![\"Spices](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roh_Tanzania_Pura_MalalaFund_-22.jpg\")
Spices in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura<\/p>\nWhen asked to describe what Tanzania smells like, Grace Isekore closes her eyes and breathes in deep. For a moment, she\u2019s somewhere else entirely. Tanzania is a rich tapestry of sights and scents, from the smell of sea mist that permeates the coastline to the earthy cardamom and cloves she cooks with in her kitchen. But when Grace emerges from her reverie, her answer is unexpected.<\/p>\n
\u201cTanzania smells like peace,\u201d she says, her eyes still closed. \u201cI see a beautiful country where we are free to move, free to speak. And there is peace within the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Grace, that sense of peace isn\u2019t just something she smells; it\u2019s something she works toward every day. As a project coordinator with Pastoral Women\u2019s Council (PWC), a women-led organization that empowers pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, she has seen firsthand how girls flourish when they have the opportunity to attend school. Like scent, education not only connects girls to their own culture, but also helps broaden their horizons, realizing new possibilities for themselves and others. That transformation reshapes entire communities and ripples outward, with the potential to change countries and transform the world for the better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Different scents, different approaches, and communities driving change<\/p>\n
Spices in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura<\/p>\n
For Grace and others around the world, education is freedom, as well as a pathway to a stronger community. Rooted in that shared\u00a0 belief, Pura, a home fragrance company, was inspired to build on their four-year partnership with Malala Fund to create something truly unique: a fragrance collection that connects people through scent to communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil, where barriers to girls\u2019 education are among the highest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using ingredients from each region, the new Pura x Malala Fund Collection<\/a> uses scent to transport people to these regions directly. \u201cFuture in Bloom,\u201d for example, invokes Pakistan\u2019s lush valleys through notes of jasmine, cedarwood, and mango; while Tanzania\u2019s fragrance, \u201cHeart on Fire,\u201d evokes the spirit and joyfulness of the girls who live there through cardamom, lemon, and green tea.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new Collection honors the work Malala Fund does every day, partnering with locally-led organizations in these four countries to ensure every girl can access and complete 12 years of education. Each scent celebrates the joy, tenacity, and courage of the women and girls driving change on the ground, while also augmenting Pura\u2019s annual grant to Malala Fund by donating eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection<\/a> to Malala Fund directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just as each country\u2019s scent is unique, so too are their needs related to education. But with support from Malala Fund and Pura, local leaders are coming up with creative ways to mobilize entire communities (parents, teachers, elders, and the students themselves, in their pursuit of solutions, understanding that educating girls helps everyone thrive. Here\u2019s how their efforts are creating real, durable impact in Tanzania and Pakistan, and creating a ripple effect that changes the world for the better.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parent-teacher associations help Maasai girls and their communities in Tanzania problem-solve\u00a0<\/p>\n Northern Tanzania, Grace\u2019s home, is home to pastoralist communities like the Maasai, a nomadic people who have moved with the seasons to nurture the land and care for their livestock for centuries. The nomadic nature of this lifestyle creates significant and unique barriers to girls\u2019 education. Longstanding gender roles have enabled Maasai to survive in the harsh environment and have placed great value on both women and men. Over time, as nomadic life has been threatened by the privatization of land and stationary education models have been implemented, the reality of pastoralist livelihood has shifted and introduced new complexities. Now, the sheer distance to schools is both a practical challenge and one that often comes with danger from the landscape, predators, and potential exposure to assault along the journey. Girls shoulder the responsibility of household chores and there is often cultural pressure around early marriage \u2013 both leading to boys\u2019 education being prioritized over girls\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very, very good [pastoralist] cultural practices, which are passed from generation to generation,\u201d says Janet Kimori, an English teacher at Lekule Girls Secondary School in Longido, Tanzania. But when cultural practices act as educational barriers, \u201cyou have to sit down and look for where you are going to assist. As a school, as an individual, the school administration\u2014all of us will chip in and know how we are going to deal with this problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n PWC works to ensure girls are able to exercise their right to an education while also preserving pastoralist culture. One successful approach, the organization found, has been the formation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), created with help from Malala Fund. In PTA meetings, students, parents, teachers, elders, and government officials meet, discuss educational barriers, and come up with community-led solutions that preserve and honor their culture while advancing educational outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n One recent PTA meeting highlights how these community-led solutions are often the most effective. At Lekule Girls Secondary School, the lack of fresh water forces girls to walk long distances to collect water for the school\u2019s kitchen during the school day, and these long journeys not only disrupt class time but can leave girls vulnerable to sexual assault in isolated areas. Through facilitated discussion, PTA members landed on a solution: installing a borehole