Impact Stories from Youth Engagement Policy Area

Africa Code Week

Fellow(s): Ruth Kaveke and Chao Mbogo

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2017

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement

In late September, Ruth Kaveke and Chao Mbogo, 2017 fellows of Kenya, received grants to organize coding workshops as part of Africa Code Week 2017. The mission of Africa Code Week is to empower future generations with the coding tools and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century workforce and become key actors of Africa’s economic development.

Ruth’s organization, Pwani Teknowgalz, held workshops that introduced more than 100 women from Mombasa to coding. The workshop was supported by Eskill4girls, an initiative that tackles the existing gender digital divide in low income and developing countries. KamiLimu, co-founded and led by Chao, held digital skills trainings for 110 students between the ages of 13-21, 46% of whom were female. The students came from Children’s Garden Home, a charitable organization that provides care and support to children who are orphaned and/or living in poverty. The trainings, led by mentees in KamiLimu’s mentorship program, were part of a continuing relationship between KamiLimu and Children’s Garden Home, and KamiLimu has plans to work with girls from the home on the Technovation Challenge.

Report Date...: 11/6/2017

Support Girls into STEM Careers through Technovation

Fellow(s): Darya Alontseva, Diana Tsoy

Country: Kazakhstan

Cohort: 2015

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement

Darya Alontseva and Diana Tsoy, 2015 fellows of Kazakhstan, have received an alumni grant from the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan to implement a project called “Support Girls into STEM Careers through Technovation.” Project activities commenced in early October with an introductory seminar about the Technovation program, which attracted 77 students and teachers from 15 schools from the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk and its suburbs. In the style of a TED talk, Darya shared her motivation for organizing these seminars and spoke about the importance of encouraging girls from Kazakhstan to pursue careers in technology. Diana shared about her experiences starting and coordinating Kazakhstan’s Technovation program and the success of the Kazakh teams in the 2017 competition, where two teams made it to the finals in Silicon Valley and one team took home the grand prize. Girls from one of those teams also joined the seminar to share about their experience with the competition and answer questions from the audience.

The introductory seminar was designed to bring together students and teachers who could form teams for the 2018 Technovation competition; the next seminar, which will be held in February 2018, will prepare these teams for the competition.

Report Date...: 10/30/2017

Career Girls

Fellow(s): Amel Ghouila and Ruth Kaveke

Country: Kenya, Tunisia

Cohort: 2013, 2017

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement

Amel Ghouila, 2013 fellow of Tunisia, and Ruth Kaveke, 2017 Emerging Leader from Kenya, have been featured in videos on the Career Girls website. Amel shared about her work as a bioinformatician and researcher with the Pasteur Institute and encouraged girls to be curious and learn as much as they can until they find what they are passionate about. Ruth spoke about her work teaching girls how to code at Mombasa Girls in STEM and how, as part of the Technovation program, she guides her students to come up with innovative solutions that help solve community problems.

Report Date...: 10/23/2017

Grace Hopper Celebration

Fellow(s): Marie Claire Murekatete, Chao Mbogo

Country: Kenya, Rwanda

Cohort: 2014, 2017

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

TechWomen was well represented by mentors and past and present fellows at the Grace Hopper Celebration, which was held in Orlando, FL by AnitaB.org. Marie Claire Murekatete, 2014 fellow of Rwanda, was honored with the Change Agent ABIE Award and TechWomen mentor, Mercedes Soria, was honored with the Leadership ABIE Award. Anar Simpson, also a TechWomen mentor, moderated a panel that featured both Marie Claire and Mercedes. 2017 Emerging Leader from Kenya, Chao Mbogo, was also honored at the event as a winner of a Systers Pass It On award, which honors Anita Borg’s desire to create a network of women technologists helping one another. Chao presented about a mentorship program she created to encourage more female students to join and stay in the field of computer science.

Report Date...: 10/2/2017

CAYSTI

Fellow(s): Arielle Kitio

Country: Cameroon

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Youth Engagement

“Arielle Kitio, 2016 fellow of Cameroon, has been hard at work developing CAYSTI, an organization she founded shortly after returning home from her TechWomen experience. CAYSTI is a school tech incubator with a mission to empower students to design and start viable long-term professional projects while training them to obtain competitive technical skills. CAYSTI also seeks to reduce the gender gap and inequalities in the tech industry. So far, CAYSTI has already reached 4,000 youths from rural areas through motivational talks and workshops. A project started by a student at the organization recently received the second place prize in a social entrepreneur competition run by telecommunications giant Orange. CAYSTI has also been nominated as Best Initiative in Learning and Education of Cameroon for the World Summit Awards. Winners will be announced in November 2017.

