Send 60 Girls in Pakistan to School

Dear Pakistan Project Supporters, 

We, at Girls International are so pleased to announce that we have renewed our partnership with Bedari organization in Pakistan. We look forward to our continious collaboration in support of the girls from Punjab disctrict. With your generous financial support we will continue to do our part in giving them the choice of education by providing them with transportation to and from their schools. To demonstrate Bedari's commitment to the cause even further, we want to highlight a two days advocacy event, titled "Provincial Conference and Policy Dialogue on addressing Violence Against Girls in Punjab", organized by them in hopes to bring even higher awareness to the issues of girls in Pakistan. In their own words their memo reads: "Girls in Pakistan are among those whose rights are openly violated. Either because of social norms or because of limited resources girls are deprived of the basic rights to education, free from violence, right to play, in short right to enjoy their childhood." The Execitive Director of Girls Education International, Raichle Farrelly, send a video to the conference on bahalf of all of us to show our support. You can view the video below or here.

Thank you again for your support and we hope that this holidays your heart continious to stay open to the ones that can benefit so much from our small acts of kindness and dedicaiton.

Happy Holidays,

Tamrika 

Pakistan Project Leader

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17fCm9_QYrYKIBu94R_kiHbhg10RLbBZL

Dear supporters of Girls Educaiton International,

We are so grateful for your continues support of our efforts with Girls Ed International. With our ongoing project in Pakistan, we currently support 60 girls by providing safe transportation to and from school so they can pursue their dreams of their education and better life. This can only be possible with the collaboration and hard work by a local NGO Bedari based in Pakistan and of course through your continues support. In an effort to get to know our students better, we try to feature a new student each month by conducting a short interview with them. This month please meet Aisha. 

Thank you again!

With Best Regards,

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Pakistan Project

Girls Education International

Answers from Aisha

Q: How has your education raised your awareness about issues around the world?

Ans: I am Aisha. I am from Thar Chakk, a small village of Kalar kahar. The only education facility is up to primary level and if girls wish to study any further, we have to travel some 21 km. from our village. So the importance of girls’ education and their interest in global issues are topic never discussed. Education raised curiosity to know more about my country.

Q: How has your education assisted you to fight extremism, build intercultural communication and be advocate for positive change?

Ans:  I’ll use my education in self-development and will try to support girls who are keen to pursue education. I am spreading awareness for girls’ education, its importance and how beneficial it is for society on the whole.

Q: Can you see yourself as agent of change in the world?

Ans:   Life is beautiful when we are evolving to better person. I am working on me and can see the different ME now.

Q: In what way do you want to make world a better place and how will education help make that happen?

Ans: Change comes with knowing. It’s important to improve the quality of communication between parents and young people. So the may talk on stuff and bring some positive solution. 

Dear Pakistan Project supporters,

Past

With your tremendous support our work in Pakistan continues. In the past few years Girls Ed in partnership with Bedari has been providing safe transportation to and from school to the girls, raising the status of women and community at large.

During past 3 years we've supported over 100 in their pursuit of education. Currently 74 girls completed their matriculation and others continue their studies this year. Delaying child marriages till the age of 18 years is a tremendous achievement, as the girls receiving education begin to realize their rights and become more eager to participate in decision-making processes at home and in the community.

There have been some set backs as well. We lost three of our girls to untimely deaths due to clan reveries; and ten girls got married before completing their matric education.

Present

Perhaps partially due to uncertain times at the home front, we have had more difficult time raising money for our project the past year. Yet, we continue strongly with our mission, realizing that impact of our work on the young women is direct, deeply appreciated and much needed. This year, due to Girls Ed’s funding restrain we are working with 60 girls only. We have identified five new villages in district of Chakwal, and 60 girls that are extremely excited to become part of Girls Ed and find their way for better and brighter future.

Beyond the transportation needs, there is high demand and need for self-growth activities for the young women. In the past Bedari organization had provided many enriching activities for them. Due to funding constraints many of these initiatives have stopped for now but Bedari is looking forward to enter into collaboration with local organizations that may provide vocational skill to enhance the growth of girls under Girls Ed program in the future.

We want you to know the girls that you support better, to understand your impact more intimately. With that in mind, this month meet Shanza in the interview below.

As our Executive Director recently said, quoting Shakespeare from Midsummer Night's Dream: "And though she be but little, she is fierce."  Thank you for your continuous and generous support.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SHANZA:

Q: How has your education raised your awareness about issues around the world?

