BBC News Intern
Bilal Sarwary, 2010
Read about Bilal on the BBC Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5283580.stm
During January of 2009 I worked as an assistant producer at the BBC Kabul bureau. I was mainly working with correspondents Ian Pannel and Martin Patience, who were working on stories about tribal police forces, the lack of reconstruction progress, and the lack of security in the volatile southern and eastern provinces. We also worked on stories regarding the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. I was responsible for gathering news from across Afghanistan for television, radio and online news services. I also recorded and arranged for interviews with Afghan officials and tribal chiefs. . I was also responsible for translating from local languages into English. I also helped produce stories, for instance a story on the difficulty of traveling in the northern snowbound provinces .and the cold Afghan winter.
In one sense, I have now become a one-man news service, filling everyone in about events in post-Taliban Afghanistan. – The BBC has learned to trust my judgment. I know my country: when I sit next to Afghan officials, intelligence officers, tribal elders and warlords, it is my job to keep them talking. At some point in a conversation, I usually find some connection with whomever I am speaking. My British colleagues would not be able to understand what is being said. – I talk to people in Pashto, the melodious-sounding language of the Pashtunes, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group. By now I have won the trust of my sources in the Afghan government and community, and when I speak with them a surprising tale always emerges
My affiliation with the BBC goes back a long way; during the in-fighting among various Mujahideen factions in 1992, I used to listen to the BBC‘s Pashto and Dari news bulletins broadcast in Kabul the about the war that left 70,000 dead and destroyed Kabul. I was not exempt from the conditions of war- I lost everything. Like any other child, I always woke up to a warm breakfast, but during the war, everything was taken away from me. When I moved to Peshawar in Pakistan, I had to make my way by selling water on the streets of the city. I could no longer go to school, watch cartoons or play with my friends as I used to in Kabul. Given the circumstances, I continued to receive my education from the BBC, and the BBC World Service Educational Programme called “New Home, New Life.”
Through BBC radio, I was taught about my culture, my language, and my situation. While eating in our home, my family would listen to the BBC. The BBC was known as the 6th daily prayer among many Afghan families.
I had never imagined that I would end up working with the BBC, reporting the news in Pashto, Dari, Urdu, Hindi and English. I have never imagined that I would travel to London, the United States, or India. How could such an extraordinary life come to a boy who sold water on the streets of Peshawar, worked for a transport company smuggling carpets and dry fruits, and flogged fake antiques?
After 9/11, I returned back to Afghanistan; the country where I had witnessed the worst tragedy of my life, one that I will never forget or forgive. It is through this experience that I resolved to always work to prevent such atrocities, and it is as a result of this credo, that my BBC career began.
With all of this in mind, I hope to become the full-time BBC News Online reporter and Producer for the Kabul Bureau for Afghanistan upon graduating in 2010. When in Afghanistan this past January I traveled to distant Afghan provinces in search of the best stories, while cultivating an array of contacts. I utilized this method, and it proved tremendously effective. As a result of my efforts the BBC has access to many Afghan provinces, governors, police chiefs and intelligence officials. On top of this, I have developed a large network of contacts in Kabul due to my trips to these provinces.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information about this internship!