Impact Stories from Entrepreneurship Policy Area

Fellow launches e-waste-to-STEM kits at university in Algeria

Fellow(s): Ahlem Benazzouz

Country: Algeria

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Youth Engagement

Fellow launches e-waste-to-STEM kits at university in Algeria 

Inspired by her TechWomen program mentors and learnings, fellow Ahlem Benazzouz (Algeria, 2022) has introduced, EcoBioMedTechMakers, an electronic waste upcycling innovation project to her students and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology Mohamed Boudiaf in Oran, Algeria, where she works as a research assistant professor while earning her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.

The project emerged from a dual commitment to sustainable technology development and the promotion of women in STEM, Ahlem shares. She integrates physical computing into her curriculum using micro:bit technology introduced by mentors Kathy Giori and Meg Gordon. Components are salvaged from e-waste, such as circuit boards, resistors, capacitors and LEDs to create STEM education kits. The kits are instrumental in designing experiments that teach electronics and coding concepts. Moreover, she is actively encouraging students to embark on sustainable projects and startups, considering both environmental and socioeconomic impacts to generate lasting positive outcomes.

“The results have been promising, with increased enthusiasm and participation from our female students,” Ahlem shared in recent communications. “The real-world applications of physical computing and coding have bridged the gap between theory and practice, fostering creativity, critical thinking and practical skills development.” Ahlem further shares that she is collaborating with a team of research professors to elevate the project to the next level. “Techwomen is really the beginning of a new journey.”

Report Date...: 02/12/2024

Fellow green tech org wins $1000 Social Impact Award

Fellow(s): Olamide Ayeni

Country: Nigeria

Cohort: 2017

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Development

Fellow green tech org wins $1000 Social Impact Award

Fellow Olamide Ayeni (Nigeria, 2017) recently won the Social Impact Award and a $1,000 USD prize at the Bob Mark Business Model Pitch Competition for HOPCYKU, a sustainability-as-a-service organization for which she serves as Chief People Officer and co-founder.

Hosted by Michigan Technological University, where Olamide is currently pursing a Master of Engineering and Industrial Management, the competition offers professional business coaching to students of all disciplines and the chance for them to present four-minute entrepreneurial concept pitches before an audience and panel of judges. Winners are awarded prize money for their businesses.

HOPCYKU, formerly Pearl Recycling, is a circular economy company expanding from a waste-to-furniture upcycling startup into a more holistic green tech organization.

Report Date...: 02/12/2024

Fellow joins board of Asian Credit Fund

Fellow(s): Sevara Siradjeva

Country: Uzbekistan

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development

Fellow joins board of Asian Credit Fund

Fellow Sevara Siradjeva (Uzbekistan, 2016) has recently joined the board of the Asian Credit Fund (ACF). It is the third largest microfinance institution (MFI) lending to rural borrowers in the nation of Kazakhstan and boasts a portfolio of more than 60% women clients.

Sevara joins the board with over 12 years of experience in tech industry digitalization and product development. Throughout her career, she has expertly developed and launched tech products in global markets, including the U.S., the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Georgia and Uzbekistan.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Sevara has also served as a mentor for women and girls in STEM, particularly in her home region of Central Asia. She recently joined TechWomen on the spring 2023 delegation to Kazakhstan and intends to join the spring 2024 delegation to Tajikistan.

Report Date...: 02/12/2024

Short film covers visionary career of fellow Elmira Obry

Fellow(s): Elmira Obry

Country: Kazakhstan

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development

Short film covers visionary career of fellow Elmira Obry

Fellow Elmira Obry (Kazakhstan, 2022) was recently featured in 20-minute short film entitled “Elmira Aubrey: STEM Thinking as the Skill of the Future” as part of the series, “Success Stories of Central Asian Women,” produced by Silk Way.

