MasterPeace around the world: Pakistan

With #MasterPeace_Around_The_World we focus on the people behind our 45+ MasterPeace clubs. We are built on their ideas, hard work, and creativity and would like to share their stories with you.

Our MasterPeace club in Pakistan focuses on many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From providing education in rural areas (SDG 4), planting mangroves in Karachi (SDG 13), to offering jobs to marginalized women (SDG 5) – our club leader Kelash Kumar aims on making a difference wherever he can! One of the projects that he is most proud of is the Women’s Training Program for Empowerment. In 2017 MasterPeace Karachi started this program that focuses on improving the 5th Sustainable Development Goal in Pakistan: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. By offering education and jobs they have managed to accommodate 300 women with a job, aiming on increasing these efforts to at least 1000 participants in 2018!

The reason that Kelash Kumar, club leader of MasterPeace Karachi, initiated the Women’s Training Program for Empowerment is the persisting gender inequality in Pakistan. Although the Ministry for Women’s Development was established in 1979, the gap between men and women seems to be unchanging and in 2017 the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Pakistan as 143 out of 144 countries in their Global Gender Gap Report. Often, families object their daughters to follow (secondary) education or to work, resulting in low literacy rates (61,5%) and economic participation (22.7%). Such low numbers not only highly effect the economic, educational, health and political status of women, but holds back the economic development of the Pakistani community as a whole.

As a result of the positive reactions, MasterPeace Karachi decided to make the Women’s Training Program for Empowerment one of their best practices. In the upcoming years they will focus on training the class of 2017 as ambassadors for the program, increase the numbers of participants to 10,000 in 2030 and find new partners whom would be willing to help them to improve gender equality in Pakistan. By stimulating women’s participation, they will not only work on accomplishing the basic human right of gender equality but also aid in creating a more sustainable Pakistan. We wish the MasterPeace Karachi team the best of luck!