Arielle decided to launch CAYSTI with the encouragement of her TechWomen mentor, Saura Naim, Senior Director, Head of Juniper Development and Innovation Operations at Juniper Networks.”

Report Date...: 9/25/2017

AEIF for Mombasa Girls in STEM

Fellow(s): UmiKaltuma Ibrahim, Serah Kahiu, Sandra Kambo, Sylvia Mukasa and Annie Njenga

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2014

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement

UmiKaltuma Ibrahim, Serah Kahiu, Sandra Kambo, Sylvia Mukasa and Annie Njenga, 2014 fellows of Kenya, have received an Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) grant for Mombasa Girls in STEM, their project to increase girls’ interest in STEM-based subjects. Ruth Kaveke, 2017 Emerging Leader from Kenya, is also involved with the organization. Participants of Mombasa Girls in STEM will be challenged to develop solutions to community problems. Those solutions will be displayed and presented to local leaders at a Girls in STEM Fair, with the goal that local leaders implement the winning solutions in the community. Mombasa Girls in STEM is one of just 68 projects selected for an award out of more than 1,000 proposals.

Report Date...: 8/28/2017

Voice of America Afrique interview

Fellow(s): Janet Fofang

Country: Cameroon

Cohort: 2013

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement

Janet Fofang, 2013 fellow of Cameroon, appeared on an episode of Vous et Nous, a news show broadcasted by Voice of America Afrique (video in French). Janet spoke about her work with a technology club at Tassah Academy, where she is the director. Thanks to Janet’s work, the technology club, which previously comprised more male participants than female, is now made up of 60% girls, including as young as age seven. Janet believes that by getting girls involved in the technology club at a young age, she can help them realize that there are many paths they can take in their lives beyond marrying and staying in the home. As more girls joined the club, enthusiasm grew to the point where the technology club is now considered to be the “cool club” for girls at the school.

Report Date...: 8/28/17

Africa Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition

Fellow(s): Lydie Umubyeyi and Rita Mutabazi

Country: Rwanda

Cohort: 2013&2014

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Environmental Sustainability, Youth Engagement

Lydie Umubyeyi and Rita Mutabazi, 2014 and 2013 fellows of Rwanda, respectively, have received a grant from the Africa Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminars (Alumni TIES) Small Grants Competition. Lydie and Rita received a grant for the Engaged Youth in Energy Conservation Project, which will address the issue of energy inefficiency in schools, focusing on five Rwandan technical schools. The project will support students to empower themselves to take the lead in finding solutions appropriate to their energy challenges, including through student-led energy audits and an energy efficiency competition.

Report Date...: 8/21/2017

Africa Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition

Fellow(s): Azizat Gbadegesin and Oluremi Hamid

Country: Nigeria

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Environmental Sustainability, Youth Engagement

Azizat Gbadegesin and Oluremi Hamid, 2016 fellows of Nigeria, have received a grant from the Africa Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminars (Alumni TIES) Small Grants Competition. Azizat and Oluremi are joined by two alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program in launching Nigerian Energy Ambassadors, a project that will build a network of young energy ambassadors and entrepreneurs by creating awareness and sharing basic knowledge on energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy.

Report Date...: 8/21/2017

One Child, One Desk

Fellow(s): Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli, Angeline Kasina, Cheryl Kerama, Margaret Ndisha and Lucy Wanjiku

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Youth Engagement

In Kenya, the lack of desk space in schools can be a barrier against students completing their education. In a guest blog post, the five 2016 fellows of Kenya, Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli, Angeline Kasina, Cheryl Kerama, Margaret Ndisha and Lucy Wanjiku, share about the launch of their initiative to improve the student-to-desk ratio in their country. Using the $2,500 seed grant they won during the 2016 TechWomen program, and leveraging local resources such as the Kenya Prisons Carpentry Section, the fellows were able to create new desk space for 150 students at a marginalized school outside of Nairobi.

Report Date...: 7/31/2017

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