Impact Stories from Economic Impact Policy Area

Citizens on the Frontline (Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund)

Fellow(s): Dorothee Fouba

Country: Cameroon

Cohort: 2014

Cameroon’s TechWomen fellow Dorothee Fouba is engaged in an initiative to leverage the power of technology to mobilize citizens to promote security and safety for people from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, and Niger from Boko Haram forces in the region. The goal of this initiative is to empower citizens by equipping them with the tools and technology need to help their communities and address challenges first-hand.

Report Date...: 4/6/2015

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Fellow(s): Houda Chakiri, Unity Chipunza

Country: Morocco, Zimbabwe
Region: MENA, SSA
Cohort: 2012, 2013
Project/Action: Fellows host webinar on intersection of motherhood and STEM
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Recently, 2012 fellow of Morocco Houda Chakiri facilitated the webinar “The voices of Moms in Tech during COVID-19,” in partnership with AfChix, a network for supporting African women in technology. The online panel included 2013 fellow of Zimbabwe Unity Chipunza and other women who shared their experiences of being working mothers in the STEM field, especially in light of the pandemic. The webinar is part of a series that was originally part of the cancelled TechWomen Summit meant to be held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year. As the summit’s theme was “A Spectrum of Opportunities,” the topic of this panel and upcoming panels focus on cultivating inclusion.
During the webinar, Unity, an educational technologist at the Bindura University of Science Education, talked about overcoming the stigma of thinking e-learning as only for distance learners during the pandemic and how e-learning methods could be adapated towards any sort of curriculum, highlighting that children will be drawn to learning if given the right resources. Houda, a specialist in e-Government solutions, concluded the panel by encouraging attendees to instill hope in the children they are raising through the pandemic: “Moms are coping with the problems we have everyday and trying to solve them,” she says. “But the new generation can give us the solution by seeing this situation from the outside.”
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Report Date: 7/27/20
Fellow(s): Chioma Ezedi

Country: Nigeria
Region: SSA
Cohort: 2016
Project/Action: Fellow shares insights on using open source tools for teaching
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
TechWomen mentors Jessica Dickinson Goodman and Fatema Kothari, both board members of the Internet Society of the San Francisco Bay Area, recently started a blog series on the organization’s website, highlighting tech leaders from outside of the United States. Chioma Ezedi, 2016 fellow of Nigeria, contributed to the series, writing about how she is using open source tools such as Arduino to teach computer science in rural Nigeria.
Chioma is a software developer who is passionate about education technology and currently serves as a project lead and mentor at STEMTeers, an initiative to inspire, engage and promote children and youth into STEM. In the blog post, she outlines the challenges STEM education is facing in Nigeria due to the lack of infrastructure and equipment, which has been further exacerbated by schools closing due to the pandemic. With the increasing availability of open source resources being iterated and improved upon, she sees the opportunity for them to enhance students’ learning during this time and beyond: “I realized Open Source is for more than free tools, software or hardware; it was a great opportunity to learn, learn by building and create with innovation.”
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Report Date: 7/27/20