2018: Year At a Glance
Dear PWiC Family,
Pakistani Women in Computing (PWiC) has initiated as a Facebook community since 2015, but it was not until 2018 that it got transformed into a global initiative gaining some real momentum with a tangible outcome.
As we approach the end of this year, on behalf of our global community of PWiC, we would like to thank each one of you for being part of this family. Your drive and hard work made a lot of “first” possible this year. We will be entering into 2019 with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to achieve the higher level vision to “Connect, Learn and Growth Together”.
A Successful Year of Community Building, Partnerships and Expansion
2018 has been a year of many firsts for PWiC — here are some highlights:
ABI Syster Community for Pakistani Women in Computing
In 2018, PWiC joined the Anita Borg Institute’s Syster Affinity Group and became a Syster Community. This has allowed us to get connected to the global community of women in computing, get visibility at a global platform and gain access to resources and opportunities for learning and growth with global organizations.
Global and Local Meetups
PWiC held its first global meetup on September 28th, 2018, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (GHC), 2018 in Houston, TX. The GHC attendees from different states within the US, Canada, and Pakistan were present at the meetup.
PWiC Islamabad Chapter held its first official meetup on December 29th, 2018 at National Incubation Center Islamabad. Around fifty participants attended the event. These participants of this meetup were from the local tech community and also traveled from Germany, UK, and the USA to attend the event.
PWiC Seattle also had their first meetup in November 2018 and already gearing up to the next one.
Community Web Portal: pwic.org
PWiC launched the first prototype of the community’s digital platform. It is still a work in progress and will continue to evolve and iterate in the coming months with features that will allow our global community to find resources for their professional learning, growth, and development.
Story Telling
PWiC partnered with wogrammer, a US-based global organization featuring stories of women in STEM from all over the world. Through this partnership, two stories from Pakistan (Faiza Yousaf and Saleha Raza) got featured to their global storytelling list.
Share YourSTEMStory
PWiC initiated its own series of publishing STEM stories to offer more visibility to its global community. In 2018, PWiC has published more than a dozen STEM stories of Pakistani women in computing from all across the globe.
Social Media Presence
PWiC also launched social media interfaces on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn and through those interfaces, the community increased its visibility and outreach to the local and global audience.
Partnerships
PWiC has focused on a number of partnerships and collaborations with the organizations aligned with our vision of connecting, learning and growing together.
- Partnered with CodeGirls Karachi and WomenInTechPK to support their initiative of learning and empowerment of women through funding
- Partnered with IGDA Pakistan to feature stories of Pakistani Women in Gaming
- Partnered with OPEN Islamabad to enable more female representation and participation to their community events
- Partnered with herDomain to enable more flexible career opportunities for women
But most of all, our biggest success this year has been to meet and add so many passionate individuals to the collective. By banding together 1400+ women and their male allies globally we have a stronger voice and are well on our way to making a profound impact on our community.
If you haven’t joined us yet, we hope you will take the time to learn more about us and join us on this journey.
We truly appreciate the opportunity you, the PWiC community, have given us to share with you our passion to Connect, Learn and Grow together. As we prepare for an even bigger 2019 we want to take this moment to pause and celebrate with you and reaffirm our commitment to continuing with you on this journey for many years to come. We are stronger together!
Gratefully Yours,
Farah Ali and Huma Hamid
Co-founders, Pakistani Women In Computing
Year-End Messages from Our Team
Saba Rasheed Malik: PWiC Islamabad Chapter Lead
“2018 is just the beginning to the endless streams of #connectivity to strengthen lifelong #learning to #grow above and beyond. PWiC is gearing up in #2019 with much more exciting and thrilling notions to engage women to pave their paths further being a woman of substance!”
Sundas Khalid: PWiC Seattle Chapter Lead
“What an amazing 2018, PWiC Seattle! We officially formed PWiC Seattle chapter this year, supporting the local community of Pakistani women in computing in the Greater Seattle area. We are amazed by these talented Pakistani women who have flourishing careers and are successfully managing work and life. In 2019, we will continue to highlight such role models in the community in an effort to build relationships locally to problem solve and move our careers forward together. Together, as a stronger professional community, we will empower others. PWiC Seattle is thrilled to announce that in 2019, we will create a returnship program that educates and supports women in tech returning back to the workplace after a long hiatus. We are excited to partner CodeGirls Seattle and other such educational institutes, develop relationships with male allies and sponsors and build an empowering community next year.
Let’s grow together and empower others in 2019.”
Falah Shazib: PWiC Campus Ambassador @ University of Waterloo
“I am so thankful that I’ve been able to be a part of PWiC during its inaugural year and have been able to contribute to the creation of a supportive environment that we so sorely need. Through PWiC, I’ve met so many amazing women that I consider both my friends and role models. I’m excited to see what we will all do as a community in the new year!”
Aiza Hasib: PWiC Campus Ambassador @ Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
“Being part of the PWiC has been one of the highlights of my year and I am excited to see the community grow and reach new heights. It's amazing how much we have achieved in such little time which goes to show the brilliant feats that can be achieved through collective effort. We have some great things planned for this year and I look forward to working towards them.”
Thank you for reading!
Happy New Year!
