Mobilink Empowering Women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through its m-Learning Initiative

Mobilink Foundation, under its ‘Make Your Mark’ initiative, has teamed up with The Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) and GuarantCo for ‘SMS-based Adult Female Literacy Programme’, which is enabling learners to receive ICT based education in close proximity to their homes. Through this initiative, Mobilink Foundation with its partners is educating around 4,050 women in eight rural districts of KPK, including Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Malakand, Haripur, Mansehra, Kohat and Buner.

“Our m-Literacy project started with 250 female learners, and as of now, it has changed the lives of more than 10,000 women across the country. Success of the program is based on the utilization of mobile as an educational tool, enabling us to reach areas without any formal schooling systems. Another factor is the customised curriculum for sustained and practical learning, which gains interest of the learners. The focus of our program is on facilitating these women to manage domestic finances in a better manner and play a more productive role at community, family and individual levels,” said Omar Manzur, Head of Corporate Communications – Mobilink. “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has reiterated their full support for this program, and will facilitate with the on-ground execution of the initiative” he further added.

Since community mobilisation was deemed a cornerstone to make this initiative sustainable, Mobilink Foundation’s partner I-SAPS created ‘Village Education Support Committees’ throughout the eight districts, whose members include respected elders and influential individuals. 

As a result, I-SAPS not only had an all-out community support in identification of teachers and learners in each of the 154 villages, but also managed to establish 160 easily-accessible Adult Literacy Centres, where adult females of ages between 15 and 35 have been enrolled and imparted basic literacy skills.

“Given the traditional constraints in the KPK province, our success has been dependant on navigating through the cultural barriers effectively by community mobilisation and the innovation of infusing literacy with ICT in the close proximity of the learners’ homes,” said Ahmed Ali, Senior Research Fellow - I-SAPS.

Under the ‘SMS-based Adult Female Literacy Programme’, learners gain some level of literacy during their five-month basic literacy coursework along with the provision of a mobile phone in order to practice and further develop their newly acquired skills.

The ‘Make Your Mark’ initiative is a key element ofVimpelCom’s corporate responsibility strategy, with the objective of ‘Helping young people shape their future’.  It aims to provide young people with technology tools, support and mentoring, and in some cases access to basic education, to help them tackle these challenges at an individual, community and national level – to shape their future.

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Telco installs six state-of-the-art ICT labs at partner schools under its ‘Make Your Mark’ initiative

Mobilink has successfully completed its nationwide ‘ICT Enhancement Program’ in partnership with Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP). Under the program, Mobilink has set up six state of the art ICT labs in its partner schools to ensure youth from marginalized communities are equipped to thrive in the fast evolving digital economy.

This initiative, launched five months ago, saw Mobilink and PCP join hands to identify schools in need of ICT labs, with PCP being made responsible for ensuring that the recipients are serving marginalized social classes.PCP’s involvement also made the process transparent and impartial.  The program will now reach out to almost 3500 deserving students of primary and secondary schools operating in rural and peri-urban areas every six month.

The schools who have received these ICT labs are, Nasra School – Karachi, Govt. Girls High School - Bagh AJK, ZunairaMallah School – Hyderabad, Read Foundation Higher Secondary School – Gilgit, Government Girls High School – Quetta, and HDF Model School – Mardan.

According to Omar Manzur, Head of Corporate Communications – Mobilink, the Telco continues to ensure all objectives set under its ‘Make Your Mark’ initiative are carried forth on a continuous basis with proper planning. “Mobilinkaimsat promoting innovation, integration and inspiration in a bid toensure the initiatives carried out under our ‘Make Your Mark’ program are providingmaximum support to a variety of beneficiaries in Pakistan. The ultimate objective of MYM is enabling a generation of educated and tech-literate young people, a goal which will be achieved with the continuous implementation of our ‘ICT Enhancement Program’ across the country,” he stated.

“I would also like to applaud the contribution of our partner Pakistan Center for Philanthropy, Mobilink’s Regional Mentors and Torchbearers in the successful implementation of the project. The recognition that Mobilink’s social investments so frequently receive locally and internationally is a reflection of hard work and dedication that goes into managing our community foot print in the regions,” Omar Manzurfurther added.

The overall aim of Mobilink’s latest social investment is to contribute towards the academic nurturing of young scholars who will become part of the emergent digital economy and to establish a generation of successful entrepreneurs who can provide for themselves and their families. With the addition of the 6 recently established labs, Mobilink has now established a total of 11 computer labs in various educational institutions across the country.

This ‘ICT Enhancement Program’ was launched in line with VimpelCom’s global ‘Make Your Mark’ initiative, a key element of VimpelCom’s corporate responsibility strategy, with the objective of ‘Helping young people shape their future’. It aims to provide young people with technology tools, support and mentoring, and in some cases access to basic education, to help them tackle these challenges at an individual, community and national level – to shape their future. 

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Mobilink has Launched ‘Make Your Mark’ as its Flagship Corporate Responsibility Initiative

Mobilink has launched its flagship Corporate Responsibility initiative – Make Your Mark. The 'Make Your Mark' initiative is a key element of VimpelCom's corporate responsibility strategy, with the objective of 'Helping young people shape their future'.  'Make Your Mark' recognizes the challenges that today's young people face regarding issues such as poverty, youth unemployment, inadequate healthcare and education, food security, resource scarcity and climate change – reinforced by a rapidly growing population.  It aims to provide young people with technology tools, support and mentoring, and in some cases access to basic education, to help them tackle these challenges at an individual, community and national level – to shape their future. Under the Make Your Mark umbrella Mobilink has partnered with LUMS Center of Entrepreneurship, Institute of Social and Policy Sciences, GuarantCo and Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP) and is working on setting up an incubator for budding entrepreneurs, expanding its mLiteracy program to reach out to an additional 3750 rural females and establishing 6 state-of-the-art ICT labs at schools adopted by NGOs.

Anusha Rehman, Minister for IT, speaking at the launch said:

"The Government of Pakistan is committed towards implementing the latest technology to enable the youth of Pakistan. Make Your make is an encouraging step from Mobilink and will go a long way in supporting the Government's strategy of enabling the young generation of Pakistan through technological advancements."

Minister of IT further added: 

"The government is confident that together with this interest, investment and support of corporate organization we will be able to capitalized the telecommunications infrastructure for socio-economic development of Pakistan"

Jeffrey Hedberg, President & CEO Mobilink, commenting on the launch of Make Your Mark said, 

"Make Your Mark is a unique initiative that feeds directly into Mobilink's corporate responsibility strategy and aims at helping young people in Pakistan through technology, expertise and knowledge. The initiatives planned under the program will offer support to a variety of beneficiaries to tackle the socio-economic challenges in Pakistan. The ultimate aim of MYM is enabling a generation of educated and tech-literate young people. We have partnered with three global organizations LUMS, DFID and GuarantCo for Make Your Mark.  I am confident that Make Your Mark will contribute significantly in shaping the future of our youth by equipping them with the latest technology." 

He then also thanked the Minister of IT, Anusha Rehman for her valuable time and kind patronage.  

Furthermore, Mobilink has also developed Mobilink Guardian; an android based app working with a young startup Virtual Proz. Mobilink Guardian Service notifies your loved ones of your location. Currently being offered on Android Handsets, the service when trigged uses GSM and GPS to transmit prompter's location to up to 5 user-listed contacts via customizable SMS alerts. This service can be prompted by simply pressing power button thrice. 

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