SAKINA OF PROJECT HUNZA & GILGIT BALTISTAN SECONDARY SCHOLARSHIP
Location: Basha valley, Pakistan
Date: Summer 2018
Description and Impact:
WEF’s contributions to the Iqra Fund institution consists of providing secondary and higher school scholarships as well as professional development sessions offered to all 56 girls living in the various communities of the Hunza and Baltistan regions. The WEF program targets areas that experience harsh weather conditions, lack of infrastructure, and an overwhelming poverty population size. They believe that areas as such are in desperate need of educational funding since most families earn a low income and rely on subsistence farming. The Hunza and Baltistan regions receive no support from the government and thus most children residing there are stripped of their educational rights. In additional to the difficulty of obtaining an education, families who are able to afford schooling often don’t send their children due to the costs of lodging and transportation. WEF recognizes these difficulties and uses them as motivation to fund schooling and all other expenses for the innocent children that deserve a pathway to a sustainable education. As a result, WEF has partnered with the Iqra Fund in order to ensure these children are able to reach their full potential in all educational aspects.
Now, Sakina is thriving in high school in Skardu, and aspires to become a doctor so she can serve her community. She also feels that by becoming a doctor, she will be able to encourage her community to enable their girls to follow their dreams, the way her parents did for her.
“Girls in my village have a lot of potentials, but they live a very hard life of work at home and in the fields and all their potentials go to waste. I want to show them that they can achieve their dreams, like me”.