A Pakistani social worker from Lyari Mahira Miyanji has been nominated for the first for an international award ‘For the Untold Stories’ by The N-Peace Network.
Mahira Miyanji is a social advocate who promotes women’s empowerment and girl’s education. In 2013, she established the girls at a time Woman is Nation Welfare Organisation – a platform that provides free education for 125 through a system of 12 volunteers. So far, 2500 girls in Lyari, Karachi have benefited from the programme.
This is the very first time that an activist from Lyari is nominated for an international award. Plz vote for @MahiraMiyanji that she win this award for Pakistan please Go to https://t.co/qRYOd6TTTF and cast your vote! #womenempowerment pic.twitter.com/qDyjkfBIlG
— Moosa Al Matrooshi (@Moosamatrooshi) September 20, 2018
Families with the option to educate their children often choose boys to go to school rather than girls. Mahira’s organisation created a school for girls and women to attend free of charge and has been working with local and national politicians to standardise free education for girls. Mahira has gained regional and global gravitas; she participated in the Emerging Young Women Congress Fellowship programme with the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies in 2015, and in 2017, she represented Pakistan at the ‘Beyond Girls Education Global Summit’. In 2015 and in 2016, Mahira received the Lyari Youth Icon Award from the Karachi Youth Initiative. In 2016, Mahira also received the I Am Karachi Award for her work in education for girls and women.
N-Peace is a United Nations Development Programme flagship initiative, founded in 2010. Through its yearly Awards and CSO grants, the initiative recognises the on-the-ground action and powerful stories of peace-builders in the region who are bringing issues affecting women and girls into the spotlight.