MTN celebrates women in style

Ahead of the celebrations of the international women’s day on Saturday, companies around the globe sent messages of empowerment and in praise of women’s achievements.
Google's creative created a special doodle which features 27 female chromosomes, interactive with a video featuring over 100 women, including the President of Lithuania, Malala, the brave 17 year old Pakistani education activist. With music provided by the Belgian Congolese vocal group Zap Mama, the doodle celebrates the "amazing things women around the world have done and continue to do".
In Uganda, the day has always been celebrated with a holiday, but since it was coming on a Saturday, many employees like MTN Uganda chose to schedule it earlier.
For the past one year, it’s been a norm for the telecom company to get their regional staff in one place and hang loose on a random Friday in a celebration dubbed The Happy hour.
This in house do is as simple as they come; set at the company premises, in the parking lot:- a DJ and his turn table, end of story. No light effects or state of the art stages.
And there in the parking lot I was mingling with the company bosses, suppliers and the beautiful talking girls from the call centres, I have a feeling they were the ones in stilettos.
The theme of this particular happy hour was celebrating women and according to Wendy Angu’ Deyo, the corporate communications manager MTN, this was aimed at appreciating the good work the company’s female workforce is doing.
“In preparation for Women’s day we want to thank our female employees for their efforts towards making us number one,” she said.
The happy hour Friday is not only celebrated at the MTN towers, according to Angu’ Deyo, the day is celebrated throughout the different regionms the network operates, thus, as the call girls and accountants were wiggling their waists in Kampala, their counterparts in the North, West East and south were doing the same.
“It’s one of those times when the staff of bosses and juniors get to interact in a more relaxed mood,” she says.
Unlike the other events the company usually organizes, this one goes low on celebrating our famous pop culture, in turn; they aim at giving a stage to the little known upcoming talent.
“It’s a chance to support young talent and that’s why we are not involving any big acts here,” she says.
True to that, entertainment was provided by one anonymous all boys energetic dance troupe, they did songs like Davido’s Sklewu, some Jamaican songs, though their prolonged version of Mun*g’s Sejjusa wowed most.
As all corporate events, this one too was capped with free cocktails, food fingers and booze! What a way to celebrate women.