Safia Khalil Wins “Working Mother of the Year” Award
A Pakistani woman, Safia Khalil, has been named “Working Mother of the Year” for 2001. This is the first time that the award has been given to a non-American woman. According to Working Mother magazine, Safia has been honored for her “commitment to education, devotion to her daughter and desire to give back to her community”. The award is a singular honor for a Pakistani and does the entire Pakistani community proud. Incidentally, Safia is also the first Pakistan woman to have been trained in crystallography.
 |
In her speech at the reception, Safia said: “I am honored to be recognized for the two most important aspects of my identity: my work and mothering. I am also honored to be receiving this award as an immigrant mother; it represents the cultural and ethnic diversity of America. I feel compelled to share this award with all the single mothers, immigrant mothers, and working mothers”
The Award was presented to her in an elaborate ceremony at Hotel Intercontinental in New York City. Safia and her daughter were also interviewed on “Good Morning America” by Diane Sawyer on April 24. She acknowledged her mother’s effort in instilling the love of learning in her and providing support for her education.
Safia had been an exceptionally bright student all her life and particularly excelled in science and math. She graduated from the Karachi University and came to the US when she was offered a full scholarship by the University of Oklahoma. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in chemistry/crystallography from the university. After doing her Ph.D., she moved to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where she conducted postdoctoral research on an American Heart Association Fellowship. She is now an accomplished scientist and works for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline. She analyzes the recently mapped human genome data in the search for new, novel and better ways of treatment of cancer.
Safia has accomplished all of this while raising a bright, confident, and self-assured daughter Sheherzad Maham Rizvi, 11 , single-handedly.
Sheherzad told Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, “I want to be a doctor and the first woman president of the United States”. She said that she wants to be a doctor because she likes the idea of going through people’s gut and she wants to be the US president so that “she can stand up for women”. Sheherzad is a bright fifth grade student. She is a talented pianist and enjoys horse riding and chess.
Safia has received many awards during her graduate school, including Karcher fellowship, Outstanding International Student Award, and Altrusa Club International Women Award. Her research work has been published in prestigious Peer reviewed international scientific journals. She has also been accepted for an MBA program at the Wharton School of Business which is among the top three business schools in the world. An admission officer Ivy Gilbert told Working Mother magazine: “I read hundreds of applications every year but when I read Safia’s application, I said , here is a woman we want associated with our school”. She has been called a ‘miracle woman’ and a community leader by a local newspaper.
Safia and her daughter have been interviewed by CNN, NBC, ABC, WGN, WKY and 10 other television and radio stations in the last three weeks.
Safia considers Asma Jahangir as her ideal. After meeting her in New York, Safia realized, “How fortunate I am, to be where I am and to be in control of my life.” She attributes her own success to her education and economic independence. She has also made a commitment to make education and economic independence possible for women in Pakistan as well as the economically disadvantaged women in other parts of the world. To that end she has founded a non-profit initiative eLIT (website www.elitonline.org) Safia is keen that IT companies in Pakistan should sponsor eLIT centers in different cities of the country. She also desires Pakistani women to come forward and help her in making eLIT centers a success thereby providing tools of economic independence to women in socially and economically disadvantaged situations. She has made a special request to Pakistanis in America to donate to her project eLIT.
The ‘Empowerment through Learning and Information Technology’ (eLIT) is a global computer literacy program for women and children. It aims at providing basic computer skills primarily to the supporters of women advocacy groups that serve abused or economically disadvantaged women and children. Currently, it has projects running in
Philadelphia (USA), Karachi (Pakistan), and Hyderabad (India).
Established to catalyze a change in the lives of women, in particular women with children, through technology education, eLIT envisages that wide-ranging benefits could be realized by exposing the entire family to the wealth of information made accessible through computers and the Internet. The program will work to enhance the economic opportunities for the residents of the communities and help alleviate the digital divide across economic as well as gender boundaries.
While currently the project is solely volunteer-based, it is intended to hire full- and part- time staff once it receives funding via grants and outside donations.
The current pilot projects undertaken by eLIT are:
*Computer classes at a Transitional Home for Women in West Philadelphia, PA, USA. The home is provided by a non-profit organization Traveler’s Aid Society to post-shelter women to help them get on their feet. Classes began on May 14, 2001.
*Specialized Computer Centers for Women at Morriswala School in Karachi, Pakistan. Economically disadvantaged women in Pakistan are under a double-edged sword. Cultural barriers add to the disparity between different economic class. eLIT intends to facilitate the economic independence of women in Pakistan and catalyze the process of boosting educational and economic opportunities. These initiatives will have long-term effects in changing the attitude to women in society.
For volunteering or making a donation to eLIT, please contact Safia Rizvi, William Reisdorf, Arifa Khandwala and Corinne Rita at 215-476-5523, or P.O.Box 34549, Philadelphia, PA 19101 or visit the organization’s website at www.elitonline.org
APSENA (Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers in North America), a non-profit organization, has provided eLIT fiscal sponsorship. Thus donations to eLIT are tax-exempt.