As we close our first year of operations, it is my pleasure to share with you the highlights of the first year accomplishments and the outlook to the years beyond. WIT board has prepared a detailed report for your information, and I hope that you will take the time to review it and share with us your feedback, insights, praise, and critique. It is only by working together, and by learning from our mistakes that we become a stronger organization.
The highlights of the first year can be summarized as follows.
We were able to secure our first grant from AMIDEAST/USAID who funded our web site development effort. The website hosts all information about our organization as well as information related to working women such as “working women rights”, “working woman tips”, etc. The web site was launched on June 14, in a ceremony attended by Raouf Youssef, Waleed Maalouf from USAID, and other donors, members, and friends. Updating the web site is an ongoing activity, a huge effort has gone into it but still needs improvement. Maya Jajeh, head of the website committee, is leading this process.
Israel’s war against Lebanon in July 2006, brought a brutal halt to our starting momentum. WIT found itself helping with the relief efforts as Zico House is only meters away from the Sanayeh public garden which hosted the first refugees from South Lebanon. Whereas, relief work is very far from WIT’s mission and objectives, WIT learned a great deal in terms of women needs and in need of empowerment. It was clear working with the refugees, that women and children were the most vulnerable in the perpetual cycle of violence. Unfortunately, WIT did not recover its momentum until late September due to the members’ temporary relocation outside Lebanon until then. Also, a debate took place within WIT: Should we follow the refugees to their villages and create activities for them?” or continue our mission?. At the end, WIT was better off coming back to its original vision and mission… and that’s what we did.
Our membership grew from 12 to 26 members in the first year. We held our first general assembly meeting in October. During that meeting, we formed the following committees: Advocacy (headed by Hala Makarem), Schools (headed by Mahassen Ajam), Job Fair (headed by Lama Sawma), Governance (headed by Hiam Khachen), and Website (headed by Maya Jajeh).
During this first year, the majority of the work accomplished was “a-behind-the-scenes” work i.e. visioning, aligning, and governance. In its mission statement, WIT wishes to “improve the lives of all women through the usage of ICT technology”. While this is our long-term goal, we realized that it will be necessary to work on “a women segment” in order to ensure success. We developed a three-year plan around IT awareness for young girls (15-17 years old). The main WIT activities will hence be related to visiting schools, youth camps, and other NGOs where we can meet young girls and educate them. At the end of the day, WIT’s added value and competitive differentiating factor is the ability of its members to inspire young girls by saying “I have been there and I have done that!”. WIT members are the role models and the living examples of empowered women who come from various backgrounds, have numerous likes and various aspirations.
As we are proceeding slowly but surely, we are careful to build the processes to insure transparency, accountability, and good governance. Believe me, this is not a piece of cake. Saying is one thing and ensuring that our internal and external processes are set up to naturally align with our objectives, is completely different. To date, all WIT members are professionals in the field of Information Technology, a field very remote from social work. Running an NGO, implementing social programs, and insuring a sound governance process at the same time is a skill that we as board members are still learning. We are updating our constitution and this is why you will be asked during the General Assembly to vote on the changes we are introducing to the constitution. Hiam Khachen, head of governance committee, is leading this process.
You will find in this report WIT’s vision for the remaining two years. My personal objectives for WIT are to set the wheels in motion and in automatic drive. Within the first three years, WIT should have a sound operational model, and a limited number of core activities. Once we master the core, we can then expand to new dimensions.
I hope you enjoy reading the yearly report and I look forward to seeing you all in the coming General Assembly.
2006 Annual Report
