OUR STORY
In December 2021, 15-year-old Alisha Junaid, a club volleyball player from Mountain View, California, visited Pakistan to see her grandparents. Wanting to keep up with her training, her grandmother connected her with a local coach, where she met a Pakistan national team player. That encounter changed everything. Inspired, Alisha dreamed of trying out for the national team, but she also saw the stark reality: Pakistani girls had the passion, but not the resources. With 50 million girls under 20, the country held immense untapped potential.
Earning the Jersey, and a New Perspective
In the summer of 2022, Alisha returned to Pakistan, tried out, and earned her spot on the national women’s volleyball team. But the achievement came with a realization: If a 16-year-old high school player from the U.S. could make the team, what did that say about the system’s support for homegrown talent?
The issue wasn’t skill; it was access to quality coaching, facilities, and consistent training.
Determined to make a difference, Alisha and her coach, Denise Sheldon, helped Khizra, one of Pakistan’s national players, earn a U.S. college recruitment offer from Olivet Nazarene University, a first for a Pakistani women’s national team player.
It was a small but powerful step toward creating real opportunity.
That same summer, while attending Stanford Volleyball Camps, Alisha met Kevin Hambly, Head Coach of Stanford Women’s Volleyball. When she shared her vision for empowering girls in Pakistan, Kevin urged her to think bigger, not just improving training, but transforming the culture around women’s sports.
the official formation of empower
By Fall 2022, Empower Sports Academy became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with Kevin Hambly, Denise Sheldon, Junaid Qurashi, and Malika Junaid as founding board members. Kevin introduced the initiative to Giovanni Guidetti, President of the FIVB Coaches Commission and one of the world’s most renowned volleyball coaches. Giovanni immediately joined the cause, bringing his global experience and network.
Since then, Empower’s board has worked tirelessly to:
- Recruit world-class coaches to train Pakistani athletes.
- Identify funding and grants to sustain and expand programs.
- Donate professional-grade equipment to players in Pakistan.
- Sponsor national athletes to play and study in the U.S.
-Develop long-term plans for sustainable growth in women’s sports.
What began as one teenager’s experience has grown into a global movement, opening doors, shifting perceptions, and inspiring a new generation of female athletes to make Pakistan proud on the world stage.
