Jahangir is a consultant at Acasus from📍the Balochistan province of Pakistan and currently works on immunization projects.
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I grew up in a small village near the Pakistan-afghan border in Balochistan. I always wanted to explore the world and meet people from different backgrounds and communities but I also had this sense of responsibility towards my community. I had the opportunity to work in different countries, make amazing friends around the world, and loved some places a lot. Some of these places were ideal to settle and live there, but I always wanted to come back home and help people here. In 2016 I came back from Liberia and started working for the Polio control program and in June 2019 I joined the Acasus immunization team.
Usually, in a week I do a lot of meetings. And that is something which really excites me. I am a person who enjoys meeting people, so I meet all of my stockholders every week, do calls with my Country team, and write reports.
Normally I travel once a month outside the province to attend our monthly meeting in Lahore, Punjab. This is something that I wait for the whole month because it gives me an opportunity to learn a lot and meet my fellows. I like traveling a lot but I don't get a lot of opportunities to go out of my province but inside the province, I normally go out to one or two districts every month. It depends on what the partners want, and where I am needed. I am planning that after the COVID I start going to all the districts that I have been to since I joined Acasus.
Also sometimes I go to Islamabad or Karachi on my own just to relax for a day or two and meet my friends there.
I think it's a very dynamic team full of champions, people with all kinds of skills and I see every one of them as an artist. Because what we do is not less than an Art.
I think the way we responded to the COVID was one of our biggest successes. The interventions are really impactful, got very famous, and right now, I would say the whole system depends on it.
Balochistan is the biggest province of Pakistan geography-wise, The population is very scattered and it is very difficult to travel to most of the districts. Also, our Interventions involve a lot of technology and people here are very scared of technology and it's difficult to persuade them to own a technology-based intervention.
I see myself as an extroverted Introvert person, So I enjoy working in a crowded place without interacting with people, Normally at a cafe. Now that normal life has ceased, And I am always busy in meetings and work, I feel like I have lost the feeling of a normal life. This might affect my mental health and it worries me a lot.
With my Acasus team, I do a call twice a day. We do a call almost every morning and then once during the night. The team helps me to do a lot of problem-solving virtually. We do brainstorming together and come up with solutions to the problems that I face every day in the field.
I have not traveled outside my province during the COVID situation since March but I do travel a lot inside my province. I have visited the Quarantine centers in a few districts like Chaman city and Noshki. But inside the city I am always on the move, I hardly spend 6 to 8 hours at home in 24 hours.
Most of the government officials that I work with are in the offices. During the strict lockdown the Deputy Commissioner gave me a security pass which allowed me to travel freely from one office to the other one.
I love working with Acasus because it's different than all the other organizations that I have worked with, the work I do with Acasus is the kind of work I have passion for, and above all, I love working with Acasus because it allows me to use my creativity, the team encourages me and they give me good feedback on how to improve things. I feel like I am not an employee of the company but an owner and family.
My most beloved memory with the team is about the Safari experience that we had in Kenya.
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