Advocacy & Social Mobilization

Overview

Direct aid changes individual lives; policy changes what’s possible for everyone after them. Alongside our on-the-ground programs, Pace2Life has spent nineteen years pushing for a Pakistan where disability doesn’t mean exclusion from winning fee waivers for disabled students to shaping national policy and contributing to the research that informs it.

What We Offer

• Public Awareness Campaigns:
  Seminars, walks, and social media campaigns marking key dates including Pakistan Independence Day, World Disabled Persons Day, and World Cerebral Palsy Day
• Policy Advocacy:
  Direct engagement with government and academic institutions on disability policy, including contributions to the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Policy for Students with Disabilities (2021) and participation in the National Steering Committee for Pakistan’s National Plan of Action for Persons with Disability (2011)
• Accessible Buildings Campaign:
  Ongoing advocacy that has made public offices, markets, and educational institutions more accessible, starting with Pakistan’s first accessible public-university washrooms at GCU Lahore
• Sight-Seeing & Inclusion Tours:
  The Tanga Tour of Old Lahore, Double Decker Bus Tour, Tremu Barrage & Heer Ranjha Tomb Tour (Jhang), and mountain tours in Balakot, KPK — giving disabled persons access to experiences often assumed to be out of reach
• Research & Publications:
  Facilitating scholars and doctorate researchers in producing and publishing research on the challenges facing disabled students in Pakistan’s educational institutions

By the Numbers

• 2,000,000+ people reached through awareness messaging
• 200+ seminars and awareness walks held
• 30+ research papers facilitated and published, nationally and internationally
• 15 additional social policy focus groups/dialogues arranged on disabled students in higher education
• A landmark 50% tuition fee waiver for disabled students in Punjab’s government universities, achieved through direct lobbying (2011)

Where We Work

Advocacy work spans university campuses across Lahore (GCU, UMT, University of Education), engagement with the Higher Education Commission, and participation in national-level committees and forums.

Recent Activity

In 2026, Pace2Life joined a Focus Group Discussion with the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), hosted by the Punjab Welfare Trust for the Disabled, on the social inclusion of students with special needs in higher education, continuing the policy work that began over a decade earlier