Dell signs MoU with ministry of ICT to empower women entrepreneurs

Harjeet Rekhi, general manager of Dell, South Asia Developing Markets and N I Khan, secretary, ministry of ICT exchange MoU at the event.

Dell last Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ministry of ICT that will enable Dell and the Ministry of ICT to work together to promote grass root entrepreneurs through technology.
Dell has taken a marketing initiative called 'Dell She Power' with a vision to enable and empower women to embrace technology and lead their families out of poverty.
Sonia Bashir Kabir, country manager of Dell, Bangladesh shared her mission in an interview with The Daily Star.
She got the approval to launch the marketing initiative in December last year.
This is the first time such an initiative has been taken in Dell.
"But it's not just a marketing initiative. There is more to it - how we can work with grass root entrepreneurs with a Dell solution," she said.
"As a part of the initiative we will be publishing quarterly informative magazine  called 'Dell She Power', hold events under the  'Dell She Power' banner where we will share the work women entrepreneurs are engaged in and award grass root women entrepreneurs for their performance.
Dell has been working with the Ministry of Women & Children Affairs to award the top performers under the 'Joyeeta' project.
Dell She Power aims to connect women with markets for economic empowerment and employment; empower women with technology and grow the revenue size of women entrepreneurs.
In Bangladesh, women constitute nearly half of the total population, with 80 per cent residing in rural areas. The rural women need education, access to ICT and training.
Dell plans to set up the cloud Infrastructure to connect women across the 64 districts of Bangladesh.
"I dream of the day when I can bring IT as a profession to Bangladeshi women. We have undertaken a project where we would like to bring 1, 00,000 women to cloud in phases," she said.
The Ministry of ICT is very supportive and secretary of the ministry, NI Khan is a true visionary. His interest in our project has been a very rewarding experience.
Dell is calling these women entrepreneurs Dell Divas and is very keen to have these women trained on becoming Dell Service engineers in the near future.
"To become a service engineer you do not need a college degree, you just need basic intelligence and manual dexterity," Kabir said adding "This way they will also have career opportunity."
In the cloud there will be content categories from education to entertainment. The data centre will also have space for other content that can be hosted for free.
We applaud Dell for taking such an honorable initiative in Bangladesh. Dell She Power is the brainchild of Sonia and her passion to work in Bangladesh and for Bangladesh is exemplary.