A survivor of India's Partition looks through a virtual reality headset at footage made by Project Dastaan, a non-profit that seeks to connect witnesses of the 1947 Partition to their ancestral homes and villages. Photo Courtesy: Project Dastaan/Thomson Reuters Foundation
Technology PakistanRefugees Revisit Their Childhood Home Thanks to Virtual Reality
A project aims to reconnect 75 Pakistani survivors of the Partition of India with their childhood homes through virtual reality (VR), thanks to the help of volunteers in India and Pakistan.
“History should always be documented, so that we learn from it, and prevent tragic events from repeating,” says Sparsh Ahuja, founder of Project Dastaan (which means story in Urdu). “VR is described as an “empathy machine” – it will not heal the trauma they suffered, but it is the closest they can get to returning to the homes they could never return to. Heritage should be valued. It is the fabric of society.”
Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who had to leave Pakistan after a violent attack in 2012, is among the volunteers who track down places and film them. They are then edited into six-minute experiences that are shown to the survivors. Originally, the project intended to produce an experience for each survivor in time for the 75th anniversary of the Partition, but the pandemic slowed down production. Thirty virtual returns should be ready by then.
