A fellowship for the youth shaping Pakistan’s next chapter.
Pelican Fellowship is a fully funded, residential leadership program developing a national network of ethical leaders, peace builders, and changemakers, equipped with the values, skills, and conviction to lead in a country at a turning point.
A national fellowship, born in South Punjab.
Pelican Fellowship was founded as South Punjab’s first youth leadership and community development program, a region long underrepresented in Pakistan’s leadership conversation. From that founding intent grew something larger: a national fellowship for young people who refuse to wait for permission to lead.
We bring together fifty fellows each year, selected from every province and territory of Pakistan, and immerse them in six months of training, mentorship, and real-world action. The result is not a credential. It is a generation of leaders who carry conviction into the rooms where decisions are made.
Pelican Fellowship is organized by the Rotaract Club of Cholistan, a chartered club of Rotary International, and operates within Rotary’s global ecosystem of service and leadership.
What we are building.
Two commitments shape every cohort, every retreat, every project.
To serve, to lead, to build peace.
To serve communities, advance integrity, and build understanding, goodwill, and peace through a fellowship of young leaders prepared to act with purpose.
A Pakistan that unites to drive lasting change.
A Pakistan where young people from every background unite to drive lasting change, across our communities, our institutions, and ourselves.
Years of groundwork. A growing national network.
Before Pelican Fellowship, the Rotaract Club of Cholistan built the foundation, engaging thousands of young Pakistanis across leadership, dialogue, and community action.
The principles behind the work.
Pelican Fellowship is built on three layers of conviction: the values we live by, the beliefs that shape our worldview, and the principles that guide every decision we make.
Core Values
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Integrity
- Truthfulness
- Collaboration
- Humility
- Creativity
- Excellence
Core Beliefs
- Future-Oriented
- Pluralism
- Collective Conscience
- Inclusive Discourse
- Purposeful Knowledge
- Universal Values
- Moral Economy
- Reflective Practice
Core Principles
- Purposefulness
- Collectiveness
- Connectedness
- Openness
- Synergy
- Optimism
- Purpose-Driven Action
- Diversity
A fellowship that reflects the country it serves.
Pelican Fellowship is one of the few leadership programs in Pakistan with a transparent, structured commitment to inclusion.
Every cohort of fifty fellows is selected against a published seat distribution, designed to ensure that women, religious minorities, persons with disabilities, transgender Pakistanis, and madrasah students are not afterthoughts, but central to the fellowship’s identity.
Leadership in Pakistan cannot be built by one demographic alone. Every cohort proves that.
A national cohort.
Pelican Fellowship recruits across every region of Pakistan, with founding strength in Southern Punjab and growing presence nationwide.
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Southern Punjab30%
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa14%
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Balochistan14%
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Sindh14%
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Islamabad14%
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Azad Jammu & Kashmir14%
Part of a global tradition of service.
Pelican Fellowship operates under the Rotaract Club of Cholistan, a chartered club of Rotary International, the global association of 1.4 million leaders across 200 countries, united under one principle:
“Service Above Self.”
That ecosystem gives Pelican fellows access to a worldwide network of mentors, professionals, and leaders, and connects local action in Pakistan to a global movement built over more than a century.
In collaboration with institutions that share our standard.
The next generation of Pakistani leadership is being built right now.
Whether you are ready to apply, sponsor, mentor, or stand alongside us as a partner, there is a place for you in this fellowship.