Educate a Girl in Pakistan & Give Her a Future

In our last report we mentioned about the Educate a Girl Lahore 100 Scholarship funded celebration,now we are so excited to share with our donors that last week we conducted our training in Lahore - Pakistan and was able to transform 200 lives.

Lahore: Dawood Global Foundation & Hashoo Group hosted the Educate a Girl Lahore Summit at the Pearl Continental Lahore. The training educated an audience of 200 deserving Educate a Girl Lahore Scholarship winners from grass rooted background including deserving girls from SOS Children villages, Lesco/Wapda girls high School Shalamar Lahore, Lesco/Wapda girls high school Allama Iqbal Town Lahore, Syedanwala Girls College and cancer patients from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital.

Keynote speakers included Australian Honorary Consul General Salim Ghauri, Souriya Anwar, Founder, SOS (Children's Villages), Syeda Henna Babar Ali, Packages, Sameena Kareem (late Arfa Karim's Mom), Maheen Taseer (wife of Shabaz Taseer), Hina Salman (make up artist), Omar Jamil, Qasif Shahid, Monis Rahman & Shameelah Ismail.
The full day training was focused on Entrepreneurship, Coding, Negotiation, Building a Brand, Grooming, Self-Confidence & Leadership.

“With the partnership and support of so many, we are delighted to introduce our award-winning Educate a Girl programme in Lahore, starting with the education of 200 deserving girls," stated Tara Uzra Dawood, Founder, Educate a Girl. "The aim of the program is to encourage young women to become leaders and women of influence and are very excited about our fantastic trainers and speakers.”

Pakistan’s female population is estimated to be 48.65 percent of the total, the majority of which lives in the country’s rural areas. In rural Pakistan opportunities, for women are still lower than those the limited ones for their sisters in the urban centres. According to Labour Force Statistics (LFS) 2012-2013, of the estimated 180 million people, only 12.51 million Pakistani females of various ages are in employment of some sort. There exists a cultural bias, which manifests as a discouragement from hiring women. Thus, this program is an important step to address an urgent need to increase the representation of women holding influential jobs in Lahore, to better address issues affecting women and girls, such as: domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault, harmful cultural practices, level of access to quality education and healthcare, child marriage, enacting laws and enforcing legislation to enhance overall welfare of women, female genital mutilation, funding constraints for business start-ups, entrepreneurial training and mentorship, gender equity in corporate board representation, pay differentials, low level of participation in governance and leadership by women etc.

Educate a Girl is a partnership between Dawood Global Foundation and Facebook's internet.org to educate 1 million girls globally and was just recognized by the World Bank as top 2% women-led initiative in MENA. EAG has successfully educated 1000 deserving girls in Karachi, Pakistan and 1250 in Lagos, Nigeria, including those orphaned by the atrocities of the Boko Haram. Funds are currently being raised for Morocco, Turkey and Canada (First Nations). This launch in Lahore will take this international movement truly national and we may even educate a future Prime Minister in our audience.

Educate a Girl to date has had many renowned trainers speakers such as Sculptor Amin Gulgee, Designer Deepak Perwani, News Anchor Nadia Naqi, Imran Zakir [Bureau Chief (KHI), Pakistan International Press Agency], Social Development Professional Bilquis Rehman, Grooming expert Khadija Chagani of Pivot Point, Honorary Consul General of Finland Sadia Khan, Fashion journalist Zurain Imam, News anchor Sana Hashmi, Tehmina Khaled, Shanaz Ramzi, Khursheed Hyder, Iram Noor, Dr. Fouzia Khan, Masood Lohar, Swiss Consul General Emil Wyss, Russian Consul General Oleg N. Avdeev, British Deputy Head of Mission Gill Atkinson, Juliet Kego Ume-Onyido, Wana Udobang, English Professor Emeritus Dr. Ishrat Lindblad of Sweden, Pakistan High Commissioner in Nigeria H.E. Agha M. Umar Farooq, Climate Journalist Sarah Phillips of Australia (in partnership with the UNDP and the Australian High Commission), Muhammad Ali, Northwestern University Professor and Chicago Tribune ace Finance Journalist Susan Chandler of the US (in partnership with the IBA Centre of Excellence in Journalism), as well as Alex Preston of the Guardian and BBC (in partnership with the British Council).

In Karachi, 5 scholars have become news anchors, 19 girls have contributed scholarships out of their first ever paychecks, 1 girl has funded 4 scholarships for her peers from her success and several girls have been placed in successful jobs or become entrepreneurs.

All of this was possible because of the support of our well wishers and wonderful donors like you all so on behalf of these girls, we would like to thank you all.

Together, We are transforming lives.