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"Springboard for women"

Sunday 7/3/2010 March, 2010, 12:53 AM Doha Time

Read article directly on the Gulf Times website.

Under the auspices of the chairwoman of the Qatari Business Women Forum (QBWF), Sheikha al-Anoud bint Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the British Council and the QBWF are celebrating International Women’s Day tomorrow by hosting a Springboard networking dinner.

The dinner, taking place at Al Sharq Village and Spa, is aimed at supporting the empowerment of women, the primary objective of the Springboard course.

In line with the theme, a number of prominent women will attend the dinner. They include Sheikha Hessah bint Khalifa bin Ahmad al-Thani and British writer Shelina Jan Mohamad. Shelina’s visit is sponsored by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, the first national publishing house. She will join more than 150 women at the dinner.

The Springboard self-development programme is designed to encourage women to achieve as much as they can in both their personal and professional lives and the aim of the inaugural dinner is to assist them in networking with other women in Qatar.

Springboard was first introduced by the British Council in collaboration with the QBWF in 2009, and since then a number of organisations have adopted the initiative to help develop the skills and confidence of their female members and employees.

With so many women taking part in the scheme across the country, the natural progression was to bring them together to share their experiences, and so the British Council and the QWBF have arranged the upcoming dinner to support their networking efforts.

The dinner will also serve as a launching point for the creation of a database of women. The database will be available as a reference point for all women in the network and will list their skills and interests. This will also serve as an index of trainers who are able to run their own programmes.

Springboard aims towards the development of the role of women within Middle Eastern societies as well as an increased understanding between women from the region and the UK. To achieve these aims the project consists of a number of strands: the Springboard self-development programmes, the local and regional networks and also the establishment of links which will see organisations from the Middle East create ties with others in the UK.

British Council Director Simon Winetroube expressed his pleasure at the success of the Springboard programme so far and looked forward to the future of the initiative, saying: “We are delighted to be hosting our first networking dinner with the Qatari Business Women Forum.”

“We hope that this dinner will be the beginning of a rich network among women in Qatar,” he said, adding “our role will be to keep women informed of any event that offers them the opportunities to network and improve their skills and to open connections for them to the UK.”

Vice Chairwoman of the QBWF Aisha Alfardan said: “We are joining efforts with all local and international partners who believe in the importance of women empowerment. At this dinner, not only we will celebrate the International Women’s Day but we will also provide women with a valuable opportunity to network with other women and activate these networks towards fruitful collaboration”.