STAFF REPORT
ISLAMABAD: Peace and Justice Network (PJN) has launched a ‘National Transgender Fellowship Programme’ for humanitarian response, the first-ever in the history of Pakistan to uplift the transgender community.
This programme aims to empower the transgender community on a large scale at the national level with a prime focus on the inclusion and mainstreaming of the transgender community in flood response and relief to enable them to play a leading role during natural calamities as well as with government and humanitarian organizations.
Under this programme, the Peace and Justice Network (PJN) will enhance the skills and capacity of the transgender community in inclusion flood relief efforts, protection through residential training, humanitarian disaster relief response, and also through district engagement for three months of the selected Transgender Fellows.
Fellowship to ensure transgender inclusion
The fellowship is part of PJN’s national programme “Bridging the Barriers – Inclusion of Transgender Community in Flood Response and Relief” that PJN is implementing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan, and Sindh provinces of Pakistan and federal level. PJN is implementing the programme with the support of the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and Concern Worldwide.
Transgender fellows will be selected in this fellowship programme from thirty-three most flood-impacted districts due to current floods, including Sibi, Pishin, Quetta, and other geographically marginalized areas of Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
During the programme initial study exclusion at all levels of the transgender community has been observed.
