Prishtinë, 14.02.2017 – On the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Project “Women in Online Work” (WOW) stage three, supported by the USAID was promoted today. On this occasion a memorandum of Understanding was signed between Ministry of Economic Development, USAID and Gjilan Municipality.

In this occasion the deputy minister of economic development Besa Zogaj Gashi, said that kick off of this project in Gjilan is an important step that will enable many women find online employment.

“This project in Gjilan Municipality will benefit 60 women, who will be trained to find online employment. This project is already in its third stage, since the first and second stages included five municipalities. Out of 150 trained girls I can confirm that 77 of them found at least one online job”, said Deputy Minister Zogaj Gashi after the memorandum signing ceremony.

She further added that girls trained in the first and second stage of WOW Project managed to enter into a total of 270 employment contracts of different profiles, and added that this project is giving young woman self-esteem in making careers and profiles in the information technology sector enabling them to find employment and be equal in the global competition”.

While the Mayor of Gjilan Municipality Lutfi Haziri thanked the MED and the USAID for inclusion of Gjilan municipality in this project.

“60 ladies from Municipality will benefit from this program after the competition. I want to thank the Director of USAID Mission James Hope, since Gjilan is the beneficiary of this project, as well as the deputy minister Zogaj Gashi, for initiating and committing to this project to be implemented in Gjilan. We are expecting excellent results in this project”, said the Mayor of Gjilan Lutfi Haziri after signing this memorandum.

From his side, the Director of USAID Mission in Kosovo, James Hope, said that it is not by chance that this project is implemented in Gjilan Municipality, it is due to great partnership that they have with this municipality in the field of entrepreneurship, education etc.

According to Hope, this project addresses some very important needs in Kosovo. Initially it taps into the extraordinary potential currently available in Kosovo in the field of Information Technology. However, another aspect is that it allows for the increase of currently low participation of women in the economy.