Bedari is an organization in Pakistan working to promote and protect the rights of women and girls. The organization’s mission is to empower adolescent girls through education, awareness, and community engagement, enabling them to live free from discrimination and violence. Bedari uses a community-based strategy to foster economic independence and school reintegration for girls.
In rural districts in Pakistan, adolescent girls face multiple structural barriers to continuing secondary education. Such barriers include long distances to school, lack of safe transportation, deep-rooted gender norms, and early marriage. Girls often lack the confidence and negotiation skills to advocate for their education. Communities also do not have many structures like youth groups, parent networks, or school councils that actively promote girls’ education.
With the support of the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund, Bedari will expand its ELEVATE initiative. This two-year initiative will provide 200 bicycles for adolescent girls to help with their commutes to school and increase their confidence and visibility in the community. The project will establish 20 local support groups and provide workshops focused on leadership and advocacy to 200 girls, who will eventually be engaged in initiatives to support out-of-school girls in the community. Girls will also have the opportunity to use their voice and meet education officials and participate in annual conferences.
The project will directly reach 200 and indirectly reach 400 out-of-school girls, in addition to parents and community members. Ultimately, the organization hopes this project becomes a scalable, community-led model for girls’ reintegration into education transforming not just individual lives, but the expectations of entire communities.
To learn more about Bedari, please visit the organization’s website and social media pages:
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