Promising voices, a Lapis-produced television series, focused on stemming the youth brain-drain from Afghanistan by inspiring Afghan youth to stay and contribute to the country’s development. Lapis recruited Afghanistan’s best and brightest young Afghans, addressing the myriad of issues they face daily. In addition to the series, Lapis held five two-day summits in Jalalabad, Herat and Kabul, and produced a 60-minute TV documentary on the summits, which were all broadcasted on Moby channels.

Ten speakers were chosen to present at the Herat summit to an audience of 500 people, where they shared their reasons behind staying in Afghanistan to help develop their community.

Promising Voices addressed crosscutting themes including empowering and educating youth and women;  harnessing social networking/media for  positive change; and bolstering private sector involvement for economic empowerment.

Reactions to Promising Voices were overwhelmingly positive – respondents said the show was high quality and a majority liked the content. Moreover, the program had a positive impact on viewer’s perceptions of and motivations to stay in Afghanistan. 66.8% of respondents reported that the summit had a positive effect on their  perceptions  of the capacity of Afghans to develop their country. A total of 94% of respondents reported that they were inspired or somewhat inspired by the summit to follow the example of the speakers.