Daily Times

The British Council in Pakistan in continuing its partnership with the WOW Foundation, is participating in WOW Global 24 scheduled to take place on June 27-28.

“The British Council believes that empowering women and girls, and achieving gender equality is crucial to creating inclusive, open and prosperous societies,” a statement issued by the organization read. “The UK is committed to addressing the gendered impacts of Covid-19, providing access to information and resources to combat its effects, and reducing violence, abuse and harassment against children, women and marginalised groups,” it added.

Founded by Jude Kelly, WOW – Women of the World celebrates the achievements of women and girls and looks at some of the obstacles they face across the world. Working with and through WOW – Women of the World Festival, the British Council is supporting platforms to encourage connections, understanding and trust to build an equitable world.

In the last 10 years, WOW – Women of the World Festival has been held in 53 countries globally.

Since 2016, the British Council in Pakistan has been hosting WOW festival. The third festival in 2019 attracted over 16000 people from all walks of life. WOW Global 24 is an extension of the discussion that took place there and more.

Yamina Peerzada, Harsakhiyan, Dr Fozia Tahir, Nighat Dad and Anoushey Ashraf are taking part from Pakistan in the first ever WOW 24-Hour online global festival.

“In times of Covid-19, the WOW Foundation with its WOW Festival’s Global 24 plans to keep the conversation going through the first ever free 24-hour online festival,” the statement read. “These are difficult times for all people especially the vulnerable groups. Women make up a significant part of vulnerable groups and with the pandemic wreaking its havoc and the economic slowdown resulting from it, the challenges for women have increased manifold. Women entrepreneurs are finding it very difficult to sustain themselves and working women especially those who are single parents are finding it harder to juggle work and caring responsibilities,” it went on to say. “With marginalised communities and low-income households, an economic slowdown might mean fewer girls’ being schooled and being at risk of dropping out of school which may result in their early marriage to ‘ease’ the supposed economic burden,” it added.