Health doesn’t just mean the absence of illness. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to ensure holistic health and well-being through the utilisation of different mediums. One such way is through integrating arts and arts-based techniques for health and wellbeing programs. With our esteemed panelists, we would like to explore and learn from their experiences on how arts-based methodologies have been integrated across various programs and health areas, how they could potentially be adapted to the local context and cultures, and the kind of impact they could create across communities.
Moderator/Facilitator Kainat Khurshid is a Senior Program Associate at IRD Pakistan. Kainat contributes to translating research and field insights into potential behavior change communications. She has developed Theatre of the Oppressed-based workshops for HIV stigma reduction, vaccine confidence enhancement, school-based COVID surveillance programs, and mental health awareness for various programs at IRD.
Atteqa Malik is a freelance digital artist, scholar, and cultural operator who has done her Masters in Media Studies from the New School University in New York. She is currently serving as a Trustee, Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Global Outreach Chair for the Karachi Biennale Trust. In her role, she has been instrumental in introducing health based programs integrating arts to young creatives through the GEMAH workshops in KB 19 and KB 22.
Sheema Kermani is a Pakistani social activist, the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan Cultural Action Group (Women's Movement) and a famous classical dancer, choreographer, and theatre practitioner. She has worked tirelessly to engage with working class women and marginalized communities through utilising the performing arts to bring rights-based messages to them.
Mehek Ali is a Senior Program Manager for the Community Engagement Collective at Interactive Research and Development. She has served as a Co-PI on multiple research projects including an HIV destigmatization project and a COVID-19 vaccine confidence project, both of which utilised arts based methodologies to engage with communities.
