Australia and KASH Foundation Come Together To Address and Raise Awareness On Social Issues
The seven-episode series that went on-air from 13th February aimed to generate discussion and address important social issues, including domestic violence and economic hardships faced by women.
Mr Batley highlighted that empowering women and girls and eliminating violence against women is a top priority of the Australian Government’s Foreign Policy White Paper that sets out the values, priorities, and interests of Australia’s international engagement over the next decade and beyond.
“Violence against women remains one of the key barriers to women’s empowerment and impacts negatively on economic growth. We have a comprehensive multi-year Ending Violence Against Women program that provides support to survivors of gender-based violence in Pakistan. We’re strong advocates for the rights of women and the role of women in the political process,” Mr Batley said.
“Pakistan and Australia have just been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for 2018-2020 and we look forward to working with Pakistan in support of human rights for all of our citizens and for men and women and girls and boys globally,” he added.
"Kashf Foundation has innovatively produced television campaigns that address and raise awareness on important social issues, stimulate dialogue and debate around them and most importantly, convey a message of hope and positivity among viewers. The story lines are based on real life incidences. We are committed to continue projecting heinous social issues in future media campaigns until they are a matter of the past,” said Roshaneh Zafar, Founder and Managing Director of Kashf Foundation.
The director Sarmad Khoosat, scriptwriter Amina Mufti and the cast of ‘Aakhri Station,’ were part of the panel discussion.
“What I tried to achieve with this series was an honest, socially relevant, hard hitting story that provokes thought and brings these issues forward in the public discourse. I believe we were successful in accomplishing our goal through Aakhri Station,” said the director Sarmad Khoosat during the panel discussion.
“Writing Aakhri Station was a profoundly moving and emotional experience for me. These are not just seven stories but seven harsh realities that the society itself must face,” stated Amina Mufti, the writer of Aakhri Station.
Kashf Foundation is Pakistan's first specialized microfinance institution which was created with the aim to alleviate poverty by providing a suite of high quality affordable financial and non-financial services to low income households, especially women, in order to build their capacity and enhance their economic role.