ISLAMABAD, Dec 11 (APP): Peace and Justice Network (PJN) has launched a ‘National Transgender Fellowship Programme’ for humanitarian response, a first ever in the history of Pakistan to uplift transgender community.
This programme aims to empower the transgender community on a large scale at the national level with a prime focus on the mainstreaming and inclusion of the transgender community in flood relief and response so that they can play a leading role during disasters as well with government and humanitarian organizations.
Under this programme, the Peace and Justice Network (PJN) will enhance the capacity and skills of the transgender community in humanitarian disaster relief response, inclusion flood relief efforts, and protection through residential training and also through three months of district engagement of the selected Transgender Fellows. The fellowship is part of PJN’s national programme that PJN is implementing in all four provinces and federal level “Bridging the Barriers – Inclusion of Transgender Community in Flood Relief and Response” that PJN is implementing with the support of the Concern Worldwide and USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).
In this fellowship programme, transgender fellows will be selected from 33 most flood-affected districts due to current floods, including Pishin, Quetta, Sibi, and other geographically marginalized areas of Balochistan, Sindh, KP, and Punjab as during the programme preliminary study it has been observed that the transgender community has been excluded at all level. The transgender community felt that if a proper chance has been given to them and proper training have been provided to them they could have played a very productive role in collaboration with government departments to support their fellow transgender community who have been affected greatly due to recent floods.
Syed Raz Ali, PJN’s CEO and the Convener PJN’s National Transgender Taskforce on Floods Relief & Response, stated that this fellowship programme first of its kind in the world will provide a great opportunity for the transgender community to play a mainstream role and it will also help them ensure their inclusion with dignity.
Advocate Faiza Farooq – Director PJN, said that I believe transgender people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, and skillful by all means, and through this programme, I believe we are building a long history, and this I encourage all the Trans community from the grass root to become part of this fellowship.
In recent floods, we have seen that government emergency response preparedness didn’t include the transgender community in their response strategy. They have not been included in the distribution of shelter, health services, and food, and as such, were unable to receive vital supplies. Also, there is no data available on how many transgender has been provided flood relief services. This fellowship programme will help the fellows act as change agents to bridge the gaps between the transgender community and humanitarian actors such as government and national and international organizations.
The grassroots level transgender community lauded PJN, the Concern World Wide and USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) for launching this programme and stressed that government, international, and national humanitarian organizations should include transgender populations in flood relief response.
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