Last week, I observed a group of girls standing in a line at a government school in Sindh; some were holding hands, while others were adjusting their dupattas. It wasn't recess. They were waiting for vaccines. HPV shots. The kind that might stop cervical cancer from steamrolling through another generation.

Most of them didn't even know what the vaccine was for. Their mothers had been told by someone in a white coat that it was important. So, they showed up. A few girls asked questions. Most just nodded. It felt like, for once, we were ahead of something instead of reacting too late.

Pakistan's aiming to vaccinate thirteen million girls, aged nine to fourteen. The goal is ninety per cent coverage. Not symbolic. Urgent. Every single day, eight women die here from cervical cancer. Most had no idea until it was too late. Some never got diagnosed. Just pain. Silence. Gone.

A group of........

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