Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) conferred Amtul Raqeeb Awards upon seven female community leaders for bringing positive transformation not only in their lives but also in the lives of their respective communities, especially during the difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
PPAF organized the 9th Amtul Raqeeb Awards ceremony to acknowledge the exceptional role the women played in various PPAF community development initiatives and contributed to PPAF-supported communities in self-advancement and socio-economic development of their respective areas.
The recipients included Isharat Mai (Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab), Mariam Kanwal (Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab), Naveeda Jehangir (Lower Kohistan, KP), Razia Bibi (Sujawal, Sindh), Rukhshanda Kokab (Rajanpur, Punjab) Shabana Ikhtiar (Islamabad) and Sumitra Bai (Tharparkar, Sindh).
While receiving the awards, the winners shared their stories and appreciated PPAF and its partner organizations for enabling their progress.
Chief Operating Officer PPAF, Nadir Gul Barech, asserted, “I’m immensely proud today of all these empowered women who are serving their communities and transforming so many lives around them. Their stories symbolize strength and commitment, and a drive to bring about positive change in the society.”
He highlighted that at PPAF, 50% of those actively participating in the progress of Pakistan were women, as they made a tremendous contribution to society.
“We are working hard to enable livelihoods generation, provision of assets, interest-free loans, infrastructure, and health and education facilities for women across the rural areas of Pakistan. Together, we will do more to encourage more women to bring about exceptional yet sustainable progress in the society,” he concluded.
Expressing her views on the occasion, President Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI), Naima Ansari, said the examples set by such resilient women would lead to a much-needed socio-economic development of the underserved areas. “I have an unshakeable belief that women are a lot better than men. It’s women that change the status quo and if they don’t, then the men are going nowhere,” she affirmed.
Executive Director Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education (PAGE), Rabia Fajer, said the Pakistani women played an exceptional role during the pandemic despite the unprecedented situation. This role of resilient women of Pakistan has revived our hopes for a better tomorrow, she emphasized.
Amongst those who received the award was Razia Bibi from district Sujawal who worked day and night to get 35 women from her village organization (VO) registered while securing birth registration certificates for 150 newborn babies. Despite being differently-abled, she proved to be a mentor and leader to other women in her area during the pandemic.
Another awardee, Sumitra Bai, who hails from district Tharparkar in Sindh, led an exceptional awareness campaign in her area leading to zero COVID-19 positive cases reported over there.
PPAF instituted the award in recognition of the courage of Amtul Raqeeb, a program officer at PPAF’s partner organization Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP), Quetta. Amtul was killed, along with two other colleagues, on the way back to Quetta after performing her duties in Mastung on January 24, 2011. Her immense contribution to the capacity-building of local traditional birth attendants resulted in a significant reduction of the mother-child mortality rate in the inaccessible regions of Balochistan.
