‘Sisters Voice Project’ initiated for empowering women in Balochistan, Punjab

A two-year ‘The Sisters Voice Project’ has been initiated to improve advocacy for better implementation of women protection laws through women-led 40 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Balochistan and Punjab.

The project is funded by Commonwealth Foundation and initiated by Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP). Each of Punjab and Balochistan networks comprise 20 CSOs. Parliamentarians, researchers and representatives of CSOs would work together to achieve set goals within minimum possible time.

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) chairperson Marvi Memon while sharing her remarks at the inaugural ceremony of the project said it is aimed to enhance women’s knowledge on protection laws resulting into women empowerment.

It would help initiate dialogue among CSOs’ network, policy makers and judiciary regarding better implementation of women protection laws.

The women empowerment challenge is about ensuring an attitudinal change which guarantees respect for women and the efforts of this project in this regard are commendable, she said.

The BISP chairperson also talked about the contributions of BISP towards women empowerment. She reiterated that BISP is all about empowering women whether in financial, social or political terms.

She stated that different organisations are working on issues related to women empowerment and there is a need to consolidate these efforts to evaluate the overall impact on society.

She offered CSOs to work with BISP to yield better results. She informed that BISP has 50,000 BISP Beneficiaries Committees (BBCs) in 32 districts across the country.

These committees meet at least once a month for awareness purposes on every kind of issue. The minister suggested that CSOs may connect to 5.3 million beneficiaries of BISP by working with BBCs.