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Visit to Parents’ Workplace Inspires Girls to Dream of New Job Possibilities
On June 13, 2016, EVN Macedonia, the country’s energy utility, implemented an inaugural Bring Your Daughter to Work Day Activity under USAID’s Engendering Utilities Program. Nearly 70 girls experienced the value of education and the possibilities of a future without gender limitations.
Sixty-six Macedonian girls had a unique opportunity to learn about the energy sector in their country—and think about work possibilities without gender limitations—on the inaugural Bring Your Daughter to Work Day at EVN Macedonia energy company. The event took place in three locations, at the company headquarters in Skopje, Gevgelija near the Greek border and Tetovo in the north.
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, supported by USAID’s Engendering Utilities Program, aimed to encourage the girls to think imaginatively about their family, work and community lives, and about their own future.
“We want to show you in an interesting way what your parents do every day,” said Harald Dammerer, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, who has two daughters. “So by the end of the day, maybe you’ll have new ideas of what you want to be when you grow up.”
The girls learned about the history of electricity in Macedonia and the basics of how electricity is created. In an exciting hands-on experiment, they got to create electricity from potatoes, lemons and copper coins. The girls made windmills from plastic cups and straws as well as solar panels from pizza boxes. “What I learned today was that 1 kilowatt-hour equals eleven ironed shirts,” said Matea Karpouzovska with a big smile on her face. Anastasija Ushinova, on the other hand, discovered something new about her father’s job. “I learned how my father calculates the total energy that reaches each home in Macedonia.”
While the girls had a great time experimenting, parents had a great time watching their children learn. “I hope the experiments we are doing here today will inspire my daughter to study subjects like mathematics and physics and in the future study in electro-technical university,” said Nikola Ushinov.
Many girls asked to come back next year, and now a number of boys would like to attend the event as well. In 2017, EVN plans to include boys and expand the event to all the company’s 22 branches.
The Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in Macedonia was part of USAID’s Engendering Utilities Program aiming to increase women’s professional participation in the energy distribution sector and expand women’s career options, while improving the quality and cost of electricity services. In 2016, USAID has also supported Bring Your Daughter to Work Days in Nigeria, Jordan and Kenya.
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