Company s visiting female delegation notes the importance of engaging women CAIRO: Fifteen computers are now available at the Dar El Tarbia Center, to be made use of by the youths residing there and employees. The Microsoft project that was inaugurated this week aims at enabling the first trainees to start training their counterparts in the future in order for the cycle to continue. With the Global Summit for Women in the background of the inaugural event, the project also includes educating women residing in the area, training them on computer usage and providing them with equipment and skills required for beginning small businesses. Some women will be provided with home PCs so as to allow them to work from home. We are big believers that technology could have a very strong impact on people s lives, says Karim Ramadan, general manager of Microsoft Egypt. If you teach people how to use PCs and how to use technology and how to use our software, first of all they have a much richer life. Secondly and maybe more importantly, they actually have a great opportunity for employment, he adds. The role of Microsoft in Egypt is to really help Egypt realize its full potential, he says. The company has had several projects on this front. He notes the collaboration between the company and the Egyptian government in a number of projects. First is the e-government project; besides easing bureaucratic procedures, the project also enlists the help of local companies. Now these companies, he continues, have become experts in e-government. Some have actually begun to do e-government projects in other places in the Middle East and in Africa, explains Ramadan. The same occurred with the home PC initiative, according to Ramadan. Through the project 300,000 computers, with the latest software and hardware, were made available at affordable prices, and again local companies got a chance to grow. Thirty local Egyptian companies are participating, so we ve actually created a local PC industry. And the important part [concerning] the economic side is that a lot of these big assemblers are now exporting, he says. There is also the education initiative. It s about reforming education and using technology to enhance the level of education and give a better quality education to students in schools and in universities, he explains. The Dar El Tarbia project is not the first of its kind developed by Microsoft. Ramadan says the 1,200 technology centers that Microsoft has installed throughout the country have thousands of graduates. He specifically points to an earlier project in Siwa, where women received the chance to learn computer usage and required skills for starting their small businesses. This fits in with the theme highlighted at the Global Summit for Women, he adds. The summit, which was held in Cairo for the first time this week, focuses on developing the business identity of women around the world, highlighting the role of information technology. This year saw the participation of a large delegation from Microsoft female employees from 33 countries. I think it [the size of the delegation] is reflective of the company s understanding of the importance of women in the global economy and within our company as well, says Joanne Harrell, the general manager of the Microsoft executive Relationship program. From an internal perspective, [this participation] helps our women raise their level or enlightenment and understanding of our commonalty and share issues with women on a global level, says Harrell. That expanding of awareness, I think, will make Microsoft a better global corporate citizen. About 15 women from the 117-member delegation attended the inauguration of the Dar El Tarbia Center. A number of the company's employees have contributed with donations in establishing the project. One of the beautiful things about women is just the way we are, is that we care. We care about our families. We care about our communities as well, says Harrell, And so, what we see around the world is engagement; women looking across their communities to figure out, number one, where is the need and then number two how can MS engage and support that need. Harrell says that many ideas for community service projects that Microsoft sponsored around the world had first originated at earlier summits through the communication between women. One of the topics discussed at this year s summit was the need for role models and mentors. The same topic was also highlighted at the special women s day the company organized for the visiting delegation and Egyptian employees. It s important for the women that work in Microsoft Egypt to have mentors, says Ramadan. Through the networking that took place at the company event and later at the summit, it became clear that explaining the options available to each one helps both the company and women grow. In our company people are [the] most important asset, Harrell explains. Microsoft s edge comes from the people that we hire . It is important for us to make sure that our people, all people within the company, are able to contribute fully. Ramadan also notes the importance of getting Microsoft women to mentor others outside the company. One of the things that we ve done is that we have a speaking engagement schedule, whereby company female employees talk about their working experience with university students, trainees at technology centers, there was a session in Siwa, and elsewhere, says Ramadan. The company also sponsored the ministerial roundtable that preceded the summit. The high profile meeting emphasized the use of information technology in the advancement of women. It is an opportunity for us to communicate directly with some of our most important stakeholders; the ministers themselves, with whom we have a relationship, says Harrell explaining the choice to sponsor this specific session. The company wants to communicate its focus on global citizenship and [its] focus on helping everyone around the world realize their full potential, she adds.
