Mahira Miyanji has won N-Peace award for her extraordinary contributions for the empowerment of women and providing education to the women of Lyari, a region that has been categorized as one of the most backward areas of Karachi, Sindh.
Mahira Miyanji is commended for her dedication to providing and advocating for the education of girls in Lyari, Karachi. She has been tirelessly campaigning for gendered social attitudes against girls’ education to change and providing women and girls with the opportunity for future financial empowerment.
The annual N-Peace Awards shine a spotlight on extraordinary activists, campaigners, and advocates in Asia and the Pacific who are championing the role of women in peace-building efforts and working to ensure that issues affecting women are addressed at local and national levels.
Mahira Ahmed Miyanji, a social figure who is making her contribution to empower girls by providing free education. A dream to eliminate deprivation of getting education amongst non-going school girls has come true through the initiative, Woman Is A Nation Welfare Organization (WIN), founded in October 2013 in Lyari.
Mahira is one of those encouraging girls who doesn’t undermine her potentials. She started teaching when she was in class 7th and still has been teaching for the last 10 years.
The organization that she runs and presides has a network of 3000 girl members. The most recently WIN’s team is engaged educating 125 girls in the afternoon. The organization is attracting a large number of students from various areas.
She has always been an inspiration for girls. Her untimely and untiring efforts bestowed her with great regards and admiration among community youth and stakeholders. Moreover, on behalf of her initiative she has been awarded as “Lyari Youth Icon” and “Karachi Youth Icon” Award by Chanan Development Association, she has been awarded as IAMKHI youth Champions by school of Leadership, she is recently awarded as Pakistan Youth Icon by CDA & Young Parliamentarian of National Assembly of Pakistan. She has received Emerging Young Women Leader of Pakistan Award by Ms. Tawakul Kamran, who is the first Muslim woman who has won Global peace award. She had recently received IAMKHI Resilience Award for her remarkable and uncountable contribution in field of Education for the girls. She is also awarded as Young Woman of Excellence in field of Education by Mehak NGO. She has been awarded as Dukhtar-E-Pakistan (Daughter of Pakistan) at Bakhtawar Bhutto Women Festival.
She is a sports trainer and using football for development methodology which aims to empower girls and boys through the power of sports and play and is using football as a Tool for development. She represented Pakistan at Beyond Girls Education Global Summit 2017 at Johannesburg, she was invited as a speaker to share her journey of being leader.
Despite sarcasm from different people that her organization (WIN) faced in its early days, yet she stood bold and continued to work for the advocacy and welfare of her people.
Inputs from asia-pacific-undp
