The new year at Ananke – a digital media and development platform – begins with the commencement of its flagship capacity building program, Empower, on January 16th, 2023. The remote initiative will welcome the new cohort with participants from the African, South Asian and North American regions.
Empower program was launched in 2016 and has mentored and trained more than 75 trailblazing women from across the world. Ananke has currently partnered with leading organizations and world renowned field experts to kickstart the program in January 2023. Partners include organizations like London School of Economics’ think-tank JournalismAI, Pollicy, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Media Matters for Democracy, WomeninTechPK, and The Gender Security Project.
Talking about the collaboration, Ananke’s longtime partner and collaborator – workshop facilitator, Kirthi Jayakumar, Founder The Gender Security Project, said: “I look forward to being part of Empower – Ananke is my go-to for a wealth of knowledge and information, and I’m so glad to be able to contribute!”
Empower program’s guest speaker, Arpita Das, Founder-Publisher of the independent publishing house Yoda Press, also spoke about the capacity building program, saying: “The Empower Program by Ananke is a fantastic opportunity for young professional women in the literary and media fields to come together in a spirit of comradeship and sisterhood even as they deepen their understanding of the industry and ecosystems they are part of.”
Participants include women not just from the media industry, but also from tech and legal professions as well as graduate communications students.
Some of the participants selected include, in alphabetical order: Areeba Iqbal Qureshi, a third-year Law student at the Ziauddin University Faculty of Law, Politics, and Governance (ZFLPG), Pakistan. Her present position at the ZFLPG Centre for Law & Technology is a research associate.
Alishba Fazal-ur-Rehman is currently enrolled in the fifth semester of LLB at Ziauddin University, Karachi. She is also a research associate at the Ziauddin University, Center for Law and Technology, and an intern at Climate and environment initiative (CEI) at the Research Society for international law (RSIL).
Ankita is a writer, thinker, and content creator whose work revolves around gender, sexuality, and digital desires. She is a communications associate at the Delhi-based organization Nirantar Trust-A Centre for Gender and Education.
Bridget Kezaabu is an advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Uganda. She believes that every woman deserves access to SRHR and is using technology to promote this information.
Lareeb Tariq is Pakistani marketing and communications specialist with seven years of experience.
Madiha Mughees has been enthusiastic about writing since she was merely a 1st grader. She believes that words have this magical tendency to transform the world. She wishes to impact hearts and minds through her writings and also wishes to work with the underprivileged to help them self-actualize and rise. She begrudges how the whole world is revolving around corporate motives and humans are being manipulated into thinking that owning more is the key to greatness and so the haves and have nots divide is growing; this is the main agenda of her writings.
Mitchel Ondili is a Lawyer and Tech Policy professional. Her primary areas of interest are the impact of internet communications on democratic practices, Open Data, Artificial Intelligence, and the public digital sphere.
Muheen Zaman is a citizen Journalist from Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan. She has a Masters degree in Media and Communication Studies. She has been working as citizen journalist for the last three year.
Noor Arslan is from Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently studying Media Sciences at ZCOMS.
Nuzhat Nisar is an academic writer, editor, and translator based in Pakistan. With over ten years of editorial experience, she is currently associated with Paramount Books as an editor, working on school textbooks and curricula.
Sara Danial is a Pakistani writer/editor. Her writing has been published in Dawn, The News on Sunday, The Friday Times, Pakistan and Gulf Economist, South Asia, BOL, The Friday Times, The Nation and The Express Tribune.
Shereen Kareem has been involved in the field of journalism in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan for the past seven years. She has worked as an investigative journalist in several newspapers of Gilgit-Baltistan. She has also worked as a freelance journalist with BBC Urdu and Independent Urdu.
Tahseen Zia, based in Karachi, Pakistan is currently enrolled at Ziauddin University undergraduate program for communication design.
Terry is a Kenyan journalist with seven years of experience in both print and TV Journalism. I love telling compelling African stories from a grassroots level, focusing on innovation, culture, politics and societal change.
Ventura Kireki holds an LLB degree from Riara University in Nairobi Kenya.
Yeukai Ottilia Munetsi is a journalist from Zimbabwe and her passion is to see women excelling in media and various spaces.
The current cohort will focus on topics as varied as climate change, leveraging AI for media and communication, feminist peace journalism, feminist foreign policy, impact of DEI at the workplace, Digital Rights are Human Rights, editing and more.
“Access to the right resources and network can be life-changing for the driven person. The younger me did not have access to mentors and had to figure out the answers through trial and error. For this cohort of young women, the EMPOWER initiative will bring valuable insights, guidance and perspectives on life and career. It’s also an important thing for young girls to learn the value of strong, growth-centered communities. Ananke is a living example of ‘When you don’t find what you want to see in the world, go ahead and create it,” Empower program’s guest speaker, Naima Rashid, author, brand strategist and founder of a UK-based boutique branding studio, bluum
Ananke has been nominated twice by the World Summit on Information Society Prizes (2019 & 2020) for its digitally inclusive work on gender. Ananke is a Generation Equality Forum Commitment Maker.
