Umeed Schools
In Pakistan, Umeed Partnership provides education at all levels, regardless of caste, creed, or gender. The literacy rate among the communities Umeed serves is among the lowest in the world. In urban areas, these communities live on the fringes of cities in impoverished slums, while in rural regions, they reside outside main villages and towns, with no access to basic infrastructure or development services. These communities often lack schools, healthcare, sanitation, roads, and social facilities.
To address this dire need, Umeed established two middle schools for Dalit and other highly disadvantaged communities in the Cholistan Desert, District Bahawalpur, Southern Punjab—an area with a 100% illiteracy rate at the time. In 2007, a middle school was launched in Village 18/BC, Bahawalpur, followed by another in 2009 in Village 52/DB, Yazman. Both schools continue to provide quality education to approximately 300 students, including both girls and boys.
The operational costs of these schools are fully funded by Umeed Partnership Pakistan, as the students and their families are unable to contribute financially toward their education.
Adult Literacy Program (ALP)
In 2014, Umeed signed a contract with the Pakistan Bible Society (through the Australian Bible Society) to run an Adult Literacy Program for illiterate women and girls in the provinces of Punjab and Baluchistan. The program provides participants with basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Each session lasts for nine months, and each center serves 20 to 25 illiterate women and girls. Classes are held daily for 2 to 3 hours, except on Sundays. During each session, Umeed operates 60 to 80 centers across Punjab and Baluchistan. At the end of each session, successful participants are awarded certificates during graduation ceremonies.
Socioeconomic Empowerment through skills training and business development
Umeed operates various skills training centers—such as embroidery, tailoring, cultural shoe making, computer training, and decoration piece making—across different districts of Punjab and Baluchistan, specifically targeting women/girls and street children from displaced and highly disadvantaged families. Each center trains 20 to 25 women/girls and street children.
Each training center is managed by a trainer and a supervisor and operates for 3 hours daily, except on Sundays. The training programs run for a duration of 9 to 12 months.
Due to cultural and security concerns, most centers are set up in the homes of teachers or trainers, or in spaces arranged by them. These individuals are responsible for recruiting students, providing a training venue, and safeguarding tools, machines, and materials throughout the training period. This approach allows training to be delivered directly at the beneficiaries’ doorstep.
The training focuses on modern, innovative strategies that are more attractive, comfortable, productive, impactful, and profitable. As a result, the targeted women/girls and street children are able to enhance their individual talents and skills. Upon completion of the program, Umeed provides participants with essential tools and materials, enabling them to enter the production phase—starting small businesses at home in the trades they have learned.
Early or Child Marriages
In Pakistan, early or child marriages occur due to extremely weak legislation, poor enforcement of existing laws, the treatment of children as commodities or slaves, the tribal and feudal structure of society, and a general lack of public awareness about the harmful effects of child marriage. Additional contributing factors include extreme poverty, internal trafficking, an ineffective and unresponsive birth registration system, and a lack of political will within the government.
Birth registration—especially for girls—is rarely prioritized, which allows for manipulation of a child’s age at the time of marriage. Moreover, there are no centralized, independent, and robust child rights bodies to monitor violations, including those related to child marriage.
Umeed works with women and children in some of the most marginalized communities, particularly in the tribal areas of Baluchistan and the rural and slum areas of Punjab. Through awareness programs, skills training, adult education, and the operation of schools, Umeed empowers parents and their daughters to resist child marriage, recognizing that the long-term consequences of early marriage can be devastating.
Physical, Psychological, and Digital Security Training
On December 16, 2014, a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar resulted in the tragic loss of 149 lives, including 132 schoolchildren. Similar attacks were also carried out in other institutions across the country. In response, the Government of Pakistan issued an official notification directing all institutions to implement strict security measures. These included constructing high boundary walls topped with barbed wire, installing security cameras and walk-through gates, deploying armed security guards with metal detectors, and hiring snipers to monitor the premises.
As a result, a pervasive atmosphere of panic and fear spread across educational and institutional settings. To cope with the situation, the staff and administration of various institutions—particularly human rights defenders working in the field—required physical, psychological, and digital security training.
