The Girl Power programme was a five-year international project on adolescent girls’and young women’s rights, that was implemented in 10 countries. ICDI worked on the reduction of gender violence, the socio-economic and socio-political empowerment of girls and young women in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Nicaragua, through cooperation with local NGO’s.
To know more about the overall GP programme, please click here.
In Pakistan we worked with Bedari, a girls’ and women’s rights organization, fighting discrimination and violence against women. It has expanded its wings to other areas which affect women’s condition in society. These include education, economic empowerment and lobbying with the government for laws and their implementation to safeguard women’s rights.
Description
The Girl Power programme has strengthened Bedari’s efforts for the protection of girls against violence. Core elements of the programme were the establishment of a child helpline in the Multan area and strengthening the professional capacity of local community based organizations to deal more effectively with prevention against gender based violence and after care for girls who have become victim of violence. Activities include awareness raising campaigns and the training of so called local ‘security committees’.
Objectives
1. Develop community surveillance systems to ensure the protection of girls at the community level by setting up union council level surveillance committees and opening new and strengthening existing help line(s).
2. Promoting accountability of state institutions at National, Provincial, District and sub-district levels to protect girls from violence & discrimination.
3. Combating gender based discrimination and violence through improved access of girls to secondary education.
In the Girl Power programme ICDI and Bedari worked closely with Plan Pakistan and LHRLA (Karachi).
