Enabling access to technology, digital spaces, and employment to help girls and young women shape their futures on their own terms.
For girls in Gilgit-Baltistan, unreliable electricity and internet, restricted mobility, and unsafe learning environments continue to shape access to the digital world.
IEI builds the conditions that make meaningful participation possible. Through girls-only labs, accessible technology, feminist mentorship, inclusive learning, and pathways into education, employment, and enterprise, girls and young women move toward digital agency.
A girls-only feminist digital ecosystem combining computer labs, safe spaces, inclusive learning, mentorship, and pathways into education, employment, and enterprise.
What We Do
On-Ground Infrastructure
Our Tech Sahelis Lab in Hunza provides a girls-only learning and working space with laptops, internet, electricity, equipment, and trusted mentors. Cohorts are capped so participants can receive individual attention.
Microlabs are operational in Ghizer, Saltoro, and Diamer. Each is equipped with infrastructure according to the needs and opportunities available within the community.
Tech Sahelis Fellowship
An 8-week feminist tech leadership program. Three fellows were selected to establish community Microlabs.
Each fellow received:
Five computers
One LCD screen
A solar-energy setup
A one-time PKR 100,000 operational grant
A monthly salary of PKR 40,000 for 12 months
Support to develop a sustainable, locally appropriate operating model
Our Reach
4 LabsHunza, Ghizer, Saltoro, and Diamer
500 Girlsengaged over four years
90% of participantsfirst-time laptop users
What Girls Told Us
“If we get digital skills, we can do a lot. We can go to better universities. We can find work. We can earn income.”
Community consultations that shaped Tech Sahelis
Creative Tech Agency
Diverse Income Pathways
Local employment
Team-based digital gigs
Freelancing pathways
Digital Studio
Sources digital work and assigns it to Tech Sahelis graduates.
PKR 45,000 earnings through Digital Studio gigs
Enterprise Lab
Supports girls and women to develop locally rooted businesses.
3 upcoming products — Bimal Studio, Hunza Experience, and Saheli Store
How We Build Digital Sovereignty
Our Guiding Feminist Methodology
Access becomes meaningful when the conditions change.
Care Ecosystem
Safe spaces, trusted relationships, family engagement, peer community, and wellbeing support.
Inclusive Learning
Learning designed around first-time users, different starting points, local language needs, and the freedom to make mistakes.
Creative Tech Agency
Multiple pathways into education, employment, public voice, community services, enterprise, and income.
Community-Rooted Leadership
Women trained and resourced to build feminist digital ecosystems within their own valleys.
Tech Sahelis
Photo Library
Building Income Pathways
Freelance Accelerator
A practical learning and incubation pathway that helps young women test online work through coaching, tools, feedback, and honest expectations.
Program Model
Learning Phase
A four-week learning module developed with CaterpillHERs introduced participants to:
Self-awareness and niche selection
Business ethics and goal setting
Portfolio development
Professional profiles and personal branding
Upwork, Fiverr, LinkedIn, and social-media pitching
Client communication and presentation of services
An in-person coach translated and explained English-language material, provided local examples, guided assignments, and helped participants turn unfamiliar concepts into practical work.
Incubation Phase
Participants then received continued access to the Tech Sahelis Lab while applying for real opportunities. Coaches supported them with portfolios, profiles, pitches, applications, deliverables, feedback, and first client interactions.
80% active practice · 20% passive learning
Pilot Outcomes
8 Girlscompleted the learning module
7 Girlscreated Upwork profiles
5 Girlssecured their first income
In Her Words“
The safe space, transportation and, most importantly, the internet are necessities for me to generate income and become independent.
Zahida Zahra
Learning Support
Mentorship
In-person coaching
Urdu explanation
Weekly mentorship
Wellbeing activities
Participants were learning unfamiliar platforms while still developing basic confidence with computers. The program therefore combined digital instruction with moral support, translated explanations, hands-on assignments, vocabulary support, and individual feedback.
Continued Support
Continued Support
The Tech Sahelis Lab
Stable electricity and internet
Paid digital tools
Slack and WhatsApp communities
Digital Sovereignty
Our Impact Stories
IEI’s principles include autonomy and agency for all. Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) has been obtained before sharing any photos or stories. Read about our FPIC Policy here.
