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Ooredoo has been honoured with a Gold Stevie Award at the Women in Business Awards in New York for its mobile maternal healthcare app “maymay”, developed in Myanmar in conjunction with local start-up Koe Koe Tech and NGO Population Services International (PSI), aiming to help reduce the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. |
Launched in September, “maymay” bridges the mobile and health sectors to help ensure that a wealth of useful and timely maternal, child health and wellness information is at the fingertips of women across Myanmar both during and after pregnancy.
Initial development of the service was made possible via funding granted to Ooredoo from the GSMA Connected Women programme. Ooredoo is a committed long-term partner of the programme, which seeks to close the ICT skills gender gap, attract and retain female talent and encourage female leadership in technology on a global basis.
Dr Nasser Marafih, Group CEO of Ooredoo, said: “We believe every woman should have an equal opportunity to use a mobile phone and to benefit from this connectivity. We are delighted to receive this award for the ‘maymay’ app, which we think is a prime example of how mobile technology can be harnessed to improve access to essential information.”
The ‘maymay’ app was showcased at Myanmar’s first ever Connected Women conference in Yangon hosted by Ooredoo and focusing on the role of women in Myanmar’s rapidly growing mobile and technology sectors.
During the event, Ooredoo’s startup accelerator Ideabox also launched Geek Girls Myanmar, a community group of female technology professionals, students and enthusiasts and the first designed-for-women initiative in the technology industry in Myanmar, which seek to encourage greater engagement and female participation within the technology sector as a whole.
At the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting held recently, Ooredoo committed to working with GSMA and other partners to develop studies that derive critical insights into the socioeconomic benefits of greater inclusion of women in the
telecommunications sector.
The findings will be used by partners – including Ooredoo – to develop initiatives and services for female consumers and employees. In Myanmar, Ooredoo will draw on the data to provide tailored services for women with the objective of connecting millions of women to mobile and Internet services, many of whom have had no prior access to the Internet.
The Stevie Awards for Women in Business received more than 1,200 entries this year from organisations and individuals around the world for consideration in more than 90 categories.
