October 11th, 2017 International Day of the Girl Child Conference

The third Conference held by UNICEF and Aydin Doğan Foundation Hilton Bosphorus-Istanbul Empowered girls, empowered future.
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To commemorate the International Day of the Girl 2017 on October 11, LAL’s CEO (Nayla) was invited to participate in a conference hosted by UNICEF in Istanbul, Turkey. Nayla was there in her role as Gulmakai Champion. Malala Fund’s initiative — the Gulmakai Network — “supports the work of education champions in developing countries and speeds up progress towards girls’ secondary education around the world”.

LAL’s CEO, Nayla Zreik Fahed, participated in the Conference and was part of a panel that shared thoughts about vision and projects. She presented the Girls Can Count project, the Tabshoura free learning platform and the Tabshoura-In-A-Box.
The conference had an impressive line-up of speakers. During the opening speech, Hanzade Doğan Boyner, President of the Aydin Doğan Foundation, introduced the work of the foundation, which is responsible for executing the extensive Corporate Social Responsibility activities of the Doğan Group. Within these activities lies the Educated Girls for a Better Future program, which encompasses the yearly The Day of the Girl Child conference.
After the speech, a UNICEF representative emphasized the importance of girl’s education.
After sharing a few numbers, the speaker focused on the importance of social, economical and political role of girls in any society.

The key speaker was Princess Dr. Nisreen Al Hashem, granddaughter of king Faisal I, the first king of modern day Iraq. She is the first Royal Princess in the world to be qualified in science and medicine, with a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, Master of Science, Medical Doctorate (MD) and a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Human Genetics. She is the Dean of the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT) and the Founder and President of the Women in Science International League. She dedicated her whole speech to the importance of equitable education for girls, a subject she is very passionate about.
Connected to the conference was a networking event and gala diner where Nayla initiated interesting contacts with the Aydin Doğan foundation and with UNICEF. The Aydin Doğan foundation might be interested in translating the content into Turkish and UNICEF will ensure that the Lebanese Alternative Learning meet UNICEF in Beirut and present the Tabshoura project.

More about the conference can be found in this article by Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah.