I am delighted to write the opening of this PAWA Quarterly Newsletter as the new Chair of PAWA Trustees. A huge thank you to Azlinda Ariffin, our outgoing chair for her leadership and for her ongoing involvement as Governance Trustee. We also welcome Richard Timmins as our new Finance Trustee and thank My Phuong Lecocq and Mei SIm Lai for all their support over the years. 

PAWA was built on individual commitment and passion for the power of education in changing lives. As we have grown, we have benefited from much experience and wisdom along the way. To tap into this experience, we have formed a PAWA Honorary Council. Council members are previous trustees and founding members who have much to give and for us to learn from. I am grateful for their ongoing guidance as I take PAWA forward as the new Chair. 

You can learn more about the PAWA Trustees and the Honorary Council on our website. 

This is an exciting time for PAWA as we approach our 15th year anniversary. We hope to see many of you at our celebratory Open House on October 11, which is also the International Day of the Girl. Additionally, we are really pleased that once again we have the opportunity to raise more funds through the BIG GIVE match funding programme. Join us in this fund raising campaign and help us double the funds we raise. 

We celebrate our 15th year milestone as a celebration of the number of teenage girls lives we have changed through the chance to remain at school. This happens through the hard work of all our volunteers. We will be featuring some of our volunteers through the year and in this issue, learn about what drives Elizabeth St.Clair George to give her time and energy to PAWA. 

September is when we confirm our funding commitment to our projects. We have confirmed our continued support to existing projects as well as 2 new ones;  Nepal Jesuit Society and Children of Mekong. The latter is our first project in the Philippines. 

Enjoy reading this edition to catch up on PAWA news. 

See you at our PAWA@15 celebrations!

Clare with the OneSky Foundation team in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, where
PAWA supports 125 girls

With PAWA’s match-funded campaign for floating schools in Bangladesh Going live on October 10th!

This year, we are raising funds for the Learning for Life project in the Kishoreganj region of Bangladesh, which offers an innovative solution for girls unable to travel from their villages to schools due to excessive flooding and unsafe conditions — the schools come to them. These floating schools travel across flooded areas to provide education and life skills training and support to adolescent girls. PAWA has been supporting the project since 2019, and with your donations and the doubled impact of BIG GIVE’s match funding, we can provide more girls with the opportunity to access an education. During the week of the campaign, ask your friends and family to donate directly, or become a PAWA Champion and create your own fundraising event! Get in touch with your ideas and keep an eye out for the link we will be sending you from BIG GIVE!

Come celebrate with us on October 11th! Only a few spaces left so get your ticket now at

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pawa15-open-house-tickets

PAWA supports Karuna Trust in their work for teenage girls in India with local partners Nishtha and Nirman in West Bengal and Pune respectively. We were very happy to receive this inspiring story about one of the PAWA girls.

Supriya lives in extreme poverty with her parents in a single room hut. Her father is a daily wage labourer who struggles to provide for their needs. Supriya joined a study group within the project and has show enormous determination in her studies. As can often happen, her father was considering early marriage, not believing that education could make a difference to her life, but the project stepped in and he was persuaded to let her continue at school.

Supriya came 565 out of 750 in the end of year Class 10 examinations, and she now aspires to enter the Science Stream in Higher Secondary and to go onto study Medicine. One day Supriya hopes to provide healthcare to her community and family. Her father has come to understand the critical importance of her education, not only to his daughter but to the welfare of his whole family.

PAWA Communications volunteer Elizabeth Gregory talks to Elizabeth St. Clair George about her journey with PAWA.

There are few people better placed to talk about PAWA’s journey than Lizzie, one of the founding members of the team. 

Lizzie has spent her career focusing on education, working as a librarian, and later as a director of a culinary school. Raised in India until she was 11, she has travelled widely: her husband’s work took her to Malaysia and Indonesia which is where her interest in the region really developed. 

Her interest in books, learning and culture made her an obvious collaborator; in the early days of PAWA she was one of the first people founders Zehan and Betty reached out to for help. 

“Zehan and Betty were totally inspiring in that first year when they were setting this up,” says Lizzie, speaking over the phone as the team gears up for its PAWA15 celebrations. 

“I think one of the strengths of PAWA is that it isn’t a big charity,” she says. “It helps in small ways, and quite often that’s very telling and rewarding and productive: because we help them in small ways, it’s easy to see the difference we make.” 

Over the last 15 years, as Lizzie raised her children and ran a business, her work with PAWA evolved. But since retiring in 2018, Lizzie has led some of PAWA key projects: Home of Peace in Malaysia and Hope for Girls in Bangladesh. She has travelled to Kuala Lumpur to meet team members and some of the students supported by PAWA. 

“The first year that I got Home of Peace, I was able to go out to Malaysia and meet everybody. That connection was wonderful,” says Lizzie. “I met Justine [the director of the residential care home] and the girls. 

PAWA funds Bahasa Malaysia lessons for the home’s 14 residents, and has recently started funding history lessons too. Home of Peace is a unique project: Justine works with social services in Malaysia and takes in abandoned girls – and lately, one twin boy too. 

“She looks after them as if they are her children,” says Lizzie. “All the girls in the home are home-schooled. Justine has a team of teachers who come in and teach them the whole curriculum.” 

Home of Peace has been a resounding success, and, explains Lizzie, “Just recently they’ve been able to send the first girl to university in Hungary, to study viticulture and oenology, with the support of living costs from PAWA’s SJMF fund. I mean, here is a little girl who was abandoned as a baby, and Justine took her in, schooled her, gave her a home, and now she’s a wonderful 19-year-old girl.” 

Lizzie reflects on her decades-long work with PAWA: “It’s the chance to give something that makes a difference, and to see a progression of these people, these girls, and the difference it makes to their lives.” 

“What I’m happy about, excited about, committed to, is the fact that it’s quite a unique charity. I like the smallness of it. I like the familiarity of it. I like that us project leaders get close to, and work with, specific people. Big charities are frightening sometimes – and they lose sight of what they’re doing. But I think PAWA will never do that.” 

Looking to PAWA’s next 15 years, Lizzie is excited about a new impact study initiative, which aims to follow some of the girls PAWA has helped. “Finally, we might be able to see what happens to these girls, the sort of life that they live and the things that they achieve,” she says.

Lizzie with PAWA-supported girls at Home of Peace in Malaysia

After much consideration, I have decided to retire as Chair of PAWA, effective 1st July 2024. It has been a great honour to serve in this role and work alongside such dedicated individuals who are passionate about supporting women and girls in Asia.

I am delighted to announce that Ms Clare Muhiudeen has been appointed as the new Chair of PAWA, effective 1st July 2024. Clare has been a valuable member of the PAWA team for many years and I am confident that she will lead the organisation with grace, compassion, and dedication.

Additionally, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Richard Timmins as the new Treasurer and Finance Trustee, also effective 1st July 2024. Richard brings a wealth of financial expertise to the role and I have full confidence in his ability to ensure the financial stability and growth of PAWA. He will be assisted by Ms Shwe, who will be joining PAWA as the new Assistant Treasurer.

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the retirement of Ms Mei Sim Lai as Finance Trustee. Mei Sim will be joining the PAWA Honorary Council on 1st July 2024, where her contributions will continue to be valued and appreciated.

Furthermore, I would like to inform you of the retirement of Ms Asmihan Ibrahim as Honorary Secretary in May. We are grateful for Ash’s dedication and service to PAWA. I am pleased to announce that Ms Miriam Earley has been appointed as the new Honorary Secretary and will be taking over the role with effect from May. Last but not least, a heartiest thank you to Ms Jessica Ma – who retired from her role as Co-Treasurer in late April – for all her contributions to PAWA.

The official launch of the PAWA Honorary Council will be announced at the PAWA@15 Open House in October 2024. This council will be comprised of esteemed individuals who have made significant contributions to PAWA and will continue to support our mission in various capacities.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering support of PAWA. Your generosity has enabled us to make a meaningful impact on the lives of women and girls in Asia. I have every confidence that under Clare’s leadership, PAWA will continue to thrive and achieve even greater success.

Thank you once again for your commitment to our cause. I look forward to seeing the positive impact that PAWA will continue to make in the years to come.

Warm regards,
Azlinda Ariffin-Boromand
Chair, PAWA

PAWA is undertaking a major impact evaluation programme to evidence how supporting educational opportunities for disadvantaged girls improves their life chances.  It is a complex piece of work which runs across seven countries, several kinds of projects, and remote areas with poor connectivity.  

The programme has now reached a significant milestone as it went live this past autumn with three projects.  These were Ponheary Ly Foundation in Cambodia, Home of Peace in Malaysia and Aruna Bhawan in Nepal. In addition to these, our projects with Learning for Life in Bangladesh, One Sky Foundation, Thailand and Care Pakistan will come on stream by August. We delivered questionnaires, translated into Bangladeshi, Urdu, and Thai, on an electronic system to log girls’ attitudes and aspirations at the beginning of their learning which will then be followed up with another questionnaire when they leave.

We are very grateful to the project coordinators and to the project leaders and their teams for taking on this extra work and for responding so positively.  As with all new processes there are snags and everyone has made considerable efforts to enable the system within the local context.  We are currently reviewing the operation to identify possible improvements.

The system is anonymised and voluntary so not all the girls will have responded but this first set of responses show encouraging patterns.  It is early days, of course, but the majority of respondents are first in family learners, and there are high levels of confidence, ambition to go to university, interest in STEM subjects, and the desire to be independent, which are all positive signs.

PAWA Impact Team — Phyllis Hatfull, Nina Ariff, Viv Wylie

Learning for Life girls, Bangladesh

Graduating class from Ponheary Ly Dormitory, Cambodia

Mark your calendars! We kick off our 15th anniversary celebrations on October 11th — which is also the International Day of the Girl — with an Open House at Asia House. Do join us as we celebrate the thousands of girls in Asia whose lives have been changed through PAWA’s work and raise a glass to an even more impactful future.

The week of the International Day of the Girl will also be a fundraising week for us so please give generously. Details on how you can donate will follow.

The celebrations continue into 2025 – the Annual Meeting early in the year will be an opportunity to assess where we are after 15 years, followed a couple of months later by the much anticipated PAWA Walk. Watch this space!

The Thai ambassador HE Mr Thongphakdi and Mrs Thongphakdi very generously opened the embassy to host a lunch to say thank you to PAWA’s Patrons and Benefactors.

Most guests in the room were loyal donors who have been supporting PAWA for over a decade. Guests were welcomed with an elegant Thai dance, followed by speeches given by the Ambassador and PAWA’s Chair, Azlinda Ariffin.

A second performance, a Thai folk dance, preceded a sumptuous buffet, especially prepared by the Ambassador’s private chef from the residence.

It was a special occasion for PAWA donors to meet and mingle.  The lunch was also attended by Ambassadors’ wives from Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia and ministers and counsellors from the Thai Embassy.

Wonderful afternoon at the Thai Embassy

St James’s Place hosted a James Bond themed gala at the Iconic Images Gallery and we were delighted they chose PAWA as one of the three beneficiary charities.

Celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee are in full swing all over the UK, infusing a note of joy into a country grappling with difficult times. But we know that there are many for whom the challenges are far greater. The teenage girls supported by PAWA face numerous hardships and it is only through education that they have the opportunity to better their futures. The stories featured below of the two girls from One Sky Foundation are a testament to that reality.

This year, in lieu of our Annual Walk, PAWA’s Development Committee has launched a series of guided Discovery Walks to reconnect our supporters and raise funds for our projects. Read Mandy’s message for details, and do join us on a ramble!

And finally, we are delighted to welcome a new member of the PAWA family — Olivia Dixon-Pozas, born on May 13th to parents Blanca and Mark. Blanca has been PAWA’s Mailchimp Administrator for several years. Congratulations!!

