M.phil Business Management from Bahaudin Zakariya University

“Saro is pushing the FP movement to be more inclusive. She is shedding light on the family planning needs of transgender populations, including in her home country of Pakistan. This is no small task. Thankfully, she is brave and bold beyond measure.”

– Emily Sullivan, Adolescent & Youth Engagement Manager at Family Planning 2020, United Nations Foundation

Describe your contributions to and achievements in family planning.

I am an advocate of Transgender Family Acceptance, I noticed that transgender young people are ignored by the Family Planning areas because people think that transgender people are not pro families. After making acceptance in my own family, I gave awareness to more than 200 people in Pakistan regarding Family Acceptance in line with Family Planning to build safe spaces in their own homes. FP is also about planning your existing Families. I also represented transgender young people for the Universal Periodic Review process – UN in 2017 in building shadow report from Pakistan, that brings a lot of change for the young people as the majority of recommendations were accepted by the Government and the beneficiaries are all the young people in Pakistan which is more than 50% of the total country population.

What sparked your passion for family planning?

Human rights violations and discrimination on the basis of gender identity is still prevalent and implies a big challenge for Pakistan. The Transgender community and other marginalized minorities face stigma, discrimination and violence much more than non-marginalized groups. Micro Change is a realistic approach for building safe spaces as I believe that family planning is a broad area and it’s also about the family acceptance and advocating for transgender Families.

Give one or two examples of how you display leadership in your family planning work.:

As a Country Coordinator Pakistan – International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP), working to enhance access to contraceptives and HIV prevention. During the FP2020’s 3rd Asia Regional Focal Point workshop, as a youth representative, I worked to ensure the inclusion of transgender people in Family Planning and still working to ensure implementation of the Pro transgender Family Planning commitments of the workshop on National and International level.

If you are named a winner of 120 under 40, how will you use this new platform and the $1000 grant to advance your work? 

I have already drafted a proposal of a Campaign – Pink Planning . This global campaign proposal is aimed to raise awareness for transgender Family Acceptance and help transgender people accessing information about Insemination, Surrogacy, IVF (IN Vitro Fertilization) and adoption. This will be an innovative creative, Trans led global campaign through short videos, Posters and Digital Information, Education and Communication materials.

Video Introduction:

Photos of the nominee in the field/at work:

Publications/Articles:

• http://asiapacific.unfpa.org/en/news/turning-pain-power-create-safespaces4youth
• https://medium.com/@FP2020Global_20685/two-pakistani-youth-are-speaking-out-on-t…
• http://www.gaylaxymag.com/blogs/family-planning-programs-should-address-needs-of…
• https://thediasporababy.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/reflections-on-international-wo…
• https://womendeliver.org/classmember/muhammad-sarim-imran/