In response to this urgent need, Umeed promptly formed and trained a dedicated team to provide security training to human rights defenders, institutional staff, and administrators, particularly in Punjab. So far, Umeed has trained hundreds of individuals and institutions, equipping them with the tools and techniques necessary to face unpredictable and potentially dangerous situations.
Psycho-social support, self-care, wellbeing and mental health training
Pakistan is frequently affected by large-scale natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes, pandemics like COVID-19 and terrorism which impact millions of people across the country. These disasters often lead to depression, anxiety, fear, mental health issues, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), especially among women and children who are particularly vulnerable.
It has been observed that government departments, response teams, and organizations working in affected areas and communities tend to focus primarily on physical needs, often neglecting the psychological and mental health needs of the people. As a result, many individuals experience severe trauma, stress, and anxiety. Some lose loved ones, others their businesses or jobs. Many face divorce, limited mobility, domestic violence, torture, the discontinuation of their children’s education, or the loss of dowries. Early marriages of minor girls also increase. These compounded issues significantly affect their mental, physical, and psychological well-being.
Umeed has a qualified team that conducts awareness and support sessions for people overwhelmed by stress, trauma, pain, stigma, discrimination, abuse, restrictions, poverty, and social marginalization. These sessions provide participants with solace, relief, comfort, joy, and a renewed sense of hope.
Interfaith harmony and Peace building
Due to sectarianism and extremism, the ideals of coexistence, peaceful pluralism, respect for diversity, and human rights have become increasingly difficult to achieve in Pakistani society. Intolerance, hatred, discrimination, human rights violations, hostility, prejudice, gender inequality, and religious strife are on the rise.
The struggle for peaceful coexistence and justice requires both a human rights-based approach and a community-based approach—one that fosters the restoration of personal relationships among people of different faiths and ethnicities.
Interfaith women’s groups and interfaith peace committees are being formed and trained by UPP to strengthened their resilience against escalation and violence and better equip them to contribute to local peacebuilding efforts, including community conflict mediation and reconciliation during emerging incidents.
Additionally, community volunteers are being selected and trained to provide paralegal aid to victims of violence and human rights violations. UPP also supports court cases to facilitate access to justice for religious minority and women victims of rights abuses through coordinated efforts with lawyers and the police.
Umeed works with women through skills training, adult education, school programs, women’s human rights training, interactive public debates through stage performances, and the formation of women’s human rights and peace committees. Through these activities, Umeed promotes interfaith harmony, peacebuilding, and a “dialogue of life” among women of all faiths.
Umeed believes that women are powerful agents of peace and dialogue. When women from both minority and majority communities develop mutual understanding and respect, they have the potential to transform the atmosphere within their homes and communities.
Human Rights Training
Human rights training is an essential component of every initiative and activity undertaken by Umeed Partnership Pakistan. Through seminars, training sessions, socioeconomic empowerment programs, and advocacy meetings, Umeed prepares women to raise their voices and advocate for their rights. Women are encouraged and empowered to engage with policymakers and law enforcement agencies, urging them to promote and protect women’s human rights.
Umeed applies a rights-based approach across all its activities to address women’s human rights. It also tackles the issue of violence against women by investing in prevention and support mechanisms, and by enabling women to participate socially, economically, and in decision-making processes within their families and communities.
Gender based Violence and torture
In Pakistan, especially in rural areas, women face extremely difficult and often miserable conditions. The feudal system, weak law enforcement, lack of awareness due to illiteracy, a male-dominated society, and extreme poverty are among the major factors contributing to crimes and violence against women. Domestic violence is widespread, and acts such as acid attacks, burnings, killings, rape, and physical abuse are unfortunately common. Most of these cases go unreported in the media, and women often have no independent access to the police or judiciary.
Customary practices such as Watta Satta, Karo Kari, and Vani are still imposed in the name of “honor,” which is perceived to reside with men. Women suffer abuse both within their homes—often at the hands of male family members—and outside, facing sexual harassment, forced labor, torture, abduction, rape, forced religious conversions, and forced marriages, often perpetrated by landlords or their associates.