Wishing you all a wonderful summer,

Kamalakshi Mehta
Chair of Communications

It’s the start of summer in London, flowers are blooming and the sun is shining. The usual hustle and bustle is back after more than two years of disruption due to Covid. This is the perfect time to restart the PAWA Walks and to reconnect with our supporters in person. 

The first of our PAWA Discovery Walks was held on 27th May and it was a great success! One of our supporters absolutely loved it – ‘I just wanted to say again how much I enjoyed the PAWA walk on Friday. It was such fun, so interesting and a lovely opportunity to chat to people on the way. The delicious tea back at your hotel was the highlight.’ We hope you will join us for one — or all — of the other walks.

Our next walk is on 12th June in St. James with Karen where we will explore the shops with royal warrants, gentlemen’s clubs, palaces and their links to espionage.   We only have 5 places left so book now to make sure you don’t miss out!

The United Kingdom is celebrating the longest serving monarch in the country’s history and we are also joining in the fun by organizing the Platinum Jubilee Through the Decades Virtual Tour On 23rd June at 12 noon. It promises to be a journey through London from post war 1950s to the current day, Queen Elizabeth II has seen it all. There is a Q&A section after the Virtual Walk. Please do join us on this celebratory virtual walk and here is the preview of the Virtual Tour: https://youtu.be/lgRjCzh55SQ

Our last walk for this series is on the 2nd July, which delves into the secret nooks within the City of London and reveals hidden gardens. I can’t wait to join this walk myself!

In this turbulent world, the role of women is vital and educating them has never been more important.  We need your support in our work of funding the education of disadvantaged teenage girls in Asia, so please donate generously. We are looking forward to seeing you at our walks and thank you in advance.

You can sign up for the walks at
https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/pawa-discovery-walks-2022-charity-fundraiser-308999

Mandy Chiu
Chair, PAWA Development Committee 

The first of the PAWA Discovery Walks was a huge success. Glorious weather and a wonderful guide made this romp through Kensington thoroughly enjoyable! The walk was followed by Prosecco and cakes at the London Lodge Hotel — a great way to kick off the Platinum Jubilee week! 

PAWA marked a return to in-person events with a panel discussion on March 23 at the Nehru Centre which brought together three amazing entrepreneurs in the food and drinks space.

From left to right: Nisha Katona, founder of Mowgli Street Food; Judy Joo, celebrity chef and TV host; Tina Chen, founder of HumaniTea; Kamalakshi Mehta of PAWA.

One Sky Foundation, Thailand

Tharee Khantinitikul

Tharee received a scholarship from PAWA for 2 years as her parents. Earlier, she had made money by selling paintings for school lunches but this kept her from studying. On days when she couldn’t sell paintings, she had to skip lunch and drink milk instead. Her scholarship helped her move forward, and after she graduated Grade 12, her artistic talent earned her a quota for studying at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Silpakorn University, Thailand’s most prestigious art University. She dreams of becoming an art teacher at a poor school in the mountains where there is no art taught.

I am glad that PAWA has helped lighten the burden because this scholarship given to me has taken away all my financial worries. It gives me more time to study because I don’t have to draw a lot to sell to earn money and do not have to skip lunch on days when there is not money to go to school. I would like to thank you PAWA for giving me this scholarship. I have never received any scholarships from anywhere before most scholarships are for students with good grades but this project was not based on grades so I was given the opportunity.”

Ms. Nguwaso (Wa)

Wa has received a scholarship from PAWA since grade 7 for 6 years. Her family had no home of their own and all their income went toward buying some land to build a house, leaving no money for school, until she received the scholarship. After graduating from high school, she intends to study nursing assistant at Sima Borirak School.

“The PAWA scholarship eased the burden on my family and made my dream come true that I graduated from high school. I am very happy because I have never received a scholarship from anywhere. I would like to thank you PAWA for supporting my studies for the past 6 years. If I didn’t receive this scholarship, I would not have finished grade 12 for sure.”