Fellows

Freeha Ihsan has six years of experience in the nonprofit and education sector. She earned her master’s degree in public administration from Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. To tweak her skills further, Freeha obtained her Master of Science with a specialization in management. She has developed expertise in project management, training and development, education, and economic empowerment. Most of her experience is based on projects specially design for underserved communities of Pakistan. As a Program Officer for the USAID funded education and economic empowerment for women project, she proved herself as a valuable team member because of her effective project management and communication skills. She also worked at the Parliament of Pakistan, on projects funded by the British Council & European Union, and with different universities as an educationist. Freeha has collaborated with diverse people, including elected leaders, bureaucrats, and people from underserved communities. Freeha is enthusiastic to help people, and she is always infatuated with opportunities to go out of her comfort zone.

Host Organization: Women’s World Banking

Role at Host Organization: Freeha will join the Women’s World Banking Strategy & Market Solutions teams. She will deliver solutions for the organization and its network member institutions concerning an array of microfinance initiatives including: credit, savings, youth products, financial education and microinsurance.

Hafsah Sarfraz is a development communication professional and a freelance journalist from Islamabad, Pakistan. She has a seven-year experience of journalism has covered social issues, women’s and children issues, education, life & style, and art & culture extensively for leading English newspapers of Pakistan. Hafsah has also reported for The Express Tribune, partner of The International New York Times. As a communications professional, she has worked for USAID’s Public Outreach and Communication Activity for M&C Saatchi World Services, a global London based advertising firm. Through this experience, she developed strong communication skills, storytelling, and digital media skills. She was awarded for her continued resourcefulness, proactive teamwork to highlight USAID’s work through storytelling using print publications and digital media. She has also led the communications for USAID Advancing Girls’ Education and Skills at World Learning, an international nonprofit organization that focuses on international development, education, and exchange programs. Hafsah is a graduate of the Queen Mary University of London. She is a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum. Hafsah likes to travel, tell stories, photograph and indulge in delicious food.

Host Organization: Cultural Vistas

Role at Cultural Vistas At Cultural Vistas, Hafsah will execute integrated communications and PR initiatives that raise public awareness of the organization’s exchange programs. She will work with the Senior Director of External Affairs to implement publicity and thought leadership campaigns designed to highlight Cultural Vistas’ role in helping shape the future of work and promote the annual awards gala in New York.

Hira Tauqeer is a Project Management Professional. She has worked as a Resident Administrative and Project Officer with the NDI office in Islamabad, Pakistan. In this role she has used her well-honed organizational and communication skills to make a positive contribution to Political Parties Development Program. She also utilizes her master training, leadership, team building and personnel management skills to benefit the program. She is adventurous, loves challenges, and believes in lifelong learning. She is flexible, creative, and loves to work in teams. . Currently, Hira is working with the Senior Project Manager of Training Fellowship Program. In this role she is a master trainer to train young members of political parties to assist them with leadership, political organizing, communication and public speaking skills. During her university life, she organized workshops and seminars, and she managed events. Hira organized an International Applied Business research conference for her university. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance and a Master’s degree in Project Management from Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology. She has written a number of research papers including “Conflict among global virtual teams” and “Mentoring”. She is fluent in English and Urdu.

Host Organization:  Making Cents International

 Role at Host Organization: Hira will be supporting the full cycle development and implementation of Making Cents’ annual Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit. She will support the execution of a thoughtful and well-planned industry-leading Summit, which in 2016 will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. She will also YouthEconomicOpportunities.org learning hub and webinar series, which leverage relationships and content from the Summit and provides a learning platform that strengthens the youth economic opportunities field.

Lamia has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Marketing from NUST Business School in Pakistan. Currently, Lamia works as a Grants Writer with IOM within their Pakistan Transition Initiative project in Pakistan under the USAID/OTI project to strengthen government-community relations and improve the socioeconomic status of communities in conflict-prone areas of Pakistan. She supervises grant closing, reviews final evaluation report and oversees donor and independent monitoring unit queries. Previously, Lamia worked with a capacity building organization on a mission to create change-makers who promote socio-economic transformation. Lamia has a preceding background in Microfinance. She worked with a prestigious roster of clients including ADB, UNIDO, UNDP, ILO, and the Government of Pakistan. She has had the opportunity to focus on multiple thematic areas, including community development, youth empowerment, livelihood and enterprise development, gender sensitization and mainstreaming, institutional development and good governance. Lamia was able to acquire project design, project implementation and management, curriculum design and training cycle management, monitoring and evaluation, documentation and report writing, and client coordination that enhanced her leadership skills.

