Ayesha Hussain, SEWEGAP Power Woman 2016

Meet Ayesha Hussain, another creative woman selected as a SEW-EGAP (SEPLAA Empowering Women for Economic Growth & Peace) Power Woman for 2016:

Ayesha is the founder and president of Khayaal Creative Network, a society that promotes not only the arts and literature in Pakistan but aims at bringing together people from all walks of life across national boundaries, who have pushed the limits and made a difference. Khayaal was launched with its first festival in 2013 and in November 2015 Khayaal hosted its second festival, with pushing the Boundaries as the theme. With almost 130 speakers, and over 50 sessions spread over two days, the Khayaal festival was met with rave reviews. As a result of the festival’s success, Ayesha was nominated by The British Council to represent Pakistan at the International Literature Showcase held in Norwich in March 2015. The showcase brought together people working in different fields of literature from 24 countries.

Ayesha has been working in the education sector for 17 years. She teaches literature in English to O and A Level students at a Lahore Grammar School, moreover, she also teaches Literature to BA (Hons) students at The Lahore Grammar School International Degree Program, affiliated with the University of London. This has enabled her to teach students, of ages 13 to 20, at various grade levels. Along with teaching, Ayesha has worked as the head of the O level literature department and the coordinator of the O level Section at Lahore Grammar School Defence. Her experience motivated her to develop a deeper understanding of education as a subject therefore she joined the MPhil Education program at the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore due to be completed in 2016.

Moreover Ayesha has been volunteering at The Rising Sun, a school for special children where she reads to the visually impaired children from 6 to 16 years old and has negotiated collaboration for vocational department of the school to enable students to sell in collaboration with Daachi foundation and retain profit.