Your Name: Roya Mahboob
Business Name: Afghan Citadel Software Co, a television channel that shows Afghanistan through current event videos
Type of Business: Clothing & Accessories, High Tech, Education
Business Location: Afghanistan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afghandevelopment
Reason for starting
To create jobs for recent graduates from schools and universities. To empower women through education and social media.
How do you define success?
Create a direct link between education and employment, making sure that a student can have a job by the time they graduate from school and can support her family to provide them higer education and sustainable lifestyle.
Biggest Success
-Build Internet classrooms in Herat, Afghanistan: now we have 8 built in the heart of the city with 35,000 students browsing the World Wide Web and growing to 40 schools and 160,000 students.
-Implement the Examer Educational System for online education: now we have 5,000 registered users and growing to 40,000. They are taking tests and qualify for micro scholarships.
-Build Digital Video Studios in Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan: now we have one in Herat and one in Kabul, we called them Women’s Annex Centers and there we produce and upload videos directed by Afghan young women.
-Sponsor Afghan Soccer and sports: now we sponsor the Estequal male team, and in the process to start with the newly founded female team where the star is an incredible 9-year-old girl called Mona.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
Due to traditional society and famaily economy, most of the Afghan girls couldn’t have access to internet and have less education about IT skills. We tried to establish the IT centers in different female high schools to provide a better education for girls and created jobs for them.