DNA

Islamabad, July 22 – At a graduation ceremony today, Ambassador Donald Blome congratulated 200 women students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who successfully completed the U.S. Embassy-sponsored English Works! Program.

Two hundred women students of the English Works! Program hosted by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University (SBBWU) Peshawar successfully completed this six-month program that improves English proficiency, develops computer literacy skills, and builds job market knowledge for motivated students with limited financial resources.  During the graduation ceremony, Ambassador Blome also launched a new English Access Microscholarship Program that will provide two years of after-school English language training for 565 students from economically disadvantaged communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Today we celebrate a remarkable achievement,” Ambassador Blome told the graduating students. “I know how difficult it can be to learn a foreign language. You and your families should be very proud of your accomplishment. I hope the knowledge and skills you gained from this program will carry you forward to do great things.”

Vice Chancellor of FATA University Prof. Dr. Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan and Vice Chancellor of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Prof. Dr. Safia Ahmad also attended the ceremony along with the graduating and newly enrolled students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The two programs are sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan through grants totaling $16.9 million.  The Access Program includes a minimum of 360 hours of virtual and in-person instruction over two years, and the English Works! Program includes 240 hours of instruction over six-months.  More than 24,000 Pakistani students have participated in these programs in Pakistan since 2005, an example of the broad cooperation between our two countries in this, the 75th anniversary of U.S.-Pakistan relations.