Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs

IBM strongly believes that companies, like individuals, have a responsibility to put something back into the community in which they live and work. An important focus of our efforts is in the education sector. IBM has a long history of supporting projects which are designed to strengthen education levels and quality throughout the world.

Our reason for this focus is simply, that we believe a company can only be successful when it operates in a successful community and communities can only be successful when they have a well-educated population.

Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs (US)

IBM Pakistan CCCA Projects:

IBM inks KidSmart agreement with the Ministry of Education, Sindh

2008 was IBM's 3rd successful year in rolling out their worldwide KidSmart program in Pakistan. This sets as a great achievement for IBM Pakistan as now we have partnered with the Ministry of Education Sindh, and donated these innovative learning units for their Government schools.

In addition, IBM Pakistan also partnered with various NGOS in donating these innovative learning units with printers. Of them include Edhi Foundation at Bilguis Edhi Female Child Home, Kaghan Memorial Trust, Developments in Literacy and Ministry of Education, Sindh

Each IBM KidSmart Early Learning Centre consist of colourful and durable 'Little Tikes' desk and bench seats for children working in groups of two or three with award- wining educational software and a colour printer. The centres are supported by Teachers' Guide, online training and multi lingual website for teachers and parents. In addition teachers who have been involved in this program can participate in collaborative professional development, web-based tools which support effective communications and collaboration.

Saher Sohail, Communication Analyst, IBM Pakistan handling over the agreements to Haleema Edhi at Edhi Foundation

 

Khurram Khan, Managing Trustee of KMT with Adnan Siddiqui, Sales Manager North, IBM Pakistan at the KidSmart handing over ceremony

 

IBM KidSmart Early Learning Programme

As part of IBM’s commitment to community leadership longside technical leadership and its aim to help develop a knowledge based society in more than 50 countries around the world, IBM is continuing its spirit of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affair by providing its KidSmart Early Learning Programme in Pakistan to the three NGOs namely Behbud Association, Developments in Literacy and The Citizens Foundation to address the digital divide in access to Information Technology.

Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, Minister of Education, Sindh inaugurating the KidSmart unit. Also present were Shazia Marri, Minister of Information, Sindh, Shafiq Ahmed Khoso, Secretary Education and Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan

 

In this regard IBM organized a KidSmart Day at Marriott Hotel in Karachi where IBM donated the KidSmart units to the heads of these NGOs. Speaking on the occasion, Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan said that we are presenting a programme that aims to support very young children in underprivileged communities who currently have no access to IT and gives them a chance to learn , share and create knowledge that ultimately will contribute to the establishment of a new, more highly developed society.

Naheed Mirza, CEO, Behbud Association, Saeeda Fancy, President of DIL, Shazia Marri, Minister of Information, Sindh, Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan, Pir-Mazhar-ul-Haq, Minister of Education, Sindh, Shafiq Ahmed Khoso, Secretary Education, Sindh, Mohammad Zakir, Secretary IT, Sindh and Lt. General S. P Shahid, CEO, TCF

 

Also, present on the occasion were children from schools where these Kidsmart units will be placed by the NGOs, Government dignitaries and IBMers.

About KidSmart

IBM developed KidSmart in 1999 to extend its partnership programmes in the education sector to the critical pre-school years and demonstrate how IT can be applied to improve educational achievement through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and help prepare children for the Knowledge Society, particularly in disadvantaged communities that have very limited or no access to IT.

KidSmart is an exciting initiative for IBM in Pakistan and we have been delighted to donate 12 specially designed computers, set in a colorful housing made by leading toy manufacturer Little Tikes, which are child proof, especially designed to be appealing to children to these NGOs. The units allow two or more children to work together, sharing learning experiences, teach them team work and collaboration while making them comfortable to technology. It not only facilitates the kids but it also helps the teachers to collaborate with the other teachers around the globe, which will help them open up new levels of experiences.

IBM Helps NIIT to Establish Linux Competency Center

IBM established a Linux Competency Center at NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Rawalpindi in June 2007. This Linux Competency Center will help customers, students, developers and business partners in Pakistan to experience and test Linux hands-on and to explore the benefits of open standards-based computing. In addition, IBM is extending its Scholars Program to offer free software, course material and access to IBM Portals to major Universities in Pakistan and discussions with some universities e.g. FAST etc. are underway. The Teach the Teachers program will span several Universities and teachers will be trained at NIIT. As part of establishing the center, IBM has donated its range of enterprise systems (including pSeries Unix Servers, Intel Processor-based xSeries and BladeCenter servers, TotalStorage), Printers, PCs, CISCO equipment - all of the hardware running on Linux SuSE deployed by IBM Global Technology Services team. IBM will also provide free hardware and software services for the first year. In addition, IBM Middleware software will be used by NIIT in their curriculum for graduate and undergraduate students under IBM Academic Initiative program.

KidSmart Donation to TCF and Khubaib Foundation

In order to continue Pakistan Earthquake Relief Efforts, IBM Pakistan donated Little Tikes KidSmart units to The Citizens Foundation (TCF) and Khubaib Foundation, both working as nonprofit organization in Pakistan.

KidSmart consists of a colorful, robust, housing for a PC, specially designed with high quality early learning software. It is a corporate program which aims to develop skills of children of 3-7 years age.

In this regard, IBM Pakistan held a signing ceremony with TCF in Karachi. Present on the occasion, Lt. Gen. (R) S.P. Shahid, CEO of TCF, illustrated that these units would be used in the TCF schools to assists towards the learning process of children. IBM also donated four ThinkPad laptops which he said would be utilized in the relief related works in the earthquake affected areas. Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan, said that the idea here is to present a friendly and easy to learn environment for the preschoolers to experience interaction with high understanding and fun.

A similar event was held at Khubaib Foundation in Islamabad. Speaking on the occasion, Nadeem Ahmad, Chairman, Khubaib Foundation, appreciated IBM's efforts as a socially responsible corporate citizen. Syed Khalid Rahman, Channels and Communications Manager, IBM Pakistan, said that this would enrich the quality of learning and problem solving skills in children. Also present on the occasion were M. Nasir, Vice Chairman, Khubaib Foundation, Yousuf Ahmed, Ex-Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan & Earthquake Relief Coordinator on behalf of IBM Pakistan, and other team members from Khubaib Foundation and IBM Pakistan.