In Sindh, Pakistan, climate shocks are reshaping where people live – and how communities relate to one another. The 2022 floods destroyed millions of homes and displaced large numbers of people across the province, accelerating movement from rural districts toward urban centres such as Karachi and Hyderabad. As families relocate in search of safety and livelihoods, host communities and newcomers may need support to build meaningful connections and understanding across differences.
As part of the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme, implemented by UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS), Young Leader Sabir Ali is responding to these challenges through the project Heritage for Harmony: Youth-Led Intercultural Dialogues in Sindh for a Shared Future. Supported through UNESCO’s training, mentoring and grant funding, he uses shared cultural heritage as a practical entry point for youth from displaced and host communities to meet, reflect, and collaborate. By bringing young people together in places that embody centuries of cultural exchange – such as Mohenjo-Daro, Makli Necropolis, and Ranikot Fort – the project reframes heritage as a “living classroom”, not only a reminder of the past, but a shared space for discussing present-day mobility, belonging, and coexistence. These “Diversity Tours” to UNESCO World Heritage sites in Sindhare, combined with guided dialogue and storytelling, helping participants connect personal experiences with shared histories.
More than 300 young people from different backgrounds engaged in open conversations, which led to building connections, and finding common ground through shared experiences. After the tours and dialogue sessions, participants reported increased awareness and understanding of other communities and said they were more willing to collaborate with youth from different backgrounds. Participants described feeling more connected to one another through dialogue and reported that their visit to the heritage sites strengthened their sense of identity. This suggests that shared places can foster a sense of collective belonging, even among groups shaped by displacement and social change. Testimonials captured how first-time interactions across religious and cultural lines became moments of recognition. One participant, reflecting on hearing another young person’s experience of the floods, described how they were able to empathise and look beyond difference, concluding “we’re not so different”. Others spoke of heritage sites as places that prompted them to imagine unity “built again”.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/turning-shared-history-dialogue-youth-climate-displaced-sindh-pakistan?hub=701
