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
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Union of Arab ICT Association Honors Microsoft Gulf with ‘Best Arab Corporate Social Responsibility Award’ of the Year
Happy and Prosperous 2010
Women in Technology - Lebanon wishes you and your family a happy and prosperous new year.
May 2010 be full of peace and success.
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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. ******************************************************** 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
From WIT to Work
Have you accomplished WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY Program training?
Or
You want to start your own business?
With the collaboration of Women in technology Program
“FROM WIT TO WORK”
Free counseling services
a consultant ready to offer you support to start your own business
Orientation and job opportunities
Those interested in participating in this project, should call Ms.Christelle El Jbeily: 71/167603 or 01/612500 ext 1984 or register their names at one of our partners'centers:
| Mount Lebanon | ABadieh | Abadieh Scout club | TEL: 70/914120 | Mail: hhamzeh@bdl.gov.lb |
| SOUTH | Der kanon Al Nahr | Der Kanon Al Nahr cultural center | TEL : 03/268707 | Mail: Kassirh@inco.com.lb |
| NORTH | Tripoli | IT Lebanon | TEL: 03/859796 | Mail: ashahin10@yahoo.com |
| BEKAA | Der Al Ahmar | Women Association of Der Al Ahmar (WADA) | TEL: 03/622369 | Mail: dykhoury@yahoo.com |
| BEIRUT | Tayouneh | Al Moltaka AL Nisaii | TEL: 03/089086 | Mail:almoltakans@hotmail.com |
| BEIRUT | Sanayeh | ZICO HOUSE | TEL: 01/750442 | |
| KESERWAN | JBEIL YWCA | TEL: 03/491141 | TEL: 70/914120 | Mail: ywcajbeil@hotmail.com |
Deadline for registration: November 25/2009 and then 60 women will be chosen depending on their willingness to learn and their commitment.
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One woman's struggle to achieve independence
By Nayla Baraki
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, September 04, 2009
For one woman growing up in the backwaters of a tiny Baabda village in the 1940s, it was a fight to get a high school education. Being female, she was told from a young age that “no girls should leave the village for the sake of education,” and unfortunately, she listened. These early restrictions placed upon her are precisely what prompted Najla Abou Hamzeh to dedicate her life to empowering Lebanese women.
Born in Ebadieh in 1941, Hamzeh has been instrumental in founding the local Ebadieh Day Nursery, the first such institution in that part of Mount Lebanon. She went on from there to front local activism and international trade organizations, and even briefly dabbled in municipal-level politics. But the lack of support she received at the start of her life set a dangerous precedent for the rest of her career.
“In my day, girls weren’t allowed to leave town to finish their high school studies, and since we had no high school in our village, I had to quit school,” Hamzeh says. “I was a victim of traditions, since I was born in a traditional family.”
Hamzeh dates the beginning of her activism to 1977 – a surprising time – just two years into the country’s 15-year Civil War.
“In 1977, I attended the first meeting of the Lebanese Women’s Rights Committee,” she recalled. “That’s when I felt I was able to fulfill my ambitions and express several opinions and ideas that had been suppressed inside me ever since I was a little girl.”
She called the committee a constant source of support, as the group helped her “reach higher positions, and serve my cause in every possible way.”
Now Hamzeh is a serving member of a 15-seat executive board, responsible for taking national-level decisions.
One of Hamzeh’s major concerns is the economic dependence that women face.
“We are still suffering from gender discrimination. When women reach a state of financial independence, no obstacles will stand in their way and they’ll be able to achieve their goals,” she said.
“Lebanon will remain like it is unless women arrive at high-ranking positions and play an effective role in decision-making,” she continued. But while awareness is one thing, Hamzeh looks back on a record of activism as well.
In the height of the Civil War, Hamzeh said one urgent need was to help women gain this financial independence – if they had to stay home and care for children, it would never come about, which jump-started Hamzeh into founding a nursery in 1987, to ease the burden on working mothers.
“This [nursery] was established so that working mothers would feel reassured when leaving their children all day long,” she said. “There was no day nursery at the time in the Aley region of Mount Lebanon at the time, and working women were mostly teachers.”
She then set up a library in the nursery serving the needs of children from the ages of 1 to 4.
“The financial support all came from activities that we carried out, and [from] the members’ contributions,” she fondly recalled.
Read the rest of the article about Women in Technology on our website.
Abadieh PDN - Al-Houda Exhibition 2009
Under the patronnage of Minister Ghazi Aridi
Al Houda Charitable Association
is glad to invite you to its 8th exhibition for Handicrafts-Paintings & Antiques-Rural food-Books
Saturday,August 8/2009 @ 6:30pm-Abadieh Hall.
The exhibition opens daily from 6:00pm till 11:00pm from August8 till August 14/2009