World Children’s Day was first established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. Dastak informal school children celebrated the universal children’s Day on November 20, 2020. The children participated in an Art Competition and created amazing paintings. This year theme was “Togetherness”. Children were also given awareness on their rights.
Dastak collaborated with KEUNE to organize a full day Makeup and Hair Styling workshop for women. Hair and Makeup professionals from KEUNE gave awareness regarding self grooming and care of the skin and hair and also demonstrated makeup and styling techniques. 10 women participated in this workshop.
Dastak organized a training workshop for 11 Lahore based communities. This training focused on the laws and procedures related to Protection, Prevention and Response services related to the cases of Gender Based Violence. It also focused on aspects of gender sensitization and a Human Rights Based Approach towards serving the GBV survivors.
A total of 40 members attended this training. The training was designed in an interactive manner to keep the community members engaged and to also help them understand the information being conveyed to them in a better way. Participants also took part in individual and group activities which were designed to gauge their progress at various stages of the training.
Dastak collaborated with Roshan Rahain, an organization working for children education to organize a session to educate children on safety using music and storytelling. In current times of crisis when horrible and life altering incidents of child abuse are occurring more frequently than ever, there is a immediate need for such educational yet fun programs for children education. Total 11 children participated in this event. They learned to understand the importance of their own safety and to develop a sense of imminent danger and how to react and to take action against it.
The Breast Cancer Awareness Session held on October 22, 2020 at Dastak aimed to educate women about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and its possible treatments. The session was attended by female survivors of domestic violence, who greatly benefited from the session.
The session was conducted by Pink Ribbon, a volunteer-driven organization working in Pakistan for creating awareness about breast cancer. Ms. Sonia Qaiser, began the session by giving overview of breast cancer followed by the screening methods such as self-examination, clinical breast examination and mammogram, and diagnostic procedures of breast cancer. Total 12 women attended this session.
Pioneering lawyer, pro-democracy campaigner and avid civil rights activist Hina Jilani was announced as the recipient of the 2020 Stockholm Human Rights Award – bestowed annually by the Swedish Bar Association, the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC).
Ms Jilani has always been a strong and fearless advocate for women’s rights. She founded Pakistan’s first all-female law firm to provide legal aid to women. The scope of her practice grew to include legal education, research and protection from exploitation. The same year she established the Women’s Action Forum, a campaign group that advocated for women’s rights and challenged the discriminatory laws with which she had grown up. It is most timely to endow Stockholm Human Rights Award to Ms Jilani this year when the UN Women, Peace and Security agenda celebrates it’s twenty year anniversary.
The Stockholm Human Rights Award is given to an individual, and/or organisation, for outstanding contributions to human rights and the rule of law. Last year’s recipients were David Miliband and the humanitarian aid body the International Rescue Committee (IRC) that he heads.
The Award will be presented to Ms Jilani on Monday 30 November 2020 at the Swedish Bar Association, Stockholm, Sweden. An interview with IBA Executive Director Dr Ellis will follow. The event will be livestreamed.
You can read the official press release of the announcement https://www.ibanet.org/Article/NewDetail.aspx?ArticleUid=37a676b9-5d42-4bce-ad26-e5b5a83fd1f3 .
Dastak organized an awareness session on Nutrition and Good Dietary Habits in collaboration with School of Nutrition on September 21, 2020 in Lahore. Dr. Shazia Zahra, Dietician and Board Member of School of Nutrition conducted this session with the survivors of violence. 10 women attended this session.
A 3 day Movement Therapy was organized by Dastak Charitable Trust for the survivors of violence in September, 2020. It was conducted by a certified fitness trainer. 12 women participated in this therapeutic activity.
The session included meditation sessions, comprising of breathing exercises. The session focused on understanding how movement adds to one’s emotional well being and can be a powerful tool for non-verbal communication. The goal was to understand how feelings and life experiences live inside our body and can get trapped there. The body can be the key to unlocking profound levels of healing and recovering.
Women were engaged in different activities including Mirroring activities, Charades, depicting emotions through different styles of walking.
Participants reflected on the importance of how our bodies can say so much, and how we can use movement to communicate what we are feeling.
Dastak Charitable Trust convened a gathering of experts and decision makers to critically discuss and agree on formal linkages that must be established with and between service providers to bring efficiency and consistency in response to GBV survivors, improve quality of service delivery and strengthen interagency coordination across government and non-government sectors.
EGM was attended was attended by Parliamentarians, officials from the Police Department, Social Welfare Department, Health Department, Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, Justice System Support Program Team Lead, and Human Rights of Commission of Pakistan.
Dastak CRU conducted a two-day therapy workshop for the juvenile prisoners in Central Jail Faisalabad in collaboration with Ajoka Theatre on January 11 and 13, 2020.
This workshop aimed at supplementing Dastak’s ongoing Education Program for Children in Prisons that focuses on life skills and social behavior. The purpose of this workshop was to support the reformative process of juvenile prisoners and provide them avenues to channel their energies in a positive direction. Specific objectives of this workshop included:
- Support the reformative process of juvenile prisoners
- Provide them avenues to channel their energies in a positive direction
- Encouraging positive relationships between inmates and with family after release
- Reduce social isolation after release
- Increase self-expression and self-confidence
- Minimize hostile and disruptive behavior
A total of 31 under trial juvenile prisoners participated in the workshop. The workshop comprised of a series of singing exercises including poetry and humor, movement exercises and games including movement with rhythm and music, theatrical Improvisations, group-based games, story-telling including sharing personal histories and developing a story as a group and innovative creative exercises to explore talent and appreciate beauty and nature.