Currently Registered Women's Organizations in Pakistan

Blue Veins ( Women Welfare & relief Services) Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade
Peshawar, Pakistan

Blue Veins was founded in 1999 by a group of women concerned about the lack of health information and resources available to women. Blue Veins has dedicated their efforts to breast cancer victims, who often face severe taboos and oppression due to misunderstandings about the illness in Pakistan society. Today Blue Veins is a growing national group of volunteers who embrace the motto, "Awareness, Action, and Advocacy." Their goal is to "increase public awareness about breast cancer and ensure that individuals from all socioeconomic backgrounds have rapid access to current relevant education, support and information about this disease." Blue Veins has recently launched numerous information campaigns within Pakistan, including conferences, presentations at universities, colleges, schools and health fairs, and lobbying federal and provincial departments. They also provide psychological and social services to breast cancer patients and their families.

Institute for Development Studies and Practices, IDSP - Pakistan
Quetta, Pakistan

The Institute for Development Studies and Practices in Pakistan was officially established in 1996, but has been working for the past 25 years to "create and develop human resources that will change the power structure [of Pakistan communities] by demystifying the development process and by establishing sustainable partnerships with communities." Today, IDSP's mission targets underprivileged women who suffer from poverty as well as unequal economic, social, political, and educational rights. IDSP is governed by an executive committee, and each of its program sectors has its own implementation committee. Some of the programs include: Learning and Community Development, in which "learners are selected based on their record of community-based activism, contributions to local cultures, intellectual caliber etc." to help build the initiative of IDSP; an Academic Program, in which research is introduced as the key component in every programmatic activity they try to promote; Institutional Development and Core Support, in which publications are made for the overall outlook of the institution; and External Relationships, through which IDSP keeps its extensive list of networked organizations engaged and apprised of its proceedings.

Learning & Caring Society
Lahore, Pakistan

The Learning and Caring Society (LCS) is based in Lahore, Pakistan and aims to safeguard women, youth, mentally retarded, and the elderly. Their motto is to "Serve Humanity without Discrimination." The organization's goal is to provide educational facilities for women and homes for the elderly and neglected people of society. The primary aim of LCS is to train and teach women and mentally retarded people various skills in order to improve their socioeconomic status. LCS has established a Women Skills Development Center where the women learn skills like stitching, knitting, fashion design, and embroidery. LCS focuses on providing the women with a job after completing the skills program and their aim is the improvement, motivation, empowerment, self-reliance, and rehabilitation of women. In addition, this organization has been involved in running a daycare for children, enabling their mothers to work, and in disaster management programs.

Pakistan Association for Women's Studies
Karachi, Pakistan

Founded in March 1991 by activists and academics with a feminist consciousness, the Pakistan Association for Women's Studies acts as a catalyst to bring about the empowerment of women, transforming a gender biased society into one inclusive of gender equity and social justice. This social-welfare organization works to provide a forum for interaction and coordination for those engaged in teaching, research or action for women's development. Further goals include developing documentation and publication for women while organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, and short courses on women's studies and feminist issues. This organization works to create health awareness and empowerment amongst our sisters living in urban slums and in peripheral villages of urban areas. Often, short duration focused group sessions are held discussing management of menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Constraints such a lack of health care facilities, unemployment, segregation, illiteracy, and male domination are also issues of concern. Consisting of 14 dedicated women, PAWS has published a newsletter entitled, "Panghat" as well as an academic journal and books and is currently working on a research study on Women's Reproductive health in Pakistan.

Pakistan Women Network
Peshawer, Pakistan

The Pakistan Women Network was founded in 2002 by concerned professional women. Consisting of eight executive board members with memberships allotted to eleven NGO's and thirty-five individual women, PWN focuses on women from diverse fields of occupation, political sectors and rural backgrounds. The PWN feels that this diverse group has a massive potential, but lacks certain training and exposure to the right environment for their growth and promotion. Because of this, PWN assists its members in the public and private sector, improving their performances as professionals. To do this, they provide advisory services, publishing and networking opportunities, conferences and seminars. PWN is currently working to arrange meetings for donors and NGO's, facilitate training sessions for the women in NGO's and to provide computer training to healthy as well as disabled women.

ROZAN
Islamabad, Pakistan

Rozan was created by both men and women in 1998 to address issues related to emotional health, gender, and violence against women and children. Their mission is "to enhance the self-esteem of all people, especially women and children, in order to work towards a society which is aware, confident and accepting of itself and others." They work with the community by providing training and counseling services. Rozan works for women of all socio-economic classes facing mental and emotional health problems with a special focus on victims of violence. The organization currently has four programs including Aangan, which works on the emotional health of children with a focus on child sexual abuse, Zeest, which works on the emotional health of women, in particular violence against women, Pehchaan, a gender resource center, and Rabta, a police training project which works with police on issues related to violence against women and children. Rozan presently has 29 staff members, forty volunteers, and over sixty members who work on various programs enhancing women's lives.

