©2025 WPHF
“You have to keep going; you have to find hope, pride, and happiness, and feel content when you see a single life changed. We do see that through our work, and that’s what keeps us motivated and going forward. I have days when I want to quit, where I think that’s it. But I also know that if we don’t do this work, then who’s going to do it?”
Fajer Rabia Pasha is the Executive Director of the Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education (PAGE), a civil society organization working to ensure every girl in Pakistan has access to quality education. PAGE has implemented a two-year project, Action for Gender Equity and Socio-Economic Uplift of Displaced Afghan Women and Girls, as part of the WPHF Funding Initiative on Forced Displacement, a collaborative effort between the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
By advocating for policy change and mobilizing resources toward education, PAGE is working to improve the literacy and economic well-being of young women and girls in Pakistan, including those displaced from Afghanistan. With Pakistan raking the fifth largest asylum-seeker hosting country in the world – predominantly sheltering Afghan refugees –this project focuses on uplifting displaced Afghan women and girls by fostering their economic empowerment and overall socio-economic conditions.
Through this initiative, PAGE has reached 600 Afghan children (mostly girls) by offering non-formal education opportunities designed to meet their specific needs. It has also set up 12-week language and culture classes for Afghan women and launched several women’s economic uplift entrepreneurship programs building on the skills of refugee women. Additionally, PAGE has trained 15 civil society organizations on gender-responsive education, strengthening the broader ecosystem supporting displaced women and girls.
Fajer Rabia Pasha (right) presents the latest study by her organization, the Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education (PAGE), to WPHF Head of Secretariat Tonni Brodber (left) during a donor briefing held alongside CSW69. ©2025 WPHF
For Fajer, developing women’s skills in financial management and digital entrepreneurship has a ripple effect – when they can earn an income, they are better equipped to take care of their daughters. Acknowledging the high dropout rate in Pakistan, especially among refugee communities, PAGE is committed to creating long-term impacts by supporting mothers to start businesses and generate their own income – hence ensuring that future generations of girls not only stay in school but also thrive.
When asked about her motivation, Fajer doesn’t shy away from addressing the reality of her situation, revealing the strength and resilience that drive her forward:
“We try to look at the root causes of the issues and address them. You have millions of girls who drop out of school, and then you’re in a cycle of poverty and illiteracy. It just carries on. Within that cycle, these girls grow up with no understanding of their rights… When you see the scope of the challenges – and you know they can be fixed – you realize that women and girls can have a better life.”
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PAGE doesn’t just provide educational opportunities – it also advocates for policy change by liaising with governmental departments, with whom they lobby for gender equality and making sure girls’ education remains a national priority. Its partnership with Pakistan’s Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has led to the creation of the Girls Education Task Force, an urgent initiative focused on implementing much-needed education reforms.
“One of the key things for us has been how we support Afghan girls in Pakistan, especially given the ongoing ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan. We feel it’s our responsibility to ensure that, while they are in Pakistan, they can access education.”
In 2024, Fajer and her organization obtained a grant of 10,000 USD through the Mentorship Scheme of the WPHF Global Learning Hub (L-HUB) to conduct a peer learning project with NOVE, a civil society organization working with Afghan women. Through this partnership, PAGE and NOVE conducted a comprehensive needs assessment and a four-day training course on essential topics such as project design, financial management, reporting, and human resources. The training engaged 28 staff members (including 15 women) from both organizations, with some joining online. NOVE’s team also visited PAGE’s programs on the ground, though some staff members were unable to travel from Afghanistan to Pakistan due to visa challenges. This initiative benefited both organizations, leading them to continue their partnership moving forward.
“We’ve seen huge improvements in terms of reporting, especially among our younger team members, who learned about the financial management aspect of reporting and monitoring and evaluation. We learned how to capture the impact that we’re creating on the ground. We’ve always done great work, but we struggled to showcase it. We usually do not have the funds available to train our team, but the peer-learning grant was the injection we needed.”
The training produced tangible results. Using the proposal development skills gained though the project, NOVE secured a grant of over 54,000 USD to develop a women’s entrepreneurship program in Afghanistan’s baking-sector. This collaboration also marked a milestone for NOVE, as it was their first project in Pakistan.
Looking ahead, PAGE and NOVE now plan to develop more projects in Pakistan, building on the expertise that each organization brought into their peer learning project.
“We are now looking at working together under different programs, and we’ve already applied for a bid together. This goes beyond practical training – it is about building lasting a partnership and sharing knowledge…We learned a lot by sharing experiences and strengthening capacity for both organizations.”
