Armed with new skills, graduates of USAID’s programme are ready to take on the world

The first batch of 100 women took courses in a variety of fields, including entrepreneurship.

KARACHI: One hundred women graduated on Friday from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Gender Equity Programme, a five-year project designed to empower women and promote gender equality.

Deputy mission director Edward Birgells distributed certificates to the project’s first graduates at a ceremony organised on Friday at the Avari Hotel. The women were trained in business entrepreneurship, cosmetology, computer skills, food production and fashion design.

“As you utilise this training to find jobs and start your own businesses, know that you will serve as role models to other women seeking to improve their lives, and those of their families,” Birgells told the graduates.

The Aurat Foundation was given the funding for the programme and handed the responsibility to implement it. Subsequently, the Aurat Foundation gave the First Women Bank Limited Rs13.8 million for its Capacity Building and Skill Development Programme. This will support two business development and training centres in Lahore and Karachi which hope to train 640 women over the next two years.

Throughout the training, the women will maintain close links with Women’s Chambers of Commerce, Small Medium Enterprises Development Authority, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and Pakistan Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management so that graduates can find employment. The Gender Equity Programme that kicked off in August 2010 will be completed by August 2015.