
Our Work


Fire Community Development & Women Empowerment Project
The Aotearoa Ethnic Communities Trust (AECT) is a non-profit organization. We are working in national and international partnership to promote women empowerment and community development by providing resources and education to become self-supporting.
AECT has been helping poor and marginalized communities in Pakistan via workshops, projects, and training programs to help the women to attain their rights and future aspirations
The Aotearoa Ethnic Communities Trust has successfully built platform in rural Pakistan, to help marginalized and economically disadvantaged women, become self sustaining. The name of this platform is called the Fire Community Development and Women Empowerment Project (FIRE).
This project is established in Pakistani village named Youngsonabad which is located 2-hour drive from the main city Lahore.
Pakistan has a rich cultural heritage. Pakistani people can be very skilled in making handicrafts item (e.g. clothing, jewellery, shoes). FIRE is making use of existing skills and resources working alongside the communities and women of poverty-stricken and remote villages of Pakistan. FIRE is training some village women to take leadership roles in their lives and develop financial sustainability, and learn about micro business management. FIRE is also training the village women basic sewing skills, embroidery, knitting, relationship building, and business skills to establish their own networks within the community and overseas and grow their business skills and experience. FIRE is supporting the women to financially sustain themselves and their families.
The village women come from disadvantaged backgrounds and do not share same privileges' and opportunities like us. The women from the village come from very poor families and do not have the opportunity to go school or start a business. These women eventually get married and most of them become house wives and are responsible for looking after large family units. The males in the household are responsible to construct livelihood through participation in labor market or building farms and spend long hours outside home. These women face challenges and barriers like access to social support, employment, education and are dependent on their husbands for financial support. This can make them vulnerable and can lead to FV and all kids of domestic violence. Sharing their story about abuse or FV is not considered culturally appropriate in the village community so most of women hide their wounds and live on with their lives. This cycle of poverty and abuse ultimately affects their whole families, cultures and generations. FIRE connects with these women and helps them to engage, dream big and offer them support in the form of training, micro-business management, and social support. This allows the women to build trust and open up about their challenges and share their problems and get support. FIRE aims to address complex and overlapping sources of rural poverty by building initiatives to increase wealth, self sufficiency, inclusion and engagement. FIRE is working along side the women to empower them and also trains them to become mentors.
We are also working towards partnering with international and national communities to promote gender equality in marginalized and disadvantaged communities.
FIRE is working towards creating partnership and collaboration with the local and overseas NGOs, government and non-government agencies, and businesses to improve the effectiveness of the project.
Please go to our online store to purchase the products made by the village women to support our project. You can sponsor a training center by donating $80 per month by going to the Sponsor page. Your donation will go towards covering the cost of the project and will help us to overcome the challenges related to reduced staffing , limited resources, equipment and related costs.

Making a Difference One At a Time.
International Delegate & Partnership Programme
We are working with national and international partnership to improve socio-economic marginalization and deprivation for communities and women by creating long term sustainable solutions through the Fire Community Development and Women Empowerment Project in Pakistan. In future we have plans to expand to other regions and countries. We have received positive feedback from the village women and community leaders after the successful completion of one year and we have been asked by the community leaders to expand the project to the surrounding villages (Warburton, Bucheki, Multan) . Moreover 20 more women have enrolled in the FIRE project. We are kindly requesting your donation to support women empowerment project in rural Pakistan.
We are working towards collaborating with people and communities to organize international community development internship programmes to empower and transform communities via education and training.
We are working in partnership with organizations in the profit and non-profit sector with shared vision to facilitate positive attitudes, skill enhancement, and promote successful integration and wellbeing of marginalized communities.
You can also partner with us as part of the FIRE project by going to the Sponsor page by donating $80 dollars per month for 12 months to build one clothing workshop in a village.
We are looking for volunteers who are willing to volunteer abroad to tackle the issues faced by local communities at grass root level to support community transformation. You can support us by registering into the information session. Please go to the Events page to register for the International Delegate and Partnership Programme. Alternatively you can email or call us to get more information about this programme. You can volunteer in our programme and can train the women in the village.
You will receive monthly updates about the workshop. You will also receive one gift (embroidered fabric or hand knitted muffler plus a thankyou card with the picture of the group you are sponsoring created by village people after the completion of 12 months period.
You can also get involved by ordering the products made by the village people by going to the shop online page.
Please email us on:
humayounis@aotearoaethniccommunitiestrust.com to enquire further about the volunteer or partnership programme.
.



Change Starts Within You.
Micro-enterprise Programme.
We are working towards fundraising and seeking collaboration and partnership with other organizations to support poor and marginalized communities in Pakistan to support them to establish micro enterprises (work from home businesses, farms) that are culturally relevant and appropriate to village life. These will contribute to the collective well-being and economic growth of the village as a whole.
Our first focus will be on supporting women in rural Pakistan to start their own sewing businesses from home and support their families. These women will be trained in both business skills and sewing.
You can support one family by going to the Sponsor page to make donation of $120 NZD to purchase a sewing machine. Please donate today by going to Plans and Pricing page.
