Impact Stories from Youth Engagement Policy Area
Fellow initiative co-hosts nation’s first all-women hackathon
Fellow(s): Merjen Saparmyradova
Country: Turkmenistan
Cohort: 2019
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Development, Youth Engagement
Fellow Merjen Saparmyradova continues to expand the footprint of her Launch Life Coding Bootcamp, recently co-hosting Turkmenistan’s first-ever women’s hackathon. “DigiWomen Strive”, held in concert with The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) , was a two-day event dedicated to driving women’s empowerment in Turkmenistan through web and mobile app development.
The hackathon led nine all-female teams through the development of tech-driven projects focused on increasing employment, education, networking and mentorship opportunities of women and girls in Turkmenistan. Attendees had spent the preceding six months taking part Merjen’s Launch Life Coding Bootcamp to learn skills for careers in tech.
“Digital transformation is changing our world and shaping our future.” explained Mary Risaeva, UNDP Officer-in-Charge in Turkmenistan. “UNDP promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment and works on eliminating gender stereotypes so that women and men can equally benefit from the opportunities provided by a new digital reality.”
To close out the hackathon, teams pitched their innovations to a panel of judges and all winning teams were awarded prizes and certificates of appreciation. Exceptional participants from each team also earned internships with local IT companies.
Report Date...: 8/15/2022
"Fellow helps youths develop peace-building mobile apps "
Fellow(s): Joan Nabusoba Simiyu
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2020-2021
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Development, Youth Engagement
Fellow Joan Nabusoba Simiyu (2020-2021) was “thrilled” to have recently served as a team guide for the MobiPeace Hackathon for Social Justice and Peace in Kenya. The MobiPeace Hackathon is an EU-funded project by UNESCO’s YouthMobile which engages youth in the development of mobile applications that advance peace and combat misinformation with social media technologies, civic education, and more. Utilizing Google’s open-source Flutter framework, Joan lead youngsters in a session to build-out of the user interface of their peace-building projects, one of several components in the multi-day event designed to coach participants through full application development from conception to publication.
Joan is a software developer and a program lead at Pwani Teknowgalz, a woman-led nonprofit created to bridge the gender gap in STEM.
Report Date...: 8/15/2022
Fellow delivers keynote speech at African youth summit
Fellow(s): Sabina Nforba
Country: Cameroon
Cohort: 2020-2021
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Development, Youth Engagement
Fellow Sabina Nforba (Cameroon, 2020-2021) delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony of “Democracy and Political Transitions in Africa: Harnessing Youth Voices for Change,” a two-day youth summit held in Accra, Ghana this summer. Acting as a representative of the Office of the Youth Envoy of the African Union Commission, Sabina addressed an audience of participants aged 15-35 from among the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) 15 member nations on the importance of youths taking ownership over the democratic and developmental goals of the continent.
Sabina encouraged attendees to get involved in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union Agenda 2063, which works to strengthen Africa’s position on the global stage by driving inclusive socio-economic development, comprehensive integration, peace and security and democratic governance. “The youth should actively and meaningfully participate in politics, become entrepreneurs, and fully exploit the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement,” Sabina urged, adding that they should “champion good governance, starting from local communities to regional communities and the continent at large.”
The Youth Summit is a collaboration of ECOWAS, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA).
Report Date...: 8/8/2022
South African Fellows co-host Aviation and Space camp for girls
Fellow(s): Darshni Appalsamy
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2022
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
South African fellow Refilwe Ledwaba (2019) recently hosted her Girls Fly Programme Africa (GFPA) aviation and space technology camp in Western Cape, South Africa with volunteer support from fellows Darshni Appalsamy (2022) and Nobukhosi Dlamini (2019). The GFPA provides an immersive STEAM development program focused on aviation, space technology, mentorship and career-building skills for a cohort of 40 high school girls. The experience included hands-on practice with 3D software, a visit to a South African National Space Agency, face-to-face interactions with industry professionals. Darshni led a Design Thinking workshop, sharing that she was so happy “to help these smart, ambitious, talented young ladies realize that their dreams, too, are not too big or out of reach. That not even the sky is the limit!”
Read More »Report Date...: 7/25/2022
Mentor & fellow team up to deliver computing workshop
Fellow(s): “Kathy Giori, Faten Khalfallah”
Country: Tunisia, United States
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Mentor Kathy Giori, with the support of fellow Faten Khalfallah (Tunisia, 2015), facilitated a workshop introducing young women to the world of physical computing with Microblocks, a programming language that runs on microcontrollers. Kathy has extensive experience leading workshops for Microblocks, where she directs global partnerships and outreach and serves as a member of the Project Leadership Committee. The interactive event was a part of Get Science, Engineering, and Technology (GetSET) 2022, an outreach program hosted by the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SCV SWE) that empowers and motivates young women from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in STEM.
Faten assisted the event while on a visit to the U.S. during which she served as an event partner for the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation Summit in Dallas, Texas and an attendee of the Google-sponsored Girl Powered VEX Robotics Workshop in Sunnyvale, CA. She joined these events as a representative of Tunisia and the First Skills Club, a non-profit she co-founded with her husband Rabah Hammouda to provide educational programming for kids to learn and communicate in English via STEM education.
Report Date...: 7/25/2022
Cameroonian Fellows tapped for One Young World conference
Fellow(s): “Christabel Ngwashi Apholung, Zyh Akumawah”
Country: Cameroon
Cohort: 2020-2021, 2022
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Cameroonian fellows Christabel Ngwashi Apholung (2020-2021) and Zyh Akumawah (2022) have been selected to attend the annual One Young World Summit in the UK as scholars of AstraZeneca’s Young Health Programme (YHP). YHP seeks to prevent the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease by confronting the primary risk factors – tobacco use, alcohol overconsumption, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and air pollution.
