Change through Empowerment -CTE

The organization was established in 1989 by a group of progressive women in a local community of Quetta City in Balochistan and was registered in 1991 as a CBO in voluntary organizations’ Social Welfare Ordinance 1961 with the name of “Tanzeem-e-Khawateen Idara-e-Bahali-e-Mustehqeen”. It was the time when the country had just recovered from the longest dictatorship in the history of Pakistan which resulted adversely on people’s accessing and exercising their fundamental human rights esp. women who were pushed back through various strict laws and regulations. Thus there was dire need for the progressive organizations to groom and lead the society esp. women so that they could be facilitated in getting mainstreamed in the development process. For the purpose the organization opted to focus poverty reduction through sustainable livelihood initiatives.

The organization established and operated a small industrial home for women and girls in the community on self-help and volunteer basis till 1995. Thee industrial home acted as a hub of other mobilization, awareness raising and advocacy focused activities for women in the community. Due to financial constraints and no support from the registering department (Social Welfare Department), the industrial home was closed and the organization got linked with various national level organizations working on human rights, women’s rights, activism and social movements of vulnerable masses. However, the organization remained restricted till community level for a long.

In 2009, the senior members of the organization decided to re-form the organization by expanding its programmatic as well as geographic scope. Thus the organization was re-organized and renamed as “Change thru Empowerment (CTE)” and was registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 as a provincial NGO in 2010. The organization was renamed as another provincial level NGO was already operational with similar previous name.

The organization initiated its operations by projects funded by various local philanthropists in response to the worst disaster in the history of Pakistan i.e. Flood 2010. Since it re-organizations in 2010, CTE has worked on various projects funded by the UNHCR, USAID, The Asia Foundation, CIDA, SDC, TDH directly and through other national level partner organizations. In mid-2012, the Executive Council (governing board) decided to operate at national level and scope was expanded to national level by establishing national office and offices in other provinces. Now we are operating at national level.

Our core expertise and speciality are in right-based programs with substantial capacity of infra-structure and service delivery interventions.

Now, CTE is operating as National level NGO directely operating in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, whereas in Punjab and Sindh provinces through the network of its partners.