WOW — Women of the World’s 24-Hour Global Festival will take place on 27-28 June 2020 and it is available live via thewowfoundation.com.

The theme for this year’s global festival is ‘Women and Girls in a Time of Crisis’. South Asia block will take place on 27 June from 4PM to 7PM PKT. Five speakers, experts, performers from Pakistan will participate.

26 June 2019: The British Council in Pakistan in continuing its partnership with the WOW Foundation is participating in WOW Global 24 scheduled to take place on 27-28 June.

The British Council believes that empowering women and girls, and achieving gender equality is crucial to creating inclusive, open and prosperous societies. The UK is committed to addressing the gendered impacts of COVID-19, providing access to information and resources to combat its effects, and reducing violence, abuse and harassment against children, women and marginalised groups.

Founded by Jude Kelly, WOW - Women of the World celebrates the achievements of women and girls and looks at some of the obstacles they face across the world. Working with and through WOW – Women of the World Festival, the British Council is supporting platforms to encourage connections, understanding and trust to build an equitable world.

In the last 10 years, WOW – Women of the World Festival has been held in 53 countries globally.

Since 2016, the British Council in Pakistan has been hosting WOW-Women of the World festival. The third festival in 2019 attracted over 16,000 people from all walks of life. WOW Global 24 is an extension of the discussion that took place there and more.

Yamina Peerzada, Harsakhiyan, Dr Fozia Tahir, Nighat Dad and Anoushey Ashraf are taking part from Pakistan in the first ever WOW – Women of the World 24-Hour online global festival.

In times of Covid-19, the WOW Foundation with its WOW – Women of the World Festival’s Global 24 plans to keep the conversation going through ‘the first ever free 24-hour online festival.’ These are difficult times for all people especially the vulnerable groups. Women make up a significant part of vulnerable groups and with the pandemic wreaking its havoc and the economic slowdown resulting from it, the challenges for women have increased manifold. Women entrepreneurs are finding it very difficult to sustain themselves and working women especially those who are single parents are finding it harder to juggle work and caring responsibilities.

With marginalised communities and low-income households, an economic slowdown might mean fewer girls’ being schooled and being at risk of dropping out of school which may result in their early marriage to ‘ease’ the supposed economic burden.

These issues will be highlighted in the WOW Global 24 discussions.

The British Council is a partner in South Asia with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal taking part in the WOW Global 24.

Sessions from Pakistan include a discussion on Environmental impact in times of Covid-19, soulful performances, poetic readings and inspiring talks around the 6 themes of WOW Global 24: Health, Education, Climate, Money, Justice and Violence.

The WOW - Women of the World is an inclusive space for men, women to recognize achievements made by women and girls and to support them overcome their challenges.

Come join us for performances and discussions on 27 and 28 June 2020 by tuning into www.thewowfoundation.com.