OUR STORY

The concept of Baithak stemmed out in 2018, when Ayesha Amin, our founder, after her Fulbright Master’s Degree, started conducting focus group discussions (FGDs) in the rural communities of Jamshoro to understand the needs and challenges that girls and women faced in order to access their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Soon these FDGs transformed into safe spaces for women to come together to reflect on, discuss, and learn about issues affecting their health. They started referring to these spaces as ‘baithaks/ بیٹھک’ – an Urdu / Sindhi word meaning sittings’ or ‘gatherings’ of people. Culturally, these baithaks are spaces where decisions are made regarding community and family life; however, it remains male dominated and women are excluded from these discussions, leaving them having no say in matters that affect them. Ayesha with the team of volunteers continued doing more baithaks in different parts of Jamshoro and the rest of the Sindh. And soon a passion project evolved into a powerful grassroots movement across Pakistan.

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OUR MISSION

Our mission is to enable grassroots feminist movement building around Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (SRHRJ) for girls and women by creating safe spaces for them to reflect on, engage in dialogue, and learn about their SRHRJ. By providing them knowledge, tools, and resources, we facilitate the process for them to make informed decisions about their bodily autonomy. We are committed to channel lived experiences, realities, needs, and challenges of girls and women from grassroots to advice and guide local and global policies and programs.

OUR VISION

“We envision a society where every girl and woman has resources, safety, and agency to exercise her bodily autonomy”