ISLAMABAD: On the first day of a two-day seminar titled ‘Women Making Strides in Economic Empowerment’ on Thursday, Nazia, a young entrepreneur from Lahore, shared her experience of earning Rs36,000 from selling hand-decorated bangles at a fair. She says the experience has given her a lot of confidence and that she will now be riding the Scooty she was gifted at the event to enhance her business in Lahore.

Nazia is one of many beneficiaries of Aurat Foundation’s Gender Equity Program (GEP) which was initiated with the support from Usaid. Aurat Foundation is gifting women entrepreneurs Scooty bikes so that they are not dependent on someone for transport.

Nazia was the first of a long list of women to be given the bike.

“When I heard I am going to be given a Scooty, I was hesitant at first but after talking with the GEP team, I am looking forward to using it for expanding my business,” she said.

Earlier, GEP chief Simi Kamal talked about how the initiative had contributed towards the economic empowerment of women. She said that 1,956 women were helped in working from their homes, 308 women had been trained in various skills and that 1,595 women had developed new products by using the skills they already knew.

She added that 12 trade facilitation centres had been set up in as many districts in the country in order to facilitate women and to train women working at home who were also helped with selling their products, including showcasing their products in national and international exhibitions.

Also attending the seminar was former chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women Khawar Mumtaz who stressed on the need to educate girls.

“Despite efforts by the government and various NGOs, we have not succeeded in achieving our desired results. The wage gap between women and men is still very wide and Pakistan is last on the list of the UN ranking of wage gaps,” she said.

During the event, the Aurat Foundation and First Women’s Bank signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a project to empower women economically.

Women entrepreneurs from across the country participated in the event and also showcased their products including homemade jewellery, embroidered wall hangings, mobile phone pouches, shawls, decoration pieces and greeting cards among others.

Two gypsy singers from Lahore, Zeba Seher and Hina Kanwal, also put on a lively performance. The two singers have also benefitted from a GEP project titled ‘Socio-Economic Empowerment of Gypsy Women’.

Talking to Dawn, the singers said they were trying to revive traditional songs.

“We could only work in certain professions like selling bangles, collecting garbage or selling homemade toys. But I wanted to sing and through GEP, my dream finally came true,” Zeba Seher said.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2016