With the need for awareness about the girl child becoming an increasing reality we all must acknowledge and support, the Ministry of Human Rights, Government of Pakistan, recently took on an initiative to shed light on supporting the girl child by having a unique approach in changing mindsets across the country.
Marking over 25 years of the International Day of the Girl Child, the ministry through the Huqooq-e-Pakistan Programme, and in collaboration with the European Union, held a launch event on 11th of October in Islamabad, where the idea to paint trucks with imagery of the girl child came to fruition.
“Ministry of Human Rights, Government of Pakistan, stands tall for upholding all constitutionally enshrined rights of the girl child,” said Dr Shireen Mazari, Federal Minister for Human Rights at the event.
The twenty newly painted trucks, which have been inspired by truck art paintings done by Samar Minallah, show a myriad of imagery of the girl child with messages like ‘let me study, I will brighten the future’ on them. These trucks will be travelling across Pakistan to ensure the right message reaches the right audiences throughout the country.
The initiative also aims that by targeting truck art, which is a phenomenon closely connected to the Pakistani socio-cultural fabric, the message will be spread to the places where usually messages of raising awareness of the girl child are unreachable.
“The biggest achievement of this intervention is that Truck owners, Truck drivers and Truck artists own this initiative,” Samar Minallah told the media at the event. “The brightly painted trucks through Pakistan’s indigenous truck art support us in creating awareness as well as amplifying a message to begin advocacy from within the grassroots of Pakistan from the remotest of areas.”
Minallah further added that Hayat Khan, a truck workshop owner, extended excellent cooperation in this regard and played a pivotal role in convincing other truck drivers to change the paintings on their rides.
The launch event, which was attended by over 400 participants, also saw goodwill ambassador and actress, Mehwish Hayat attending the event.
“Let’s pledge to give girls a better brighter future,” Mehwish Hayat said, as the appointed Goodwill Ambassador to the Rights of the Girl Child by the Ministry of Human Rights, in her talk engaging with the participants of the launch event.
The event marked not only the beginning of a new era of the amplification of the rights of the girl child but also as a testament to traditional art forms and the role the can play along with community members like truck owners, drivers and artists to bring change in the society.
Additionally, trucks are like moving billboards, and here, they are becoming vehicles for spreading awareness regarding educating girls. Such initiatives are vital in bridging communication gaps between stakeholders involved and just goes to show that, innovation and good initiatives are becoming part of the Pakistani society.
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