KARACHI: Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H Farooqi launched K-Electric’s Women Ambassador Programme “Roshni Baji” at a ceremony at the Tipu Sultan Customer Care Centre of the company in Karachi Monday.
This is a first-of-its-kind programme in which the selected women will become ambassadors for Safety and aiming to promote awareness for efficient usage of electricity along with conversion from hook connections within their communities. This initiative is a continuation of KE’s partnership with communities to uplift and empower residents through strengthened access to power, beautification of public spaces and job creation.
Saif Ullah Chattha, Honorable Vice Chairman & Member Punjab, Rafique Ahmad Shaikh, Honorable Member Sindh, Rehmatullah Baloch, Honorable Member Balochistan, Engr. Bahadur Shah, Honorable Member - KPK and Ms. Huma Zafar, Head CSR from NEPRA joined the ceremony with Moonis Abdullah Alvi, CEO K-Electric, Aamir Ghaziani, Chief Financial Officer, Amer Zia, Chief Distribution Officer, Ms. Sadia Dada, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer and other members of the KE Leadership.
The objective of the Roshni Baji Women Ambassador programme is to engage and sensitize over 100,000 women and by extension their family members about the basic principles of general safety, electrical safety, rain safety, hazards of power theft and energy conservation. K-Electric has adopted an unwavering commitment to excellence in health and safety, and awareness campaigns on general public safety are conducted annually by the company and this drive is in line with that commitment.
This model incorporates potential recruitment and training in collaboration with a social partner, Concern for Children (CFC) that commands a strong footprint in backward and under-developed areas of Karachi.
The power utility has initiated this activity with multiple objectives in mind. One is to fill a critical vacuum – the absence of safety courses and training sessions for the greater population, particularly underprivileged and women. The plan is also to find out high achievers and eventually train them as certified female electricians who may join the resource pool in the energy sector.
Tauseef Farooqi, Chairman NEPRA also said that through corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects NEPRA aims to ensure that power brings prosperity to all communities of Pakistan. He said that he had visualized this dream of developing Pakistan’s underprivileged communities around 14 months back and that the time had now come to fulfill this dream through strategic and sustainable CSR projects through licensees like KE and others. He also appreciated KE for its CSR initiatives which serve as a role model for all other power sector companies.
The leadership of both organizations expressed their commitment to extended partnerships to realize NEPRA’s CSR vision to deliver power with prosperity.
While visiting KE’s LEED certified “green building” for the inauguration he said, “Safety is everyone’s responsibility and including women as change agents will certainly increase the safety consciousness amongst not only the existing community members but also future generations. I am pleased to see that K-Electric has not only taken the lead in inculcating ownership about personal and public safety, but they have also achieved this through the economic upliftment of women. Both of these are NEPRA’s CSR framework priorities and while I look forward to seeing the positive impact of this program, I also urge other utilities to explore how they too can pursue such social investment initiatives.”
Speaking at the occasion, Moonis Alvi, CEO of KE said, “We believe that our role extends beyond mere power provision and as such we have strived to engage and uplift the communities that we operate in through social investment programmes including Sarbulandi and Ujala. At the same time, we are also strongly committed to women’s inclusion and economic empowerment, knowing that this is the sustainable route to promoting societal progress. KE’s women meter readers are proof of this and we build on these two concepts further through the Roshni Baji programme. Not only will each Roshni Baji function as a female community influencer and educate the communities they hail from, they will create a virtuous cycle of opportunities for their own families.”
The KE management also briefed the NEPRA delegation about the company’s plans to keep the city powered up during the summer season when power demand peaks, and assured the Authority that all efforts would be made to ensure continuity of power supply.
They also updated the Authority about the progress on the power utility’s upcoming 900 MW RLNG-based power plant BQPS-III and on the timely completion of the first unit of 450 MW by summer of 2021.—PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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