Shaheen I-Tech Lab

You freak out when you have no connectivity, do you not? If you were a woman living somewhere in rural Pakistan, that would be the norm. Hardly any homes there have internet access. It’s hard to get ahead in life with so many barriers to opportunities for education, for employment, for networking.

In Gilgit, there’s a bustling world that’s out of reach to most rural women, which is why college student Shaffiq Noor created the Shaheen I-Tech Lab.

It’s designed to be safe space for women to engage with the rest of the world on the internet, even if they’ve never used a computer before.

Women are welcome regardless of social status, age, or technical skills.

The lab is located in an all-girls school, making it easy for students, teachers, and women of the community to enroll in basic computer courses and more.

Shaffiq hopes to use this Awesome Without Borders grant to purchase more equipment and expand course offerings.

She has great hopes for helping women and girls use these skills to develop their participation in the community’s governance and civic matters, as well as adding to their knowledge of the world and discovering career opportunities and training.

We’ll be thinking about the Shaheen I-Tech Lab next time we’re tempted to complain about only having two bars of cell service.

Learn more at their website, and connect with them on Facebook.