Women Voice and Leadership - Pakistan
The ongoing three- year project was launched in 2019, in collaboration with Oxfam Pakistan. The activities under this project fundamentally contribute to WISE ongoing work to prepare women and young girls for leadership positions. The shades of interventions correspond not only to gender just programing, but to bring transformation of role in the lives of targeted women and girls.
The project aims at promoting gender justice, developing transformative women leadership and celebrating diversity with focus on women political participation, empowerment of women and young girls and supporting GBV Survivors. The interventions are driven by the guiding feminist principals for a gender just organization. Activities carried out during 2020 include young girls’ trainings, seminars, monitoring cases of violence against women workers.
Activities
Awareness: Several sessions are organized for young girls providing them learning opportunities. So far, 805 young girls, most of them students joined total 25 online and off line sessions on variety of topics; Safe use of internet, safeguarding and prevention of sexual harassment, career counseling, gender equality, pro-women laws, feminist struggles and Muslim Family Laws to create awareness about women rights to marry, divorce, maintenance, inheritance and property.
Trainings: Five capacity building trainings on “Essential Life Skills and Safeguarding” are organized, so far, involving female school teachers and young girls from districts of Lahore and Sheikhupura. A training module was also developed for this initiative. The trainees further arranged 34 replica sessions; 16 session with students and 18 session with young girls, involving 322 students and 254 young girls in their respective areas.
Seminars: So far, three public seminars were organized Against Gender Based Violence to commemorate 16 Days of Activism involving over 200 women. Representatives of Punjab Women Protection Authority, National Commission for Human Rights, PCSW, Office of the Ombudsperson Punjab, Labor & Human Resource Department, Pakistan Men Against Rape (PMAR) community women activists and young girls joined these events.
Actions: Since its inception, WISE has been regularly commemorating the 8th March, the International Women Day through organizing public seminars and rallies. Every year a large number of women from different walks of life participate in these events. WISE is also active participant of the Aurat March in Lahore.