Happy International Women's Day - a Pakistan Project Update

Nadia (alias) comes from the village of Dhulli in the District of Chakwal. Her family financially is not well off. She has seven sisters, none of whom were able to complete their education. Nadia loves to study and even though she was taken out of school in 8th grade, Girls Educational International is happy to say that she is back in school, now in 10th grade. GEI covers her transportation costs to and from school, which is approximately $70.00 a year. 

Javeria (alias) is also from the same district, but a village a bit further out. She is 14 years old. Although she was set to get married, after expressing interest in her studies, we are happy to learn that her wedding was called off. She is currently in 9th grade. Girls Education International is delighted to cover the fees of enrolling her back in school.  Because of her village's proximity, her transportation costs are about $100 a year. 

These and similar stories are what keep our small team at Girls Education motivated and excited to have this opportunity in the first place, to reach young people in some of the most marginalized groups of society. 

It is our pleasure on this International Day of Women to highlight our partnership with Pakistan organization Bedari that facilitates our support of 60 young women from five different villages. If we, together with your help, couldn't provide support with their transportation to and from school from their remote villages, these and other young women would possibly have very different paths in life, usually picked out for them and often against their will. So, thank you!

We wish you, our supporters, a beautiful Women's Day this year. We hope it is filled with smart, creative, interesting and beautiful women in your personal lives. Women that have a choice to make their own decisions, good and the bad ones. Enjoy them, support them and love them. And please remember that you have touched lives of other young women who also appreciate you and are forever grateful for your kindness and your understanding that supporting one girl, supports men, women and the entire community we all live in, this beautiful yet fragile planet that we all call home. 

Rifaat Studying in High School!

Riffat Shaheen – a resident of village Laphi nearly 48 Kilometers away from Chakwal city – was studying in 5th grade, when her father, a patient of diabetes, died. It was a time of great difficulty for her mother Makhtoom Begum – an illiterate woman with five kids to take care of. She had a small piece of cultivable land, which she started tilling on her own. It did help to some extent, but was not enough to keep the family in good condition. As Riffat passed her 5th grade examination, her mother stopped her from going to school. Riffat joined her mother in tilling the small piece of land. It was very depressing for her to work in the fields and see her classmates on their way to school passing by her fields. But she had no other options.

Thanks to the financial support from Girls Education International, our Pakistani partner organization, Bedari, selected Riffaat for an educational scholarship, which enabled her to join her school after a break of two years. Now she is studying in grade 6. She is very happy. She says, ‘the first day at school when I rejoined was the best and the happiest day of my life’.