Impact Stories from Empowering Women and Girls Policy Area
Fellow(s): Rayan al Zahab
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Rayan Al Zahab, 2016 fellow of Lebanon, was invited by Google to lead the women’s program of the Google Developer Roadshow in Saudi Arabia. Google Developer Roadshows are interactive conferences, providing the latest updates on Google technologies and open platforms for developers and industry leaders. On April 22, Rayan was the only female speaker and presented throughout the day to 50 women on Agile methodologies, user experience, big data and machine learning, and open-source concepts, among other topics. “It was the first event to be hosted at WadiMakkah (an incubator) that had a parallel women’s track,” Rayan explained.
Report Date...: 4/24/2017
Give Them Hope
Fellow(s): 2016 Cameroon Cohort
Country: Cameroon
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
The objective of the 2016 Cameroonian cohort’s action plan, GivTH, is to provide resources and trainings through technology to teenagers in the Far North region of Cameroon. Since January, the team began collecting required documents for students to enroll in schools in the Maroua borough, and in February five students began training programs to master Microsoft Office and improve their literacy. The team continues to follow up with the five teens who have started vocational training programs and is planning a fundraising event in May to support working with an additional 20 teens
Read More »Report Date...: 4/3/2017
Creating a Path to the Future
Fellow(s): Salwa Campbell, Magdalene Peters
Country: Sierra Leone
Cohort: 2015, 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
In February 2017, Sierra Leonean fellows, Salwa Campbell and Magdalene Peters , launched a mentorship program for girls at the Annie Walsh Memorial School in Freetown. The program, Creating a Path to the Future, will reach 400 secondary school girls and provide them with opportunities to discover their potential during a six-month mentorship. The group mentorship will focus on networking, knowledge and skill transfer, career development, professional development and situational guidance. Salwa says “Young girls have the potential to demonstrate a positive identity when they have a sense of personal well-being and a sense of connection and commitment to others. When they gain knowledge, skills and attitude, they demonstrate an ability that prepares them for the future.”
Report Date...: 2/20/2017
Tunisia mentoring council
Fellow(s): Fatma Ghandour, Ameni Channoufi, Hadia Kahlaoui, Noura Berzouga, Meriem Chaabani and Arwa Guesmi
Country: Tunisia
Cohort: 2013, 2014, 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
Women Leaders in Tech (WoLTech) comprised of Tunisian fellows Fatma Ghandour (2013), Hadia Kahlaoui (2013), Ameni Channoufi (2014), Noura Berzouga (2014), Mariem Chaabani (2015) and Arwa Guesmi (2015) launched the Tunisia Mentoring Council this month. This is a six-month mentoring program for Tunisian women who are in the process of launching or have already launched a startup or a project in STEM. Working with a professional mentor, the Tunisian women in STEM will receive guidance and support as well as the opportunity to brainstorm, inspire, challenge and achieve. Experts and leaders will accompany the mentor and the mentee through workshops, trainings, meet-up sessions and cultural gatherings.
Report Date...: 2/13/2017
eSTEM
Fellow(s): Nezha Larhrissi, Salima Kaissi, Zineb Rharrasse
Country: Morocco
Cohort: 2013
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
On January 28, Moroccan TechWomen fellows from the 2013 program, Nezha Larhrissi, Salima Kaissi and Zineb Rharrasse hosted the annual assembly for their organization, eSTEM Morocco at Mohammed V University in Rabat. The organization encourages girls to engage in STEM through mentorship and science workshops. The meeting served as an opportunity to increase awareness surrounding the organization, recruit more girls to participate in its activities and share plans for 2017.
Report Date...: 1/30/2017
Women in STEM conference
Fellow(s): Asal Ghanim
Country: Jordan
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls
Asal Ghanim, 2014 fellow of Jordan, presented at the Women in STEM Education and Career Pathways conference at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates on January 16. The four-day, which was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, encouraged working on energy, water and the environment in an effort to increase opportunities and awareness for women in STEM education. Asal spoke specifically on the current status of women in STEM, community development challenges, the importance of diversity in STEM and best practices for attracting women to careers in engineering in the Arab states and Germany. “It was an honor to be part of an amazing group of researchers and scientists of all fields gathered in a mission to encourage women and girls to pursue careers in STEM,” Asal said.
Report Date...: 1/30/2017
One Child, One Desk
Fellow(s): Lucy Mutinda, Ndisha Mwakala
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
This January, Team Kenya, one of the 2016 TechWomen seed grant winners, began work on their action plan, One Desk One Child. Their initiative aims to provide desks to marginalized schools annually, reducing the desk to child ratio from 1:10 to 1:3 in Kajiado county. Lucy Mutinda and Ndisha Mwakala, two TechWomen fellows, met with school teachers of Kenya. As a result of their conversations, they were able to provide financial support to girls who lacked the financial resources to pay for education. Ndisha commented, “The main reason {one student, Caroline’s story} resonated with me is because I grew up very poor, and education is what helped me get myself and my family out of the slums – something I really hoped we could help Caroline do for herself and her family.”
Report Date...: 1/23/2017
STEM camp
Fellow(s): Marie Claire Murekatete
Country: Rwanda
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
TechWomen fellows from Rwanda hosted a weeklong STEM camp at SOS Technical High School for 200 girls from all five provinces of the country earlier this month. The U.S. Embassy in Kigali supported the event, which served as an opportunity for mentors to share their career success stories and inspire young girls to consider careers in STEM. The participants, which included refugees from two different camps, learned about mobile application development, programming, robotics and website development. Marie Claire Murekatete, 2015 fellow, said, “It was so exciting to see how girls develop the innovative and community issue solution projects, but my overwhelming moment was to see how refugee girls built the website for their hosting camps” to make people aware of what is going on at their camps.”
Report Date...: 1/23/2017
STEM workshop
Fellow(s): Mercy Sosanya, Chioma Ezedi
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2015, 2016
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Nigerian fellows Mercy Sosanya and Chioma Ezedi organized a STEM workshop for teachers on January 14 at the American Corner in Bauchi. Twenty-five teachers from eight schools attended the workshop. Mercy said, “I introduced the teachers to the concept of STEM, showcasing the amazing things young people are doing through STEM and how teachers could be better role models for their students in the STEM fields.” During the workshop, Chioma shared anecdotes from her TechWomen experience and encouraged the attendees to apply for the 2017 Technovation Challenge. She also presented her initiative, STEMteers, which aims to increase interest in STEM among students through the use of volunteers.
Report Date...: 1/16/2017
Give Them Hope
Fellow(s): Estelle Ndedi Nguedassong, Nadia Habsatou, Gisele Beatrice Sonfack, Arielle Kitio, Aurel Tayou
Country: Cameroon
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
On December 28, 2016, Team Cameroon, one of the 2016 TechWomen seed grant winners, traveled to Maroua in Cameroon’s Far North region to begin work on their action plan, Give Them Hope. The initiative will provide resources, trainings and support to teenagers, whose lives have been disrupted due to Boko Haram. Currently, 90% of schools in that area are closed due to fear of a terrorist attack, according to the team. By December 2017, TechWomen fellows Estelle Ndedi Nguedassong, Nadia Habsatou, Gisele Beatrice Sonfack, Arielle Kitio and Aurel Tayou plan to support a quarter of those students who are out of school. Their action plan will help reintegrate the teenagers back into the academic and professional worlds. During their trip, the fellows conducted field surveys and created awareness surrounding the initiative in the local communities.
Report Date...: 1/9/2017
