash-mobs' in schools, as part of enabling students to reach adulthood at a healthier weight while enjoying themselves and having a good time.

If successful, the campaign could make a serious impact on the lives of struggling kids all over Karachi and eventually spread throughout the nation producing a healthier, more active future generation of Pakistan.

A Little About Myself

I guess you could summarize my personality as following: somebody who tries very hard each day to live life to the fullest, enjoys art and architecture, complete maniac when it comes to movies, food and Game of Thrones and has interest in photography, graphic design, performing arts and all that good jazz.

My name's Muhammad Abrar and before I say anything else, I just want you to know how much I appreciate the fact that you're visiting my blog. I'm a 16 year old foreign exchange student - more like a Youth Ambassador to Pakistan - currently living the American dream. Sponsored by the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program, I'm placed in a serene and peaceful little town of Painted Post in Upstate New York. 

I'd like you to know that my life is not just about fun and games. In fact I happen to be on a very important mission with the help of PH International's Global New Media Lab. My hometown, the city of Karachi is very dear to me. When I return from my exchange year, I want to make a difference in the lives of members in my community and target a very important issue, that is childhood obesity.

Make sure you come back and see what plans I've got to target this problem and note that I will always be open to any comments, questions or concerns.