LAHORE:
While educational opportunities have been scarce for gender minorities in Pakistan, a local NGO has stepped in to create an international platform for the development of transgender people in the country. The Gender Guardian (TGG), a non-governmental organization working to train and educate transgender people in Pakistan, has partnered with several foreign NGOs to allow transgender citizens the opportunity to participate in a month-long training program in four different countries.
Trans woman Sania Abbasi, a makeup artist and associated with TGG as a teacher for the past few months, is among the many applicants for the training scholarship. If selected for the coveted programme, Ms Abbasi says she will be proud to be one of Pakistan’s first transgender people sent abroad for training in social work and welfare. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to represent our country on an international platform and I have been working tirelessly to achieve my goals. I can’t wait to work alongside international NGOs. I want to learn from them and also share my personal experiences with the world.”
According to The Gender Guardian (TGG) director Asif Shehzad, his organization is committed to providing equal opportunities to transgender people by providing free vocational training and formal education. “We have taught and trained dozens of transgender people in various skills such as driving, cooking, makeup, sewing, etc. during the last few years. However, through this scholarship, selected participants will be able to share their skills and talent with the world and, for the first time, have access to cultural exchange and international training,” Shehzad said. Speaking further about the scholarship program, Shehzad also reported that The Gender Guardian has been working to compile a digital database of transgender people registered with TGG, as well as other people who donate to the organization. “So far we have partnered with NGOs working in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Using our database, we will select candidates every six months to send to these four countries for month-long training, while people from the same four countries will also have the option to come and train in Pakistan. Our selected candidates will work alongside NGOs in their host country and represent Pakistan internationally,” he explained.
Sania Abbasi believes that this scholarship will allow people around the world to see the skills and talent of Pakistani transgender people, who often tend to be stereotyped as people limited to sex work. “As a gender minority, we have few resources to pursue higher education or travel abroad, so we have very limited job opportunities. However, this scholarship is an opportunity for transgender people to showcase their abilities and break the stereotypes associated with them,” he said.
Published in The Express PAkGazette, June 28th2020.
