{"id":41949,"date":"2022-02-24T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2022\/feb\/24\/house-of-love-the-calm-creative-space-changing-young-lives-in-karachi"},"modified":"2022-02-24T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T07:00:15","slug":"house-of-love-the-calm-creative-space-changing-young-lives-in-karachi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=41949","title":{"rendered":"\u2018House of love\u2019: the calm, creative space changing young lives in Karachi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Lyari, a slum notorious for violence in Pakistan\u2019s most populous city, Mehr Ghar offers young people a safe place to hang out and study \u2013 and, for many, an alternative path to gang life<\/p>\n<p>Living in Lyari was like living on the frontlines of a war, says Nauroz Ghani, who grew up in the Karachi slum notorious for its bloody gang battles. So used to the constant gunfire, he says he would \u201cbecome restless if a day passed by without hearing the sound of a firing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy teenage years were lost to violence,\u201d says Ghani, 24. \u201cI had no interest in getting an education. Instead, I was attracted by their guns and activities.\u201d He saw dead bodies on the street and one boy was killed in front of him. \u201cAll of us who lived during those days have such memories. We lived in terror, but it had become habitual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2022\/feb\/24\/house-of-love-the-calm-creative-space-changing-young-lives-in-karachi\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Lyari, a slum notorious for violence in Pakistan\u2019s most populous city, Mehr Ghar offers young people a safe place to hang out and study \u2013 and, for many, an alternative path to gang lifeLiving in Lyari was like living on the frontlines of a war, says&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1068,934,1067,59,1203,1744,60,958,552,79,61,617,42,1050],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communities","category-domestic-violence","category-gangs","category-global-development","category-inequality","category-literacy","category-pakistan","category-poverty","category-social-exclusion","category-society","category-south-and-central-asia","category-womens-rights-and-gender-equality","category-world-news","category-young-people"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41950,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41949\/revisions\/41950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}