The initiative of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Herself, aspires to provide training and develop skills of budding women entrepreneurs. In addition, it also cultivates workable and prospering business projects for women to work from home. Recently, the first cohort of the Herself initiative got concluded.
Commencement of Herself initiative
The need of this project was strongly felt when the analysis of entrepreneurs and freelancers exhibited substantial inconsistency in ratios of women with men. The notion of Herself initiative is to provide a platform to all such women where they can get training and mentoring. As a result, it will allow them to transform their ideas into powerful businesses.
Herself initiative opened online applications and conducted interviews of selected candidates after the official launch of the program. Thereafter, the selected candidates were further shortlisted for the training where they were trained on various topics including marketing and finance.
The project was launched at a ceremony which took place at Arfa Software Technology Park on 28th September. Furthermore, the event was attended by some of the key women entrepreneurs of Pakistan where they expressed their views and guidelines. Prominent personalities like Sana Mela, Hirra Babar (Co-founder SMAG) and Rameeza Mueen (CEO of Transparent Hands) participated in the panel discussion on the topic of ‘breaking social barriers’ which was moderated by Assistant Program Manager of Plan9, Zainab Tariq.
The aforementioned women shared their journey, experiences and gave advice on how to step ahead in our part of the world. While addressing the audience, Rameeza Mueen stated:
“Be confident. It comes with self-esteem. Do not indulge in self-pity”
On the other hand, Sana Mela was of the view that:
“You have to learn to identify your goals every day. It will keep you focused”
The statement of Sana was followed by Hirra who said:
“We all put up a face but at the end of the day we need to be true to ourselves”
Winner of the competition and PITB’s Chairman Message
A business idea competition took place among the top 3 women of the graduated cohort who were selected after a defined procedure. The final of the competition was won by a final year student of FAST, Mir Ratwah. The 2nd and 3rd positions were obtained by Seemab Akbar and Wafa Tahir respectively.
Chairman of PITB, Dr. Umar Saif who was also present on the occasion, while giving his message to the cohort stated:
“Go out and make us proud. You have all the potential and opportunity to do it. You have all the facilitators to help you get through dark days. However, you will have to go through repeated failures till you become successful”
You can apply for the second cohort by clicking here. The last date to apply is 16th October 2016. All aspiring and budding women entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for the program. There is no age limit and the training is absolutely free. So hurry up!
