Union of Arab ICT Association Honors Microsoft Gulf with ‘Best Arab Corporate Social Responsibility Award’ of the Year

As recognition for its commitment to empowering women with technology, Microsoft Gulf received the ‘Best Arab Corporate Social Responsibility Award’ of the Year from the Union of Arab ICT Association, IJMA3. The Arab GoldenChip Awards recognize the top organizations in the region who have contributed to the development of ICT in the Arab world.

Aiming to harness ICT towards the fulfillment of critical regional economic-development challenges, IJMA3, an international non-governmental/profit organization presented the award to Microsoft for its overall Citizenship program and its significant contribution in empowering women through programs such as the Women in Technology (WIT) across the MENA region. The WIT program helps equip women with business and technology skills and encourages them to participate in today’s global workforce and gain economic independence. By 2010, WIT will train more than 10,000 low to middle income women in underserved communities across the MENA region.

Read the full story on Al Bawaba

WIT is a partnership between Microsoft, IIE, MEPI, and fifty local organizations in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen to deliver Microsoft Unlimited Potential, Entrepreneurship and Professional Development training to low and middle income women in underserved areas. The program focuses on five key areas such as Professional Development Training, Business Planning for Sustainability, IT Training through Microsoft's Unlimited Potential (UP) Curriculum, Professional Development Networks for Women, and Professional Exchange and Capacity Building.

source: Al Bawaba http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/260698

Technology is a woman

This is a Guest Blog post by Dania Al Kadi

Technology is a woman: she is the ultimate multitasker and helps men communicate, but if so why are there such few women in the technology industry?

One can count many barriers, but maybe the biggest are perceived gender roles: computer studies, like other sciences, are regarded as a male pursuit and most little girls are taught early on in life to look the other way for their education and their interests.

Yet, the past decade and more specifically the advent of web 2.0 have changed all this. The internet revolution allowed computers into millions of households, and mobile telephony placed powerful communication devices in most people’s pockets. Today, the PC and the mobile phone have converged and technology permeates everything we do: from college students conducting research in Harvard to farmers checking market prices or the weather forecast in rural India.

For us women, this means empowerment at all levels: technology is no longer a subject to be studied in school but a natural enabler to life. Whether you are a hard core engineer passionate about building the latest gadget or a “sitt beyt” who wants to share her thoughts, child rearing tips or recipes on-line, having technology skills will enable you to achieve your goal and reach out to the wider world.

Of all the developments currently taking place, mobile applications are the most exciting and they’re full of promise for the entrepreneurial woman. Requiring relatively limited software development skills, mobile apps provide creative minds with the opportunity to turn any idea, small or big, into an application that can be published and marketed directly to consumers.

So do you have a good suggestion about how to place orders with suppliers on the go, or avoid rush hour traffic in your city, maybe you’ve created a nice game for your children that can be digitized and enjoyed by other kids? Now is the time to go for it, especially inLebanon and the Arab world, where we have the opportunity to create a lot of regionally relevant content in Arabic. An enormous amount of resources and information is available on-line to help you get started and if you feel you don’t have the right skill sets for softwaredevelopment, a simple training program will enable you to acquire the knowledge you need to be a mover and shaker in the next wave of digital transformation.

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About Dania:

Based in London, Dania El-Kadi works for Nokia as Senior Marketing Manager in the Global Marketing Activation team where she’s responsible for driving the company’s marketing deployment strategies for email and business. Prior to relocating to the UK, Dania headed Nokia’s enterprise solutions marketing in the Middle East and Africa.

Dania held several positions in the IT industry before joining Nokia, including Marketing and PR management roles for Intel Corporation in the Middle East and North Africa.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University of Beirut and misses Lebanon every day