I want to begin this message with lots of gratitude for the amazing journey that I have been on at Pak Women for the last 25 years. I am enthusiastic and optimistic, always like to start with a positive and growth mindset even when conversations or communications are challenging.

In December 1998, I joined hands with fellow young girls to establish Pak Women in Sheikh Jana, a small village settled in District Swabi, province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan, wearing typical cultured red doted CHADDAR accompanied by many others young girls and women. We traveled door-to-door

and village-to-village, passionately advocating for memberships. Our efforts bore fruit as 1000 women joined Pak Women as members, and after a inspiring journey of 25 years, full of challenges, successes, ups and down, we are now celebrating 25th anniversary, the silver jubilee of Pak Women on Dec 1, 2023, enjoying the national office in Islamabad and regional office in Peshawar, working in the entire country including the Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Over the past 25 years, looking back, fills me with immense pride at what we have achieved—building a more resilient community and nurturing inclusion to empower women, children, persons with disabilities, youth, minorities, and transgenders.

Initially, Pak Women run its activities totally on self-help basis for two years with meager support from Board members and community members till getting one day project from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) for celebration of the international women day on March 8, 2002. The Journey started with Pak Women first three years strategic plan, which framed out its vision, mission and four programs.

Throughout the journey, Pak Women worked with Government departments, Provincial Assembly, Women Caucus, International NGOs and donors, UN agencies, semi government institutions and many more.

Within the last 25 years, we have served more than 500,000 beneficiaries especially women, comprising of not only those from the lower-income groups but also aspiring entrepreneurs, master trainers, women leaders and male allies. We have also seen many of our former beneficiaries who have done well for themselves and are now giving back to the community in their own way. Some of the success stories are on Pak Women website.

The growing expectation of accountability from our donors, key stakeholders and the general public has driven us to continually strive to enhance our existing programs and introduce new ones in order to cater to the changing needs of the community. At the occasion of Pak Women Silver Jubilee, we have undertaken new outreach effort by launching Pak Women volunteers’ department.

The celebration of Silver Jubilee, encouraged and energized my determination, commitment to do more for the deprived and marginalized women, children, person with disabilities, minorities and transgender. Our work in the community will not stop with our Silver Jubilee celebrations. In fact, we will work harder than ever to ensure we carry on working towards realizing our founding members’ vision of a dynamic inclusive community. Each milestone achieved drives us to renew our aspirations. As such, we are tremendously grateful for the dedication and generosity demonstrated by our activists, volunteers, donors, sponsors, partners, stakeholders and teams in supporting our efforts to serve the community.

May the next 25 years see Pak Women and the community scaling to even greater heights than before (Ameen).

Cheers,

Azra Gul
Founder, General Secretary and Executive Director Pak Women