December 27, 2017 Event Generated Internship And Employment Opportunities For University Graduates

Kabul, Afghanistan—December 29, 2017—The Bayat Foundation announced today that the Foundation, together with its strategic partners, had launched and successfully conducted the first annual “Bright Futures Jobs Fair.” The Bright Futures Jobs Fair brought together leading Afghan businesses and recent university graduates for the purpose of providing the university graduates with information about each company participating in the jobs fair, as well as an opportunity to apply for internship and employment positions with each company.

Scores of university graduates, together with a broad range of Afghanistan’s leading companies attended the Bright Futures Jobs Fair, which was held at the Bayat Media Center in Kabul. The event, which included presentations on the Bright Futures Initiative and Afghan economic development, helped drive positive and energetic discussions about employment and internship opportunities between representatives of the Afghan companies and the young university graduates.

The Bright Futures Jobs Fair represented the first project of the multi-year Afghan economic development program sponsored by Bright Futures Afghanistan, a consortium of four Afghan non-profit organizations: The Bayat Foundation, Cordaid (www.cordaid.org), the 1% Club (www.onepercentclub.com), and the Hamika Baramaki Organization for the Rule of Law (www.hborl.org.af). Bright Futures is a five-year program designed to rapidly accelerate the development of small and medium sized Afghan companies, teach critical business development skills to a new generation of Afghan entrepreneurs, and create a thriving Afghan private sector of small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s), capable of providing thousands of employment opportunities to Afghans—especially Afghan youth.

Representatives from The Bayat Foundation and The Bright Futures Initiative emphasized that developing a thriving Afghan economy requires a sustained, long term effort from the Afghan business community, governmental and non-profit organizations.

“The Bright Futures Job Fair is the first step—but a very important one—on the path to building a nation where every Afghan is free and able to create the best life possible for themselves and their families,” said Dr. Ehsanollah Bayat, the Co-Founder and Chairman of The Bayat Foundation.

“Everyone involved in the Bright Futures Initiative—from Cordaid, The Bayat Foundation, our NGO Partners and the Afghan business community, must remain committed to do everything in our power to help Afghanistan’s youth—who are the future of our country—move forward,” Dr. Bayat said.