“When you teach a woman, you teach an entire generation,” Elmira shares at the outset of the feature, recounting her earliest exposures to technology via visits to the workplace of her father, a statistician who worked with enormous computers “the size of ATMs,” she reminisces. Her father, also interviewed in the video, facilitated these visits as part of his drive to keep his children invested in education, to which he credits Elmira’s enduring desire for knowledge and education. Elmira went on to graduate high school with Honors in Mathematics and then study Public Relations, Management and Finance in higher education.

Throughout the film, colleagues recount her visionary thinking that positioned her team within their organization, the Astana International Financial Center’s Bureau for Continuing Professional Development (BCPD AIFC), to lead the 2019 development of Edtech, a digital platform for technology personnel training, which skyrocketed at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Fellow Aknur Karaby (Kazakhstan, 2022), also appears in the film to discuss their mutual experiences in the TechWomen program as well as with other programs for women and girls in STEM.

Today, Elmira is the CEO of the BCPD AIFC, as well as MOST Business Intelligence, and the Founder of BRANDWORKS and QWANT> School of Advanced Technologies.

Report Date...: 02/05/2024

Fellow admitted to JAMII Femmes for entrepreneurs

Fellow(s): Imane Ben Khelifa

Country: Algeria

Cohort: 2015

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development

Fellow admitted to JAMII Femmes for entrepreneurs

Fellow Imane Ben Khelifa (Algeria, 2015) recently announced her admission to the 2023-2024 cohort of the prestigious JAMII Femmes program.

JAMII Femmes, a collaboration between the Women in Africa social impact initiative and the Coca Cola foundation, aims to develop 7,000 women entrepreneurs from Algeria, Egypt and South Africa through four key steps: a competitive selection process, three months of self-paced, online courses offered by the Honoris Academy and United Universities, a set of comprehensive exams to earn Certificates of Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and. finally, an immersive, in-person bootcamp. During this final step, they will engage with experts and mentors on workshops, projects, networking and competition with grants topping out at $10,000 USD.

“My journey from Techwomen alumna to being accepted into the JAMII Women program is a testament to the transformative power of mentorship, education, and perseverance,” Imane shared in recent communications.

Report Date...: 02/05/2024

Fellow and CEO featured in video showcasing impact of NGO’s medication delivery innovation

Fellow(s): Norah Magero

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Public Health

Fellow and CEO featured in video showcasing impact of NGO’s medication delivery innovation, Vaccibox

Fellow Norah Magero (Kenya, 2022) was recently featured in a video, “Ingenious Solutions for Rural Health: The Story of Vaccibox in Kenya,” a production of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which highlights her work in providing innovate vaccine delivery solutions.

Norah is the co-founder and CEO of Drop Access, a non-profit focused on rural energy access. Through Drop Access, she has lead the team developing Vaccibox, a portable, solar-powered refrigerated box that safely stores and transports heat-sensitive medications and medical items for delivery to rural locations. It can be wheeled by hand or mounted on various vehicles, including motorcycles, boats and pack animals. It also features a proprietary printed circuit board that monitors the interior temperature, battery storage, location of the box and more. In remote regions where terrain, resources, or even cultural morays, impede access to conventional brick and mortar health facilities, healthcare workers are able to deliver care to rural patients with Vaccibox.

“Our dream is to scale this impact in the whole of Africa,” Norah shared in a recent post. “In the face of climate change, VacciBox is promising to help reach the most underserved populations, where access to healthcare is often a critical challenge.”

Report Date...: 01/22/2024

Fellow delivers keynote speech at youth conference

Fellow(s): Ayesha Hammad Zaman

Country: Pakistan

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development

Fellow delivers keynote speech at youth conference

Fellow Ayesha Hammad Zaman (Pakistan, 2022) recently appeared as a keynote speaker at the Pakistan National Youth (PNY) Conference, which took place on January 13 in Lahore. The PNY Conference serves as a platform to encourage innovation, creativity and future-oriented career development for youths through job fairs, live podcasts, emerging technologies, workshops and other related activities.

