Mary James Gill wins US fellowship

LAHORE:Mary James Gill from Pakistan has won the Fall 2022 Professional Fellows Programme Alumni Impact Award (AIA) announced by the US Department of State.

She is one of the four winners of the award. The other three are Tawanda Collins Muzamwese (Zimbabwe), Cindy Giselle Regidor Rodriguez (Nicaragua), and Dr Macdonald M Metzger (USA).

The Professional Fellows Congress is sponsored by the US Department of State, with funding provided by the US Government and administered by World Learning, an international non-profit organisation.

The Professional Fellows Congress will take place in Washington, DC, October 31-November 4, 2022. Mary James Gill is a human rights lawyer, an activist, a former legislator, and a policy researcher. She is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Justice, a minority-led policy research, advocacy, and development organisation, working for disadvantaged communities and groups. She is also the founder of Pakistan’s first advocacy campaign, Sweepers are Superheroes, which outlined the horrific attitudes towards and working conditions of sanitation workers in Pakistan and raised awareness regarding the dignity, safety, and social protection of these heroic workers. In recognition of providing a new paradigm for sanitation workers, she received the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Prize in 2020 and the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic in 2021.