86 Results Are Tagged With "South and Central Asia"

Monday, May 2, 2016 - Monday, October 31, 2016
Anonymous User

Breaking the Glass by Empowering women and girls in Pakistan

Improved livelihood of the community and women?s ability to exercise their rights Inclusion of women and Girls in Political process

Write to Speak

Nepal
Empowering Women and Girls
Around 55% of Nepal’s total population is under the age of 25. Among them, young women fare the worst, they are invariably treated as second-class citizens and subordinated to men across all demographics. Given the discrimination that women in Nepal face – from cultural expectations of subservience to degrees of violence against women, the first step in addressing the underlying structures that perpetuate this is to instill confidence in women to speak without fear and build a community around them that listens and responds. While there is broad agreement in terms of the importance of the youth and the need for gender equality, there is hardly any dialogue happening between young men and women on these issues. Write to Speak aims to create safe creative spaces where women can voice their opinions and initiate dialogs between all genders. 

Our Voice for Peace

Afghanistan (India)
Civic Participation
#OurVoiceForPeace is being conceived as an online platform that will, in its bid to change the established public narratives, give voice to the victims of terrorism in Afghanistan-India-Pakistan region. Without going into the politics of terrorism, fact remains that people in all the three countries have suffered massively due to terrorism. The resultant narrative predominant in all the three countries is that of hate and suspicion. #OurVoiceForPeace will challenge this established narrative of hate towards each other. As part of this project we shall interview and document stories of 60 victims of terror. Asking them questions about post-terror conflict and who they think is responsible for their plight and their views on the established narratives and how would they like to change it. Using multimedia technology and social media and other innovative platforms, we will share these stories amongst the masses of all the three countries to start a debate around the existing narrative.

Women, Politics & Power

Pakistan
Empowering Women and Girls
In the recent Local Government elections political powers were transferred to the lower tiers of the government (tehsils and village councils) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - a province adjoining Afghanistan, which is one of the most under-developed, massively illiterate and terror-inflicted province of Pakistan. About 7,342 women councilors have been elected against the reserved seats, out of a total of 42,858 councilors/public representatives in the province. These women are facing a number of issues to perform their roles affectively. One of the major issues, hindering full participation of women councilors in policy planning and implementation of the development agenda in their respective constituencies, was lack of capacity of women councilors. As a result, they were unable to articulate women’s interests in an effective manner and could not succeed in making a radical shift in policy and development priorities in the local government.

Healing to Empowerment:Story of the Manipuri Women

India
Empowering Women and Girls
Manipur, a tiny state situated in India's Northeast is inhabitated by more than 30 ethnic groups. It has been witnessing conflict, between the thousands of Indian Army troops deployed everywhere in the state and the 30+ armed groups, for decades. Women and children suffer the most because they are traumatized by the deaths of their family members and pushed to acute poverty as their only bread earner has been killed.According to the state government reports, there are 20,000 registered widows in Manipur who have lost their husbands in conflict. The need is to provide a holistic approach to empowerment to a specific, vulnerable, traumatised group of women, through sustainable economic empowerment, not just by giving them mere skills but also by helping them become well rounded leaders who can lead their own enterprise, and also provide them proper psycho- social intervention.

The '100 Hands Initiative'

Sri Lanka
Empowering Women and Girls
In 2013, it was estimated that a total of 293,105 Sri Lankan migrants have migrated for employment out of whom 40.28% were female migrant workers with a majority in the unskilled category of domestic work.[1] Women choose to migrate due to lack of alternate economic opportunities combined with a lack of skills and limited access to support services. Some women are encouraged by their husbands and family members to migrate due to financial incentives provided but unaware of the long term personal and social costs to them and their families. The present support for the socio economic empowerment of women migrants is not at a satisfactory level mainly due to a lack of gender sensitive practices throughout the migration process. This pilot project will seek to create a public-private partnership to provide these women with alternate and sustainable economic opportunities and help make informed decisions.[1] Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment – Annual Statistical Report 2013 

Social Engagement for Budgetary Accountability

Bangladesh
Civic Participation
It is evident that local government institutions are non-active, unaccountable, and non-responsive. People’s participation is not ensured in the political-administrative and governance system to ensure basic services to the citizen.    This project aims to strengthen transparency and accountability around both the planning and implementation of local government budgets. It is designed to build capacity of the community to raise their voice and help expand public awareness. The interventions will increase the awareness of the community people and their local elected members in Union Parishads (UPs: local government initial tier) about the importance of participatory bottom-up budget planning and guaranteeing the budget is implemented well. 

My Exchanges Journey

Fulbright alumna Parveen Elias shares her journey from Bangladeshi academia to her exchange in the U.S. to her working with the Embassy back in her home country.

Thursday, November 17, 2016 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Anonymous User

Helping orphans to prepare for an adult life

It is known that graduates of orphanages face difficult problems after they turn 18 and when they have to leave orphanage. The idea of the project is to teach them to cook,to sew and clean their rooms by certain age.For this it is neccessary to buy sewing machines and teach them to sew. They can sew clothes for themselves or for other kids in orphanage. Also in the future they can find a job as a sewer as often there are advertisements of needed sewers. Everybody knows that the government gives money to orphanage. But when orphans turn 18 years they should leave orghanage and they have no place to go.They are not ready for an adult life, they have absolutely no skills So graduates face a lot of problems with housing,employment and even family life.Often they can"t find a life partner. Government just provides with supplies but there are no lessons for children to get ready for an adult life.

LIGHTING UP LIVES

India
Climate Change and Environmental Protection
India is presently the fastest growing economy in the world with an astounding 7% GDP growth rate. Like any other fast growing economy the household energy use will also increase manifold and we understand that it should be ‘clean and green’. The government initiated domestic efficient lighting programme (DELP) in the country faces challenges on two counts (a) educating the populace on efficient use of energy which is environment friendly having minimal impact on climate change and (b) preparing and training for advanced skills to repair and recycle the used lights for sustained development. The project extends its impact in imparting skills to build and repair efficient LED lights and prepare people for future.If efficient LED bulbs are used extensively, as it consumes less power, then it will certainly stabilize or reduce carbon emission which is the prime need of the hour not only for the country but for our planet also. 

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