Umeed Partnership Pakistan (UPP) empowers women through education and skills training, helping them achieve financial independence by starting small businesses and breaking free from male domination and economic dependency. Legal aid is also provided to help women access police and judicial systems to seek justice. Cases involving violence or abuse are addressed through a referral system or by providing direct legal assistance.
Promoting Democratic Process among women/girls
Pakistan’s deeply rooted cultural conservatism means that many women continue to be marginalized in the political sphere. Social attitudes toward women’s roles in public life and their political participation remain limited. Political empowerment for women is still constrained by societal norms that prioritize male-dominated leadership structures, especially in rural areas.
Umeed Partnership Pakistan (UPP) is committed to fostering a more inclusive, equitable, and empowered society in Pakistan—one where women can actively engage in democratic and social progress. Umeed aims to increase political participation and leadership, particularly among rural women, and to bring about a shift in the mindset of the male population regarding women’s political, social, and economic rights and empowerment.
UPP consistently focuses on empowering women and girls in Pakistan by enhancing their socioeconomic and political awareness. The organization works toward a measurable increase in the number of women holding leadership positions in local councils, committees, and political parties; participating in elections as candidates, voters, or election observers; attending political forums, meetings, political literacy programs, and civic education workshops; and engaging in community decision-making processes.
Freeing Families from the Bondage of Slavery and the Debt Trap
Umeed Partnership Pakistan (UPP) works to break the cycle of slavery and indebtedness by providing formal education to children of families working at brick kilns and on landlords’ farms, as well as adult literacy programs for their family members. UPP offers skills training for women and girls to help them become entrepreneurs and start their own small businesses, promoting economic independence.
The organization also promotes health and hygiene among both women and men, and conducts health screening camps for brick kiln workers, farm laborers, and their families. Additional support includes debt repayments in the form of cash assistance, facilitation in acquiring Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) for adults, birth registration for children, and access to legal services.
To support mental well-being, UPP provides psychosocial support, self-care education, and well-being initiatives aimed at helping laborers cope with stress, anxiety, burnout, and trauma.
The overall goal is economic development through education and skills training, enabling families enslaved at brick kilns and farms to achieve self-reliance by launching small businesses and ultimately freeing themselves from the bondage of slavery and the debt trap.
Forced Faith Conversion
Minority girls and women in Pakistan are among the most vulnerable, defenseless, and marginalized members of society. They are frequently exposed to harassment and threats. Alarmingly, 75% of girls who are abducted and forcibly converted are under the age of 18. However, they often struggle to prove their age in court or at police stations due to the lack of legal documentation. In many cases, the opposing party presents false birth certificates to falsely claim that the girl is not a minor.
Umeed Partnership Pakistan provides free legal aid to women who are survivors of abduction, forced conversion, rape, and forced marriage. Through seminars, human rights training, and advocacy, women are empowered to collectively raise their voices and assert their rights.
By raising awareness and sharing information, communities are encouraged to obtain legal documents and are empowered to approach the police, judiciary, and hospital medical staff to register their cases and seek justice. Advocacy campaigns are also being conducted with law enforcement agencies to promote and protect women’s human rights.
Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation
The prime goal of the organization is to assist the suffering masses, prey of natural and human disasters and calamities. These masses are assisted through emergency relief and then carried on the work of rehabilitation.
Transgender Community
Umeed provides support to the transgender community in addressing both psychological and health-related issues. The organization holds motivational sessions to uplift their morale, restore their sense of dignity and respect, and offers counseling for their physical and psychological challenges. Transgender individuals are among the most vulnerable groups in society, and Umeed is committed to standing by them with compassion and care.
Youth talent development
Umeed runs sports clubs and street theatre for youth talent development.
Research and Publication
While working in the field and at the grassroots level, Umeed conducts research among its beneficiaries on various social issues affecting their families and communities. Umeed has already published several research papers and articles in national and international magazines and journals. It has also published a number of books based on field research and data collection. These publications include success stories, lessons learned, and the challenges faced by the communities that Umeed serves.