Mehak Jamal

2017 fellow Mehak Jamal of Pakistan recently launched a social initiative called Ibtida, meaning “beginning” in Urdu, for local women to support other young women. Ibtida will train educated but economically inactive women from financially marginalized communities as mentors for middle school girls in under-resourced schools. For mentors, Ibtida develops a higher sense of self, thus supporting them to a become more engaged in their community; for the young girls, “it’s the beginning of a journey of self-exploration.”
Once trained, mentors are placed in underserved schools, where they will implement activity-based programming for girls to develop skills that better prepare them to enter the workforce. The first cycle of Ibtida will begin this September with 20 mentors and 60 eighth grade girls from Lahore, beginning with young orphans, who are among the most vulnerable in their society. In the second phase, the program will expand to include refugees and internally displaced persons.
Mehak hopes that the program will be enriching for both mentors and mentees and will help address the low rate of women in the workforce in Pakistan by empowering participants with marketable skills and training. Her goal is that by 2020, Ibtida will support 600 women, 1,200+ young girls and 30 schools.