Christabel is a medical doctor and the founder of MoreThanJustAnMD Health, a storytelling platform that utilizes social media, radio and television to promote proactive health care. She is also steering the Fight Against Substance Abuse Project (FASAP) to educate young adult students about healthy lifestyles and reduce substance abuse.
Zyh, also a medical doctor, is the founder and medical director of EasyHealth, an organization that combines accessible digital technologies with community cooperation to improve the quality of health among rural Cameroonians. Zyh also contributes her time to St Mary Soledad Catholic Hospital and Doctors Without Borders as a medical and mental health resource. She believes that “an amplified voice is key to achieving the policy changes that are needed to help establish more focus on non-communicable diseases among young persons.”
Christabel and Zyh will convene with more than 1,000 young changemakers worldwide to present and network among One Young World Counselors. Past counselors have included Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof, Kofi Annan, Emma Watson, Professor Muhammad Yunus and Arianna Huffington.
Report Date...: 7/11/2022
Fellow hosts seminar on business accounting with help of NGO
Fellow(s): Merjen Saparmyradova
Country: Turkmenistan
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Merjen Saparmyradova (Turkmenistan, 2019) recently collaborated with Public Accountants, an Ashgabat-based NGO, to lead a seminar on the importance of business accounting as part of her Launch Life Coding Bootcamp for women and girls. The seminar focused on building its participants’ foundational knowledge of economic, financial and legal matters critical for small-scale enterprises and entrepreneurs in Turkmenistan.
Launch Life Coding Bootcamp is designed to promote the economic rights and opportunities of its participants by developing their coding aptitude while also growing their resume, cover letter and interview skills. Merjen believes that “teamwork and collaboration can foster a healthy work culture and environment where teams of individuals can achieve goals through powerful skills and effective work.”
Report Date...: 7/11/2022
Fellow featured on “Meet the Leader” podcast for World Economic Forum
Fellow(s): Lindiwe Matlali
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Youth Engagement
Lindiwe Matlali, a 2017 fellow from South Africa, was recently featured on “Meet the Leader,” a World Economic Forum (WEF) podcast, following their 2022 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Lindiwe is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Africa Teen Geeks, one of the largest computer science non-profit organizations in Africa, and a contributing author to WEF on topics including gender, race, equality and social innovation. In the featured episode, “Top Leaders Share What’s Needed After Davos,” Lindiwe focused her message on the responsibility of wealthy and powerful actors to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations. “If your responsibility is to look after others,” she stated, “take it seriously and try and do it right… before you start enriching yourself. Because it’s not about you. When you make poor decisions, it affects the vulnerable the most.”
Lindiwe was featured among other “Voices of Davos” from the WEF annual meeting, including Nela Richardson, Chief Economist of ADP Research Institute; Kristian Teleki, Director of Friends of Ocean Action; and Tolullah Oni, an urban epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge. The stated mission of the WEF 2022 annual meeting was to usher in a “new era of global responsibility and cooperation… against a backdrop of deepening global frictions and fractures.”
Read More »Report Date...: 6/20/2022
Lebanese fellow speaks on Dubai Business Associates panel
Fellow(s): Cynthia Massad
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2020-2021
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Cynthia Massad, a Lebanese fellow also from the 2020-2021 TechWomen cohort, was recently invited to speak on a Dubai Business Associates’ (DBA) panel for business leaders in human resources and strategy. Cynthia represented audit, taxation and consulting firm Deloitte, where she works as a senior consultant in cyber risk and strategy. She spoke on the panel alongside contemporaries from other global powerhouses, including KPMG, EY and Bain & Company. There, they addressed the practical advantages and disadvantages of building a career in their related industries. Cynthia shares that she was “glad to have participated in this fruitful session with fellow panelists to share our experiences to a group of ambitious young professionals [and] associates.”
The DBA is a component of Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s efforts to accelerate the careers of the entry-level workforce through “skill-building projects and immersive networking.”
Report Date...: 6/13/2022
Nigerian fellow wins funding for youth accelerator in Niger; collaborates with TechWomen mentor for technical tools
Fellow(s): Binta Moustapha
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Nigerian alumna Binta Moustapha, 2014, has recently won a grant from the Bank of Africa Foundation in the amount of ten million West African francs (CFA) for use toward her youth training initiative, Cabinet Hub Zinder. Located in her spouse’s home country, the Republic of Niger, Cabinet Hub Zinder, also called the African Street Business School and Entrepreneurship Hub, was founded to accelerate digital and entrepreneurship skills training for young people aged 18-35 who are not currently involved in critical Education Employment or Training programs (NEETs).
When Binta first relocated to Niger in 2016, she faced adjustment issues when she struggled to communicate in the French lanuage. Binta shares that she was inspired by the biblical quote made popular by Hillary Clinton to “bloom where you are planted,” and began volunteering to teach English as a second language at her local American Corner, a regional resource center provided by the US State Department where people can gather, share and learn about American culture, history, current events and government. Her involvement at the American Corner eventually led Binta to the founding of Cabinet Hub Zinder.
In this program, the 120 youth participants, 60% of whom will be women, will receive stipend funds totalling 42,000 CFA each to compensate their time, transportation and data connection expenses. Participants with Cabinet Hub Zinder will also take part in a financial innovation challenge for fintech solutions internship opportunities in mobile device repairs, graphic design and more. Utilizing her TechWomen network, Binta has also partnered with San Francisco mentor Kathy Giori, who will provide MicroBlocks hardware to support program participants. Cabinet Hub Zinder will be hosted at the American Corner in Zinder, Niger.
Report Date...: 6/13/2022
