DeafTawk Partners With Code for Pakistan to Achieve Greater Inclusivity at Summit on International Women’s Day

Islamabad, Pakistan – Code for Pakistan is pleased to be working with DeafTawk as the sole Inclusivity Partner for the Summit on International Women’s Day, held in partnership with KP IT Board, the World Bank, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), and National Information Technology Board (NITB) at the NITB Auditorium on March 8th, 2022. 

The Summit on International Women’s Day is a half day event that was centered on meaningful discussions to emphasize gender disparity, at the same time celebrating the achievements of Pakistani women in tech. The Summit featured key figures from within our tech ecosystem who are challenging discriminatory, gender-biased systems and championing for collective change to empower women within Pakistan. 

“Partnering with DeafTawk for the Summit on International Women’s Day is a perfect fit for both organizations. We have long known of DeafTawk’s work in Pakistan as they work to create avenues for the deaf community and help provide opportunities that most of us so often take for granted,” said Samina Rizwan, Code for Pakistan’s Country Head. “This year’s theme for International Women’s Day, #BreakTheBias, is about throwing our weight behind creating more inclusive environments, breaking those socioeconomic barriers to societal stereotypes, and fixing policy deficiencies…and that extends to technological obstacles, too. At its core, tech is developed to make life easier. Our work requires us to come up with innovative ideas to meet the needs of ALL our people where they are and DeafTawk is helping us achieve exactly that.”

DeafTawk provides on-premises and content interpretation services for live events. In addition to online interpretation, the startup also has an app that allows the deaf community to access the services of a qualified interpreter on a video call. Since starting in 2018, it has provided jobs to over 1,100 people, providing differently-abled individuals in Pakistan with means for income and growth. The organization was most recently providing sign language interpretation services at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, which is the most influential connectivity industry event in the world. 

Ali Shabbar, CEO, DeafTawk said, “We at DeafTawk have always believed in building a world where people get equal opportunity to express themselves, connect and to grow both as individuals and as a society. Here we leverage the power of technology to provide a level playing field and break all the cultural, economic and social barriers. We are really excited to partner with Code for Pakistan for the Summit on International Women’s Day. It’s a perfect platform to narrate our story and also to raise awareness on how all the stakeholders need to come together and build an inclusive future."