Lafarge Egypt, a member of Holcim Group, announced on Monday its Employment of Young Women Programme in cooperation with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) through the Applied Gender Diversity Management (GDM) in the MENA region. To further the principles of gender equality, women empowerment, and inclusion in the business environment, Lafarge and GIZ will be offering a summer internship for eight female school-students, with the aim of creating equitable opportunities and promoting diversity in the cement industry, a heavily male-dominated sector. This initiative comes in line with both Lafarge Egypt and GIZ's continuous commitment to Sustainable Development Goals and Egypt Vision 2030. "Complying with Holcim's global strategy towards diversity and inclusion, Lafarge Egypt is proud to encourage women to explore their potential in various fields." Solomon Baumgartner Aviles, chief executive of Lafarge Egypt, said. "We are committed to creating a safe space for women to be themselves while achieving professional accomplishments, building a sustainable and innovative business for the future that supports Egypt's vision 2030." Noha Bakr, Country Communications and Corporate Affairs Director of Lafarge Egypt, further explained: "Through the two-weeks programme, we introduce schoolgirls (14-16 years) to the working world at Lafarge Egypt. "We are helping these young females to make an informed decision regarding their field of study and professional future. The interns will get a hands-on experience in the HR, communications, marketing, IT and business development departments on a rotational basis." "They will be trained and given tasks to experience the job nature of the different functions and realise their capabilities." Bakr added. Meanwhile, Hania Elkady, GIZ Advisor at EconoWin, said: "We are delighted to cooperate with Lafarge Egypt to provide the orientation needed to enable the younger generation to further integrate women in the economy and to encourage them to have successful future and career path" Lafarge Egypt has been investing in other women empowerment programmes such as "TE'DARY Programme" which focused on raising the awareness of 80 women and girls regarding gender equality and their capacity to achieve economic sustainability in Tura district near Cairo. The programme worked on two pillars. The first is based on raising participants' self-awareness and enhancing their knowledge about gender equality. The second pillar aims to provide vocational and economic training seminars / workshops to raise the efficiency of women and girls, in terms of life skills for a decent quality of life.
