KARACHI: Bayer has pledged US 675,000 dollars for the Bayer scholarship programme which will fund the university education of sixteen Asian University for Women (AUW) students.

Nine of the sixteen Bayer scholars will be selected by AUW from the rural farming communities of Bangladesh and seven will be selected from other smallholder farming communities in South and Southeast Asia, including Pakistan.

The scholarships will cover two years of pre-collegiate study and the first-year of AUW’s three-year undergraduate degree programme and will run from August 2022 to July 2025. Bayer will also provide internships to sixteen AUW students who hold interest in agribusiness.

In this regard Kamal Ahmad, Founder of the Asian University for Women said that in all communities, we are separated by one divide after another: the poor vs the rich, those with access to power and privilege and those without. In the midst of all of these divides, it is the rural-urban divide that is probably most decisive in predicting the future of those born across them, he added.

He added by dedicating scholarships to the daughters of landless agricultural workers, AUW joins Bayer in lifting the curtain against that great divide and creating a pathway to discover and nurture the teeming talents that the tyranny of our divided societies otherwise suppress.

“We look forward to welcoming the Bayer scholars to our AUW community and so grateful to Bayer for extending such pioneering support”, he added.

Monika Lessl, Senior Vice President Corporate R&D and Social Innovation and Executive Director of Bayer Foundation said that Bayer is constantly working towards creating a world where everyone has access to essential services be it health, nutrition or education.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022