Empowering Women

Over the last three years, we have empowered 7,000 women in Pakistan with the skills, training and support to gain financial independence and break free from poverty.

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Latest updates

  • News & events

    Milkar: let’s change the future of mental health

    Website Mental Health (2)
  • News & events

    Bestway Foundation donates £250,000 to support the British Asian Trust’s vital work in South Asia

    Bestway Foundation Donates £250,000 To Support The British Asian Trust’S Vital Work In South Asia
  • Case studies

    Mental health: Tamanna’s story

    Acid Attack Survivor Group 5 Women
  • News & events

    Annual Report 2024-2025: Introduction from Lord Jitesh Gadhia

    Annual Report 24 25 Front Page
  • Case studies

    Mental health: Irfan’s story

    From Canva By Kanchanachitkhamma Boy By Wall

Social Finance

Exploring new ways of working to fundamentally improve the way philanthropy and development are done.

"The British Asian Trust has always been focussed on innovative ways of giving, especially impact investing, based on the principle that you measure outcomes - how much you achieve - rather than how much you spend." 

Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Chair, British Asian Trust. 

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Empowering Women in South Asia

We are supporting thousands of marginalised women to build resilience against poverty. With our support they are gaining economic empowerment through increased access to finance, learning about financial management and seeking control of resources. Our Women’s Economic Empowerment programme, supported by the UK Government, has had great results and made a real change in the lives of almost 10,000 women. Read more about our work.

WEE Kaarvan Shahbana

Pioneering innovation in international development

We believe that the problems of the world will not be solved by philanthropy and traditional development approaches alone.

We are pioneers in “social finance”, which focusses on outcomes and results and unlocks new capital to address the most urgent issues of South Asia.

Through our award-winning Social Finance Unit we have already established the world’s largest Education Development Impact Bond and are now developing a range of other innovative initiatives across the region.

We believe that social finance has the potential to fundamentally improve philanthropy and development and we are proud to be global pioneers in this exciting space.

Read the latest updates about our social finance work.