The University of Pennsylvania reports:  Pakistani girls and villagers to take one step forward from poor living conditions into better lives through different development initiatives.  Meher Rehman, University of Pennsylvania senior, is building on a mission she began while still in high school: working to empower women in developing parts of the world through micro-finance projects.

As a young Muslim, Pakistani woman, I hope to be a strong voice for reform in women’s rights in the Middle East and South Asia,” Rehman, who was born in Pakistan and is from Grand Rapids, Mich., told Penn News.  Rehman, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in international relations at Penn, has been involved in work to help vulnerable populations in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia. She says issues of social and economic empowerment of women can be contentious in both countries.  “For me, growing up in these two places, it was always clear how much potential there was for change through women. My friends, their mothers and sisters, all the women I knew had ideas and opinions on what should change,” she says.  As a high school student in Michigan, Rehman founded a non-profit organization to facilitate development projects in rural Pakistan. The organization’s name, One Step Forward, enables Pakistani girls and villagers to take one step forward from poor living conditions into better lives through different development initiatives.

In one program, young women from rural areas in Pakistan receive vocational training at a local center. They learn to sew, bead and make handcrafted pieces that they sell to earn money for themselves and their families. Rehman helped raise thousands of dollars for the women though U.S. sales of their handmade bookmarks.

In the summer of her sophomore year, Rehman worked in an internship in Mumbai, at Dasra, one of India’s leading strategic philanthropic foundations. Rehman worked on projects to addresses sanitation problems in the slums of the city.

The following summer, she helped launch a series of micro-health insurance packages for women, their children and the elderly, as an intern with a leading micro-finance institution in Pakistan.

On campus Rehman has served as co-president of Penn International Business Volunteers, a student-run group that organizes and implements projects for students to consult with non-governmental organizations in developing countries.