Host Organization: World Vision International

 Role at Host Organization: Lamia will coordinate and expand a global, multi-agency network of facilitators and organisations using a unique internationally recognized conflict analysis tool called ‘Making Sense of Turbulent Contexts’ (MSTC). She will manage network communications and resources, while making a key contribution to strategic planning and resource development for future network growth.

Mahwish Javaid is a women entrepreneur, and an aspiring lawyer. She has six years of experience in nonprofit sector, and earned a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Reproductive Physiology from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Mahwish studied effects of hormonal contraceptives and stress on reproductive health of women in Pakistan for her thesis. She joined UN Women in March 2014, as Project Officer; specifically, she worked on Gender Training and Capacity Building under the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) program funded by United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS), in Sindh. Along with the International Labour Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, she helped to improve livelihoods of 2500 landless peasant women and 2000 informal women workers by enhancing access to social security services, food security, land tenancy agreements, and income generating opportunities. She supervised activities for disaster risk reduction, sanitation, and onsite trainings for gender mainstreaming, numeric literacy among women, and first aid in 120 villages. Her job profile encapsulated skills of project coordination, policy advocacy, women’s entrepreneurship, and capacity building to realize the goals of the program. Mahwish has been winner of national essay writing competition, and debate competitions and has also held leadership positions in the Scientific Academic Society, Quaidian Intellectual Forum, and Literary and Debating Society, respectively, in her university. She hopes not only to be a skilled social entrepreneur herself, but also to develop a successful model which can be replicated at macro-scale.

Host Organization: Concern Worldwide

Role at Host Organization: Mahwish will utilize her background in business, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship by supporting efforts of the Innovations team to sustain and expand programs with a specific focus on the Maker Hub for Maternal and Newborn Health in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sihah is young tech entrepreneur from Pakistan, equipped with a strong command of business with a track record of proven success. She completed her graduation in Business Administration and IT Management in 2009. She was recently selected among top ten female entrepreneurs in Pakistan by “Be Your Own Boss” – online blog. She is first female graduate of Founder Institute Pakistan, also awarded as ‘Top Founder’ from Founder Institute Islamabad. She loves adventure sports, she was the president of the sports club and Chief Editor at her university. Her entrepreneurial journey began when she launched Solugix (www.solugix.com) in 2013, providing IT solutions to small and medium companies worldwide. Her first company is successfully running and funding her second startup Rise Mom (www.risemom.com). Rise Mom is established to empower working mothers, it assist working women by keeping them remotely connected with their children while they are at work. She have been participating in diverse panels as a panelist, at UNIDO, UNICEF, Higher Education Commission, U.S. Embassy, Startup Expo, National Incubation Center, Founder Institute etc, and have been the speaker to multiple local, and national events. She was selected among 5 delegates from Pakistan to represent her country in Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2018, in Hyderabad, India and her story was covered by Daccan Chronicle, most read newspaper in major states of India and siasat.com, BBC Urdu, and couple of other newspapers. Her name was mentioned by Govt of Pakistan in the video tribute to young female entrepreneur in Pakistan on women’s day 2018. More generally, Sihah aspires to promote female entrepreneurship in Pakistan and empower working mothers. She dreamed of building a company of her own from a young age and with its’ fulfillment she now aims to continue managing startups, mentoring founders and inspiring women to be independent and self-sufficient.

Host Organization: Enterprise Center

Role at Host Organization: Sihah will develop, design, and deliver cross-functional collaboration and partnership content for The Grit Life, an entrepreneurial focused internet radio station. She will assist in the execution of small business development communication strategies for internal and external outreach, working off of the organizations three pillars – business, capital and community.