Impact Stories from Empowering Women and Girls Policy Area

Global Citizen Awards

Fellow(s): Salima Kaissi

Country: Morocco

Cohort: 2013

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth

Salima Kaissi, 2013 fellow of Morocco, has received a Global Citizen Award from the United Nations Association – United States East Bay Chapter for her work with eSTEM Morocco, a nonprofit she co-founded in Morocco with two other 2013 fellows of Morocco, Nezha Larhrissi and Zineb Rharrasse. Salima was honored at the UN Day Celebration and Awards Dinner on October 22.

The Global Citizen Awards recognizes organizations that work to ensure the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Since its establishment in 2014, eSTEM Morocco has engaged mentors to train and coach more than 500 girls to code. Their work has resulted in the development of 40 mobiles applications.

Report Date...: 10/16/2017

Fellow(s): Mercedes Soria and Anar Simpson

Country:

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth

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 Mgobo, 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

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

sharing advice for young girls

Fellow(s): Marie Claire Murekatete

Country: Rwanda

Cohort: 2014

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

Marie Claire was interviewed by Career Girls, a video-based career tool for girls that emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. Marie Claire shared about her work researching and finding software solutions to meet people’s needs and provided career advice to young girls based on her own personal experiences. In one of the videos, she spoke about how her experience with TechWomen inspired her to create Refugee Girls Need You, a social initiative to give back to the community by teaching refugee girls technology skills. Marie Claire encourages girls to work hard and have confidence. She says that confidence is the “prize” for girls who become coders and create website applications that help people.

Report Date...: 9/4/2017

Meeting with President of Tunisia and U.S. Ambassador

Fellow(s): Amel Ghouila

Country: Tunisia

Cohort: 2014

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

Amel met with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi and U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia Daniel Rubinstein, along with other alumni of U.S. government-funded academic and professional exchange programs. During this meeting, the alumni presented details of their accomplishments since returning to Tunisia. Amel’s accomplishments include: launching the Technovation Challenge in Tunisia, which started with just 54 girls during its first year and now enrolls more than 100 girls across the country; excelling in her role as a bioinformatician at the Institut Pasteur and implementing related training across Africa; receiving the 2016 Regional Ambassador Award from Technovation; and, with other TechWomen fellows in Tunisia, launching Women Leaders in Tech (WOLTECH), a group to empower Tunisian women working in STEM fields.

President Caid Essebsi highlighted the important role of exchange programs in empowering Tunisians with tools to be successful and boost the Tunisian economy.

Report Date...: 9/4/2017

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

Guest Blog Post

Fellow(s): Diana Nassar

Country: Jordan

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls

Diana Nassar, 2016 fellow of Jordan, wrote a blog post to help the 2017 Emerging Leaders prepare for their upcoming experience in the U.S. Diana shared her excitement about meeting influential and inspirational leaders in Silicon Valley, the personal and professional growth she experienced as a part of the program and the lifelong connections she has made with the Techwomen mentors, fellows and others she met throughout her time in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC. By sharing what she learned from her TechWomen experience, Diana hopes to help this year’s participants feel best prepared to take full advantage of the TechWomen experience so that their experience will be as positive as hers.

Report Date...: 8/21/2017

California Women's Conference

Fellow(s): Sarah Abdallah, Maha Ech-Chefaa

Country: Lebanon, Morocco

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth

Sarah Abdallah, 2016 fellow of Lebanon, and Maha Ech-Chefaa, 2016 fellow of Morocco, were invited by Cultural Mentor Ruby Yeh to participate in a virtual panel of Arab women at the California Women’s Conference. The panelists used storytelling as a means to address the cultural barriers they have faced as women and to identify ways in which their disadvantages have made them stronger and more successful individuals. Sarah referred to the panel as “empowerment through recognition of mutual suffering and realizing that we are not alone in our hurts and experiences.”

Report Date...: 8/14/2017

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