As one of the leading proponents of women’s economic and political empowerment, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is focusing on capacities and skills of women and their mainstreaming so that they can fully avail the opportunities with a focus on their quality of lives.
Actualising this year’s theme of International Women’s Day “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures” and to commemorate the event, the PPAF organised a ceremony on Thursday to present the first of its kind Amtul Raqeeb Award to seven women of outstanding resilience and achievement.
Representing the cultural and geographic diversity of Pakistan and hailing from PPAF-supported communities across the country, the seven women nominated for the award played a sterling role in not only self-advancement but socio-economic development of their respective areas.
The PPAF honoured these exceptional women and also launched a chronicle captioned “Women of Substance” encompassing their success stories in dealing with testing circumstances to carve out their destiny.
The winners of the PPAF’s pioneering award were Mehr Nigar from Balochistan, Zeba from the Northern Areas, Zakia Ikram from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sughra Solangi from Sindh, Rehana Bibi from Islamabad, Najma Shakoor from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Nabila Qazi from the Punjab.
Providing awareness to over 300,000 women on freedom and constitutional rights enshrined in the religion, the fund also engenders women-only as well as mixed men and women groups’ institutions of the poor at community levels. Women comprise 62 percent of the mixed community organisations formed by the PPAF across the country.
Among the total beneficiaries of PPAF’s credit and enterprise development component, as many as 51 percent are women, while 49 percent women comprise of water, energy and infrastructure component, 62 percent of social and community mobilisation, 56 percent of basic health and primary education, 41 percent of institutional development and skill trainings and 47 percent of livelihood enhancement and social protection.
The PPAF has dedicated this award to Raqeeb, who was a mother of three and Programme Officer at Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) – a PPAF partner organization. She was assigned the task of conducting trainings of the paramedic staff in Mastung and Pishin districts of the province. Raqeeb, along with two other colleagues, was shot dead by unidentified assailants on their way back to Quetta after performing duties in Mastung on January 24 last year. Through hard work and diligence, Raqeeb made immense contributions in reducing mother-child mortality rate in inaccessible regions of Balochistan.
Each year, International Women’s Day coinciding with the UN Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace is celebrated on March 8 around the world. Thousands of events are held not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities and women groups around the world choose different themes each year that reflect global and local gender issues.
The PPAF is the leading institution for community-driven development in the country and the largest source of pro-poor spending outside the Public Sector Development Programme and the federal budget. Set up as a fully autonomous private sector institution, the fund enjoys facilitation and support from the government, World Bank, IFAD, USDA, KfW and US Corporate Sector.
Outreach of PPAF now extends throughout Pakistan (129 districts) and its micro-credit, water and infrastructure, drought mitigation, education, health and emergency response interventions have been widely recognised.