“As a visionary leader, she illuminated the ever-evolving landscape of technology, offering invaluable perspectives on maximizing performance in the dynamic tech field of the future,” PNY Conference published in a recent post.

Ayesha is a pioneer in the tech skills-building sector. She is the founder of SkillsTodo, a tech training and placement platform, and co-founder of Pakistan Tech Forum, which works to amplify Pakistan’s IT exports.

Report Date...: 01/22/2024

Fellow(s): Aderonke Sakpere, Shlomit Shyeter and Corinthe Bailey

Country: Nigeria

Cohort: 2023

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development

Fellow launches 10-day HCI workshop with sponsorship from Google Research and support from mentors

Fellow Aderonke Sakpere (Nigeria, 2023) has co-launched a two-week capacity building workshop in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with sponsorship from Google Research and support from mentors Shlomit Shyeter and Corinthe Bailey.

Addressing the issue of HCI underrepresentation in Nigeria, this initiative was borne out of Aderonke’s professional mentorship project from her TechWomen 2023 program. The mentorship-driven workshop will take part in two 5-day phases, the first of which will offer participants a comprehensive overview of HCI while also leading them through the initial stages of design thinking and prototyping for a capstone project. The second 5-day phase will allow participants to fully develop their projects, providing access to and practice with large language models, qualitative and quantitative analysis, artificial intelligence platforms and much more. At the close, participants will present their capstone projects and learn about graduate school admissions.

AfriCHI Community and Afrisnet, where Aderonke serves as a member of the board of directors, served as partners of the workshop. Google’s Explore CSR awards aid higher education efforts to support students from historically marginalized groups to pursue graduate studies and research careers in computing.

Report Date...: 01/15/2024

Fellow(s): Aiymzhan Baitureyeva, Kyzzhibek Ryszhanova, Uldanay Moldagaliyeva and Zhibek Akasheva

Country: Kazakhstan

Cohort: 2023

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Development

Team Kazakhstan profiled in article on seed-grant victory

Team Kazakhstan 2023, composed of Aiymzhan Baitureyeva, Kyzzhibek Ryszhanova, Uldanay Moldagaliyeva and Zhibek Akasheva, was profiled in DigitalBusiness.kz for their recent $3,000 seed grant win, which will be used to develop Irrigate Smart, a mobile AI application to assist farmers and the state in efficiently and fairly allocating water resources to agriculturalists across the country.

In addition to highlighting the TechWomen program, the article delves into their efforts gaining community and government buy-in, and how they plan to utilize their diverse career skills and expertise towards business development, AI implementation, scientific documentation, information systems development and data protection.

“As soon as we succeed at home, the project can be scaled,” Uldanay explained. “There are water problems not only in Kazakhstan. Almost every country in the world has the same questions.”

Report Date...: 01/15/2024

SP ‘22 Team Lebanon brings light to Lebanon with TAQA

Fellow(s): Dana Abdel Khalek, Diala Al Samarani, Ghiwa Haddad, Miriana Itani, Saria Cheaib and Zeina Farah

Country: Lebanon

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Development

Spring ‘22 Team Lebanon is bringing light to Lebanon with TAQA

Fellows Dana Abdel Khalek, Diala Al Samarani, Ghiwa Haddad, Miriana Itani, Saria Cheaib and Zeina Farah of Team Lebanon Spring 2022 have officially launched the first application cycle for TAQA, their seed grant-funded impact initiative that is working to provide renewable energy solution to family-owned businesses impacted by 2020 Port of Beirut explosion.

Benefactors of TAQA, funded by angel investors on a greatest-needs basis, will gain access to renewable energy from sources such as wind turbines and solar panels. This will allow them to continue running their businesses throughout the ongoing recovery of the national economy and power grid, which were devastated by the catastrophe that caused over 200 deaths, 7,000 injuries, 300,000 cases of homelessness and 15 billion dollars in property damage.

Report Date...: 01/15/2024

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