PAGE Blog Business Weekly Magazine
Interview with Ms Tara Uzra Dawood – President, Dawood Global Foundation
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:
Tara Uzra Dawood: I am the CEO of Dawood Capital Management Ltd and the President of Dawood Global Foundation and LADIESFUND. I have studied at Cornell University, Oxford University and Harvard Law School, and am a member of the New York Bar. LADIESFUND is the National Women’s Awards, women and youth conferences, entrepreneurship and leadership training and networking. I am currently spearheading a mission to educate 1,000 deserving girls in Karachi to become journalists as part of the ‘Educate a Girl’ program. To date, 600 girls have been educated out of which two girls have already sponsored and two other girls have reached out of their first-ever pay cheques. Project 148 enables donors to sponsor scholarships in the name of the 148 innocent lives lost in Peshawar. “May their souls rest in peace.
PAGE: Your views on standards of education in Pakistan:
Tara Uzra Dawood: With the easy availability of global online free education — such as now offered by Harvard and Stanford, for example, it is important that technology is used to give all Pakistanis access to the best education.
PAGE: Do you think private universities are charging exorbitant fees which cannot be afforded by the masses?
Tara Uzra Dawood: Globally, private universities are more expensive than public ones. There are, however, scholarship programs like the one we have with Iqra University, that can help facilitate deserving students to study at our nation’s best institutions.
PAGE: How would you comment on the importance of education for a female?
Tara Uzra Dawood: Every human being — male or female — has a right to education. When you educate a girl, you educate a family and a society. In the words of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you.
PAGE: Your views on government policies in Pakistan for the promotion of education in every part of the country:
Tara Uzra Dawood: The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan works closely with educational institutions for this very purpose. It is without a doubt that the Government of Pakistan wishing and willing to strengthen education in our nation.
