Riffat Arif from Pakistan wins Global Teacher prize for 2023

A remarkable achievement for Pakistan as Rifat Arif from Gujranwala also known as Sister Zeph wins the Varky Foundation Global Teacher prize for 2023. The award was announced on 8th Nov 2023 in France.

Rifat has been an inspirational figure for the women of Pakistan as she made her first school when she was just 13 years old. Amazingly enough, Riffat worked 8 hours a day to fund the school while she taught four hours to students for free. Rifats main aim was to ensure that the underprivileged children are not deprived of education due to financial burdens. She didn’t just make the school she taught as well and funded it as well along the way.

The event of her winning award was in collaboration with the renowned institution of UNESCO that was also in a partnership with Dubai Cares which is a famous philanthropic organisation. Moreover, Rifats achievement was announced at the Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, France.

Rifat also runs self defence classes and another small organisation where she’s taught almost 6,000 women. Rifat states that she intends to use the prize money to open another school on 10 acres for underprivileged children