Karachi (March 25, 2022): Keeping up with its annual tradition, foodpanda pledged its commitment to work towards gender equality and women empowerment by featuring its HomeChef at ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ ceremony at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The event was held to showcase and celebrate women playing different roles and how corporations should work together to achieve gender equality for a sustainable future.

The partnering organisation included Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Women on Board, International Finance Corporation, UN Women and Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG).

Muntaqa Peracha, interim CEO, members from the HomeChef team, and foodpanda’s HomeChef Atiqa Zaeem from Mrs. Zaeem’s Kitchen were also present at the ceremony to promote gender equality for a sustainable tomorrow.

Sharing his views on how foodpanda is working towards empowering women, Muntaqa Peracha said, “foodpanda’s vision is to enable economic empowerment in the country and our HomeChef vertical is the first step towards making this happen. foodpanda encourages and supports females across all channels and Atiqa Zaeem one of our HomeChefs, is a prime example of how females can earn from home and achieve financial stability. We envision to celebrate many such examples in the future.”

The session was opened by Atiqa Zaeem, foodpanda HomeChef, Jehan Ara, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chairperson PSX; Ms Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan; and distinguished women of the country from various fields ranging from banking, financial, entrepreneurial, and corporate sectors to designing, medical, and legal professions.

Through its movements catering to women empowerment which includes the first female rider, Rubab Jumani, foodpanda has created various economic opportunities for home-based chefs. foodpanda’s collaboration with PSX highlighted the company’s objective to make the society a place where a woman can sustain herself financially by switching her dreams to a mode of earning.

foodpanda, Pakistan’s leading online food delivery platform, has always been a step ahead to uplift home-based businesses in the country. Just recently, the photo of a young boy selling macaroni on the streets of Islamabad went viral on the internet. The young chef named Zaheer has been taken on-board by foodpanda and is now a part of their homechef family.

Twenty year old Zaheer is the oldest of the four siblings and he used to study at Islamabad College for Boys, however, due to financial constraints he had to drop out for enrolment in a private program. His father works as a clerk at a bank and is earning 25,000 per month.

Zaheer, in order to support his father, has been on the job hunt for a while and has been struggling especially due to the onset of Covid two years back. He has been trying to explore opportunities in various part time roles and has been offered incomes as low as 4,000 to 5,000 per month. Despite discouragement from his friends and relatives against starting something of his own, he thought of selling Macaroni cooked by his Mom and Sister. Since he could not afford to rent out a shop he did so by selling out of his car. foodpanda, always on the lookout for such dedicated small scale entrepreneurs, took on-board Zaheer as their newest homechef and his kitchen is now live on the app.

While sharing his response when asked about this opportunity, Zaheer said, “I have been selling macaroni on the streets of Islamabad for some time now. It was a testing period for me and taught me a lot of lessons. Having went through the tough times, I am extremely grateful to foodpanda to give me an online platform where I can secure orders while staying at home. The opportunities are numerous and I’m excited to start this new phase of my business.”

foodpanda is working tirelessly to ensure that much-needed support is available for home-based food businesses across Pakistan, as a commitment to their strategic roadmap to create job opportunities and favourable working environment. foodpanda cares deeply for people and for the communities in which it operates, and believe they have an essential role to play during the COVID-19 crisis by giving food entrepreneurs a chance to reach their true potential.