Ans: My name is Shanza Batool and I belong to village Hathar, where the basic needs are hardly met. I got the chance to receive education with Bedari. Due to education I was able to talk about myself and my village.

Q: How has your education assisted you to fight extremism, build intercultural communication and be advocate for positive change?

Ans: Until I moved out of my village I was only aware about the problems of girls in my village. But when I moved to distant places to receive education I realized that until the girls won’t speak up for their rights they would not be able to gain an equal stature in the society.

Q: Can you see yourself as agent of change in the world?

Ans: Attending different trainings of Bedari helped me understand how I can speak for myself in an appropriate manner. How I can give opinion. How I can work for the equal stature of women in the society. Education has equipped me with the power to talk.

Q: In what way do you want to make world a better place and how will education help make that happen?

Ans: I may not be able to become a source of change in this world. But I see marked difference of opportunities. Because of which I am able to bring a certain change in the attitudes of my own family at the least. According to me, awareness programs should be increased in number. A major population resides in villages and backward areas. This is the main group of people with enormous problems. Awareness programs should be made easier at village level. Parents should be encouraged to educate their daughters. There should be a way to talk against problems.

Dear Pakistan Project Supporters,

Happy Women’s History Month to all of you. Needless to say our lives wouldn’t be the same without the strength and beauty that all of us have experienced from a female figure in our lives, be it a mother, a sister, a daughter, a co-worker, a friend, a loved one or a stranger. I believe, we are witnessing complicated but historically crucial times for gender equality. Trying to understand centuries old believes and misconceptions, once untangled, eventually will liberate all of us, women AND men. Then we can all have a chance to live to our full potential, with purpose and shear joy, having support and expectations not based on gender roles assigned by our societies but determined by individual choice and merit. Over and over again, it has been shown that education is one of the most direct ways to bring this change.

We have some good news at Girls Education International. Our Pakistan Project was approved for GlobalGiving Girl Fund Campaign. From March 1st through 15th, along with dozens of other organizations we will have an opportunity to move up the leaderboard by bringing in the most unique donors – if in the top four, securing a spot in the GlobalGiving Girl Fund, which will come with ongoing support from GlobalGiving for the remainder of 2018. Please consider donating https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-60-girls-in-pakistan-to-school/ and sharing our campaign with friends so we can continue supporting amazing young women in Pakistan.

We have some great success stories and news coming out from the field. This month we want to highlight Maryam, one of our students who is truly an inspiration for our work and your incredible support. We will let a short interview with her speak for itself. To see the video where Maryam speaks about her work, please link to our facebook page at Girls Education International.

Thank you for your continuous support and have a wonderful start to the spring!

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Pakistan Project leader

• Maryam interview (DOCX)

Dear Supporter of Pakistan Project at Girls Education International,

We, here at Girls Education International, want to wish you a fantastic, fun, and rewarding holiday season with your friends and family. We have few updates from the field, filled with mostly encouraging news (with some somber notes as well).

The most recent report from the Chakwal district in Pakistan where due to your generous support, the project sends 76 girls to school, reported that 66 out of 76 of the students appeared for their annual examination. Approximately 80% of them passed the exams, with few still waiting for their results and others preparing to re-take the exams as needed. We are excited and encouraged by the girls’ progress.

During this reporting period, the project unfortunately faced few challenges as well. Predominantly the challenges involved pressures that the students receive from their families to leave school for the purpose of arranged marriage. Handful of our students were victims of this situation and were forced to drop out of school. Statistics show that 14 million girls in the world under 18 will be married just this year, that’s 38 thousand in one day, or 13 girls in the last 30 seconds (UNFPA, 2012). #1 cause of death for girls 15-19 years of age is in childbirth, not to mention the quality of life, prospect of employment and chances of their children receiving an education as well. While we cannot interfere with families and don’t wish to untangle deep woven traditions and customs of the region, we do know that every time we educate another young woman, the chances of her pressuring her own child for early marriage decreases drastically, as well as she is much more likely to encourage education for her own children.

In this season of giving we just want you to know the direct affect that your support has on those young women. It is long-lived and permanent in their lives. Every dollar that you continue to give to this low overhead organization will continue to have tremendous benefits in their lives and we can’t thank you enough for your generosity.

Thank you for your continuous support,

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Pakistan Project Manager

• Flyer_Girls_Ed_Pakistan.pdf (PDF)