ISLAMABAD (BMZ REPORT )
The launch ceremony of “ICTs for Girls” program under the auspices of Ministry of IT was held yesterday. This was attended by a large gathering of Parliamentarians, Diplomats, Executives form public and private sector and girl students at Baitulmaal Women Empowerment Centre. Chief Guest Senator Ishaq Dar Finance Minister while addressing the ceremony said, “Our Government is committed towards an all inclusive society with enhanced empowerment of women through a well structured enabling environment that could guarantee their financial autonomy. We are conscious of our social responsibility role. The significant increase on social safety net manifests this resolve. Through technological capacity building, the girls under this program shall prove to be great asset for the economic engine of the country. I must appreciate Ministry of IT and other partners in the program for their valuable role in this noble cause and look forward to scale it further to benefit more girls from this program. During his address, Senator Ishaq Dar marked this event an important step towards National Building with a highly noble underlying theme. He mentioned “Our Government is actively pursuing the agenda of economic growth with increased job opportunities for our talented youth. In line with PML (N) manifesto we are committed to provide job opportunities through ICT growth. All our endeavors are aligned with this goal. Pakistan’s future is bright and our Government is determined to achieve its true potential for the benefit of our people “
Minister for IT, Mrs. Anusha Rahman said “ICT is the lever of economic progress. We are using this lever to empower our sisters and daughters from the marginalized sections of society. Through this initiative, we aim to reach thousands of girls enrolled in Baitulmal women empowerment centers across the country,by providing them fully equipped computer labs and a comprehensive computer software training and coaching program under the auspices of Microsoft. This program comprises of 4 Csincluding computing, coding, communication and coaching. It is an end to end program to increase their employability potential. We plan to scale ICT for Girls initiative and make it available to a wider section. It will also be launched in our Telecentres. She said that girls trained in software skills can earn a livelihood by working even from homes.
Mrs. Anusha Rahman said, “This is the beginning. We intend to leverage ICT as key driver of bridging social gap. Making our women and girls more empowered and up skilled is the manifesto of our Government. We are in active collaboration with all key partners and stake holders with an objective of enabling the daughters and sisters of our country to equip with modern skills that can help them stand on their own feet in terms of financial sustenance and contribution for the economy”
The Microsoft Country head Mr. Nadeem pledged to play their critical role in empowering the women of Pakistan through effective use of technology. He appreciated MoIT’s role for enabling key partnerships towards highly social centric subjects. MD Baitulmal Mr. Abid Waheed Sheikh thanked MoIT for spearheading this big initiative. He lauded this cooperation as a unique blend of corporate social responsibility of different organisations. He fully committed himself to its successful completion.
Chairperson of National Commission on Status of Women Ms Khawar termed it highly remarkable initiative of increasing employability potential of young girls. CEO USF explained the scope of the program whereby the hardware in women empowerment centres will be equipped by USF and software skill development will be done by Microsoft. In the first phase 50 WEC will be equipped where around 5000 girls will benefit in first round.
The attendees from different walks of life, hailed this a great initiative of Ministry of IT for a very noble purpose.