to pipe in fresh water to the school. Reliable access to water creates a better learning environment for the girls, but it also benefits the community at large, as local governments are then more likely to invest in health clinics and other community resources nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n With a solution in place, the PTA was then able to discuss ideas and map out a course of action. The women would raise money for the cost of the borehole, while the men would recruit workers to dig the hole and lay the pipe. Together, they would ask government officials to match their investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The benefits of PTA meetings within the pastoralist communities are undeniable. \u201cThe girls are talking and addressing issues in a confident way, and parents feel they are part of the resource team to solve challenges happening at school,\u201d Grace says. One unexpected benefit: The larger cultural impact these PTA meetings have created. Thanks to the success of PTAs within pastoralist communities, the models are now being endorsed on a national level, and schools across Tanzania are starting to use them to solve problems in their own communities. When a community creates opportunities for girls to learn, everyone benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Safe spaces in rural Pakistan help students and their parents connect, then drive change<\/p>\n A continent away in Pakistan, the country\u2019s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan seems like a land untouched by time. The region\u2019s looming mountains, snow-capped peaks, lush valleys and crystalline lakes draw nature lovers and landscape photographers from around the world, but living among this kind of breathtaking scenery has its drawbacks. Schools in the region are few and far between, and the area\u2019s harsh climate often makes roads inaccessible for travel. Poverty and gender-based discrimination are additional obstacles, making school even further out of reach, and girls are affected disproportionately. Going up against these barriers requires a persistent, quiet strength that\u2019s found in the women who live there and reflected in Pakistan\u2019s signature scent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saheli Circles are how local leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan are bridging the gap between girls and education. An Urdu term for \u201cfemale friend,\u201d Saheli Circles are after-school safe spaces where girls explore subjects like art and climate change, while also developing skills that help them manage emotions, set goals, and build positive relationships. Girls study in groups, visit the library, play sports, and tackle filmmaking and photography projects, all designed to develop self confidence and teach the girls how to advocate for issues that matter to them. But the work doesn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to achieve here will only be impactful if it trickles down to the home environment and the school environment,\u201d says Marvi Sumro, founder and program director of Innovate, Educate, and Inspire Pakistan (IEI), the local organization that developed the Saheli Circles model and partnered with Malala Fund in 2021 to make it a reality. Ever since, Saheli Circles have grown to involve teachers, elders, and parents to encourage relationship building that\u2019s essential for young girls and adolescents. \u201cOur spaces can give mothers and daughters an opportunity to interact a little differently\u2014do an art activity, or have a cup of tea together, or some good conversation,\u201d Marvi says.\u00a0<\/p>\n The relationship building is what makes the biggest positive impact throughout the community. Recently, one Saheli Circle was able to bring together parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate for better education at their local school, and together they convinced the department of education to hire a science teacher. Another Saheli Circle organized a fund where members of the community can contribute monthly to pay for uniforms, books, and other school expenses for the girls in their village, eliminating those small, hidden costs that are often a barrier to education for many. A third Saheli Circle was able to produce a short film about how gender-based household chores can take away valuable study time from girls, leaving them at a disadvantage. \u201cThe girls put the film together and showed it to the mothers, and the response from the mothers was just beautiful,\u201d Marvi says.\u00a0<\/p>\n The education and relationship building that the girls receive in Saheli Circles connects them to larger opportunities and economic freedom that are not possible in their hometown. \u201cFor girls in Gilgit-Baltistan, education is extremely important because of the fact that we\u2019re so far away from where the economy is, where the opportunity is. Education becomes this bridge for us, for our girls, to access all the opportunity and economy that exists in [larger cities].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n From rural Tanzania to remote Pakistan, local organizations prove every day that prioritizing girls\u2019 education benefits everyone. Communities that lift up girls are able to secure resources like clean water and well-staffed schools, as well as build stronger relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n These outcomes are only possible because of the women and girls who work tirelessly in these regions to overcome barriers and drive progress. The Pura x Malala Fund Collection<\/a> is a way to honor them, celebrate their achievements, and unite people the world over around a shared belief that education is freedom. Like scent, that belief can build, travel, and has the possibility to transform the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roh_Tanzania_Pura_MalalaFund_-133.jpg\")
A girl\u2019s school in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roh_Tanzania_Pura_MalalaFund_-143.jpg\")
PTA meeting in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura<\/p>\n![\"Safe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0376.jpg\")
Safe space for girls meeting in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.<\/p>\n![\"Girls](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0335.jpg\")
Girls smiling in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.<\/p>\n