Zubia
Digital Advocacy
Zubia joined Tech Sahelis as a shy young woman studying privately after leaving school. Within a year, she was leading content for Saheli Station, creating campaigns on climate action, girls’ education, and menstrual health while earning a stipend. She taught herself illustration and branding and began designing for a girl-led enterprise. When floods affected valleys across Gilgit-Baltistan, Zubia and Laraib transformed Saheli Station into a relief platform, helping raise approximately PKR 180,000 for affected families.
Sonia
Local Employment
Sonia was teaching at a local Montessori school when she joined Tech Sahelis, hoping to earn more and save for further education. After developing her digital capabilities, she secured a placement as a social-media manager with an environmental social enterprise. She built its digital presence from the ground up and remained in the role for approximately a year and a half before moving to a new position at a nonprofit. Sonia’s journey shows how local organisations can become meaningful digital career pathways.
Zahida Zahra
Community Leadership
Zahida arrived with little digital experience and progressed from Digital Essentials into design, professional profiles, and portfolio development. She secured an early graphic-design assignment for a school and impressed the client with her work. After university, she returned to her remote village to care for her mother, where unreliable infrastructure made freelancing difficult. Her skills were nevertheless visible: the community appointed her branch manager and lead trainer of a new digital centre. When the infrastructure could not travel, Zahida became the infrastructure for others.
Karishma
First Gig to Placement
Karishma began with computer fundamentals, developed graphic-design skills, and received portfolio and freelance mentorship. She completed her first small Upwork design assignment, earned a Rising Talent badge, and secured ongoing design work with a local travel company. Her progress also led to a part-time Project Coordinator role with a creative startup based at Digital Hub Hunza, with a reported salary of PKR 20,000 per month after probation. Her pathway combined platform experience with opportunity in the local digital economy.
Tayyaba Ibrahim
Creative Income
Tayyaba entered Tech Sahelis through Digital Essentials and developed digital, photography, and professional-presentation skills. During the Freelance Accelerator, she learned how to pitch her work and negotiate rates. When the organisers of the Hunza Premier League needed photographers, IEI referred her for an interview. Tayyaba secured the seven-day assignment and negotiated a PKR 20,000 fee—her first income from photography and an early demonstration of how creative skills can respond to real community demand.
The Learning Ecosystem
Capacity-Building Courses
Courses meet girls where they are, then build the confidence, practical capability, and support needed to progress.
What We Teach
Digital Essentials
Foundational learning for first-time and early-stage computer users, including device use, files, documents, email, digital tools, and the confidence to navigate everyday digital environments.
Language of Design
An Urdu, LMS-supported pathway into visual communication, Canva, design principles, social-media content, branding, and portfolio development.
Professional Development
Career preparation covering CVs, cover letters, interviews, LinkedIn branding, public speaking, networking, goal setting, workplace conduct, professional relationships, and wellbeing.
Online Safety
Practical learning on privacy, consent, personal information, online risk, safer participation, and informed decision-making in digital spaces. Previous activities have included collaboration with the Digital Rights Foundation.
Our Teachers
A Labor of Love
We are honored to receive the labor of love from feminist volunteers across Pakistan. Our teachers bring experience across digital technology, design, freelancing, entrepreneurship, career development, and mentorship.
Why It Matters
Confidence is a learning outcome.
For many participants, this is their first sustained experience with a laptop, professional platform, or digital portfolio. Progress begins with being able to ask questions, make mistakes, practise repeatedly, and recognise oneself as someone who belongs in digital spaces.
Our Approach
Designed for the learner in front of us
Begin with her actual starting point
Pace learning for first-time users
Explain in accessible language
Humanise mistakes
Combine instruction with practice
Continue through mentorship and feedback
A conventional course asks whether a girl can keep up. IEI asks whether the environment has been designed so she can learn. Courses adapt their pace, examples, language, and support to participants’ lived realities.
Related Pathway
I-SKOOL
Early STEM exposure through scientific observation, robotics, programming, and game development for younger girls.
Newer technical learning includes programming, artificial intelligence, data science, and analytics.
Support our work
IEI Pakistan runs on small donations from our community and microgrants from philanthropic funds. We do not have any corporate sponsors or political donors. If you’d like to support our feminist movement building, get in touch.