SACH - Struggle for Change
Islamabad, Pakistan

Sach-Struggle for Change is an organization that works toward the rehabilitation and reintegration for survivors of organized violence and torture. The organization operates by using an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. They focus on human rights issues with a special focus on women and children, due to the fact that they are often the most oppressed. Sach works specifically with victims who are in prison and refugees who have fled from their native lands due to war, inhumane treatment instigated by their governments or oppressive socioeconomic conditions surrounding them. The organization's goals are to raise consciousness against torture, violence and cruel inhumane treatments and punishments. Furthermore, they aim to train professionals to work with victims of torture, and to provide feed back to the government on policy implications regarding all forms of institutionalized traumatic human rights abuses. The organization currently has training, workshops, and shelter based services in place to achieve their goals.

Shirkat Gah-Women's Resource Centre
Lahore, Pakistan

Shirkat Gah (translation - a place of participation) was founded in 1975 and is active in all four provinces of Pakistan with offices in Karachi, Lahore and Peshwar. It is a non-hierarchal collective, integrating consciousness raising with a development perspective and initiating projects translating advocacy into action. The goal of Shirkat Gah is to fully empower women in a just, vibrant, democratic, tolerant and environmentally sound society, where equity and opportunity are ensured for all. Shirkat Gah seeks to bring about women's empowerment for social justice and social justice for women's empowerment; to promote women appropriate development schemes, programs, policies and laws; to enhance women's autonomy, access to resources, and all levels of decision making; and to help catalyze a socio-cultural perspective premised on gender equality at all levels. Shirkat Gah has various programs such as: 1) Women and Law program integrating grassroots to policy-level advocacy and building women's capacity to access rights and address their felt-needs; 2) Outreach program working to build the capacity of community based organizations as actors best positioned to understand the needs of their own communities, to devise and implement appropriate strategies to address these needs and to be a constant and immediate source of support to their communities.

Welfare And Development Organization
Peshawer, Pakistan

The Welfare Development Organization, (WDO) was founded in 1995 by Mr. Haji Hayatullah who wanted to establish an NGO in order to give women a platform to express themselves because other organizations would not recruit females. Today the organization is run by women and has a staff of forty women working in the field. WDO's mission is 1) to support the Afghan population through the distribution of relief items, 2) to provide potable water facilities, 3) Widow and children sponsorship and 4) the institution of basic health and education programs to these rural communities. WDO serves girls and women from 7-60 years. As women have no power in this part of the world, WDO is working to uplift their current situation. Programs include running a hospital and nursing training courses, providing mother and child health care, and drug awareness programs.

Women Citizen Community Board
Kasur, Pakistan

Women Citizen Community Board was founded in 2001 by a group of women to work for women’s welfare and empowerment. Their mission is to educate women about their basic rights and enable them to successfully participate in social development and political activities. The organization consists of a seven-member board of directors and a total of 25 volunteers. The Women Citizen Community Board targets rural women of Kasur, holding seminars on women’s rights and education and performing stage shows aimed at stopping violence against women and raising women’s political awareness. The group is currently working on opening centers for adult literacy and women’s health..

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS SERVING WOMEN
Good Thinkers Organization For Human Development - Women Development Wing
Kasur, Pakistan

Alive to the critical need to participate in the struggle for change, a group of well-meaning and positive-minded human rights activists in Kasur, Pakistan got together in 2001 to establish the Good Thinkers Organization For Human Development. The organization's mission is to work to end the suffering of all human beings, especially women, purely on humanitarian grounds, without regard to politics or religion, and bring radical, productive change to Kasur, an underdeveloped region of Pakistan. The Good Thinkers Organization For Human Development broadly focuses on women's development, environmental pollution, information technology, free legal aid, and education in Kasur. The organization's seven executives and twenty-four women volunteers host awareness seminars on women's rights, provide legal advice to women, and are working toward the creation of adult literacy centers for women in rural areas of Kasur.

National Development Support Program (NDSP)
Peshawar, Pakistan

NDSP is a Peshwar based non-profit, non-government organization seving Pakistani women. For the past 8 years it has been working for human institutional development in marginalized Pakistan communities. Through action, research, community and beneficiary involvement, NDSP hopes to achieve a world "free of poverty and distress where everyone is able to enjoy his/her fundamental rights to lead a life of dignity, peace and honor without discrimination on the basis of color, creed, race, ethnicity, language, gender and nationality." NDSP is achieving this goal by working for gender justice and development. It is a male-run organization working for the furtherance of female welfare. It addresses women's issues such as equal education, equal employment opportunities, wage parity, harassment in the workplace, domestic violence, and reproductive health. It is also working to integrate child and women's rights in state policy and legal frameworks. NDSP has a 21 person staff and over 600 social workers who are working toward this goal.

source:www.jagriti-international.org