Mobilink, the largest cellular company in Pakistan has won the GSMA Global Mobile 
Award 2013 at Mobile World Congress held at Barcelona.
Mobilink wins this award on the basis of Mobilink’s SMS Based Literacy program in the category of “Best Mobile Education or Learning Product or Service”, beating four other services – contesting in the same category.
Mr. Rashid Khan, CEO Mobilink received the award at the ceremony held in Barcelona.
The “SMS Based Literacy” program is being conducted with the help of three organizations out of which Mobilink is the technical facilitator and The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) serves as the implementation agency. On the other hand two Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Dhaka Ahsania Mission Pakistan and Bunyad Project are mainly responsible for execution of the program.
As the technical facilitator, Mobilink Foundation provided activated SIM cards / numbers for each teacher and learner to communicate. Till date, the SMS Based Literacy program has reached out to 4,000 learners who have been provided basic literacy skills by communicating with teachers through SMS based interactive lessons.
The Global Mobile Awards aim to recognize excellence and innovation within the mobile communications industry, and the 2013 edition has 158 nominees across thirty seven (37) categories. The awards for 2013 were presented at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 26 February.
The judges at the event were quite impressed by the work Mobilink had done in under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility. They commented on it as:
“Excellent and needed mobile initiative with an explicit educational ideology that opens up new learning opportunities for a disadvantaged, rural group.”
