Baratang Miya

Baratang Miya, 2015 fellow of South Africa, spoke on a panel about female founders at the MEST Africa Summit in Cape Town. The panel discussed the lack of women in the African tech space and the challenges female CEOs face in building their businesses. Baratang is a self-taught coder who believes coding is a powerful tool that can be used to empower women and girls who are often shut out of the technology industry. After learning to code, Baratang was inspired to found GirlHype, an organization that offers free after-school programming for 6th to 12th grade girls to learn coding. In addition, the program teaches participants lessons in digital literacy, such as positive and negative consequences of the internet, including privacy concerns and ways to protect one’s information.
When discussing resources for success on the panel, Baratang said, “You need mentors. I was in business for too long until I went into a program of women who just said to me, listen, you just got to do it. Forget about all the stereotypes in your head.”