As part of Coca-Cola’s global initiative to ensure economic empowerment for women, Women Business Center by The Coca-Cola Foundation & United Purpose was launched 7 years ago in Bangladesh. Aligning with this year’s global theme for International Women’s Day, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” a mega campaign across the nation was held under the theme “The Role of the Women Business Centre-(WBC) in Improv- ing Access to Digital Tools for the Community & Women”, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The grand celebration started off with the series of community engagements at the 100 WBCs on 23rd February and went on till 8th March. Both organizations arranged for knowledge sharing sessions for participants to impart the value of digital & IT innovation to ensure gender equality. Apart from the knowledge sharing session, there were also eye checkup and telemedicine campaign for the participants. Approximately 10,000 women entrepreneurs and beneficiaries took part in the celebration and received basic eye and health checkup.
While the women entrepreneurs were engaged in their communities, there was three district level engagement in Gopalganj, Jamalpur and Sunamganj. More than 700 women entrepreneurs and beneficiaries attended the engage- ments. The district government stakeholders and beneficiaries were presented with the initiative findings and the impact of the joint initiatives. A fair was also arranged at each of the engagements to showcase the Real Magic of WBCs.
The grand celebration was concluded with the national level engagement on 12th March at the Department of Women’s Affair, where the project partner organized a discussion session on “The Role of Women Business Centre Model-(WBC) in Improving Access to Digital Tools for Rural Women", where participants from private and public sectors along with representatives from local and international NGOs took part. The Director General of Department of Women Afiairs, Farida Pervin attended the workshop as the chief guest.
To make the celebration memorable, 10 women entrepreneurs were recognized for their commendable success in business ventures like IT services, poultry businesses, telemedicine services and other categories. They were also recognized for their contribution in the development of the communities.
