Impact Stories from Youth Engagement Policy Area
TechWomen community comes together at Daraja Academy
Fellow(s): Sharon Telewa, Maureen Macharia, Helen Mburu, Vanny Nicole Kayirangwa and Samantha Raniere (mentor)
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
This week, TechWomen fellows visited Daraja Academy, a secondary school outside of Nanyuki, Kenya, for a day of mentorship with female students. The program was organized by Samantha Raniere, President of Bay Area-based Raniere Consulting and contributor to TechWomen’s Leadership Workshop during the U.S. program. Samantha, an expert in the CliftonStrengths StrengthsFinder assessment, helps Emerging Leaders to better understand their strengths in order to maximize individual and group success.
Samantha began working as an executive coach with Daraja founders three years ago, collaborating with academy administration, teachers and girls transitioning out of high school. This year, they organized a full day of mentorship activities, inviting all graduates from Daraja back to campus. Samantha reconnected with three TechWomen fellows of Kenya – 2018 fellows Maureen Macharia, Sharon Telewa and Helen Mburu – and 2018 fellow of Rwanda Vanny Nicole Kayirangwa. All four fellows traveled to Daraja for the mentorship day, joining 75 Daraja graduates who had returned to campus for the event. The fellows participated in panel discussions on leadership and how to excel against the odds, followed by group mentoring sessions and empowerment workshops. “The connections made were numerous,” says Samantha. “Sharon has offered to volunteer at Daraja, and others have already scheduled time with the head of school to discuss how they can partner together.”
Report Date: 3/4/19
Fellow brings robotics initiative to New Jersey school
Fellow(s): Rana El Chemaitelly
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2017 fellow of Lebanon Rana El Chemaitelly recently partnered with a New Jersey charter school to bring a STEM curriculum to the student body. Rana is the CEO and founder of The Little Engineer, an initiative that educates students of all ages in robotics, coding, AI, 3D modeling and more through hands-on activities.
In 1994, Rana was in New Jersey for a training with Colex, a photofinishing equipment company. Nearly 25 years later, Rana received an email from the company’s founder, who was interested in implementing The Little Engineer programming at College Achieve Paterson Charter School. Rana went to work creating a customized training program, shipping equipment to New Jersey that covered an entire academic year of STEM learning. Rana hopes to continue working with the school and is grateful for the connection she made many years ago. “Wherever I go, I try to plant seeds,” she says. “And I’ve concluded that I will always harvest their fruits – if not at the moment, then in the future.”
Report Date: 3/4/19
Delegates visit fellow-led initiative at local secondary school
Fellow(s): TechWomen delegation trip to Sierra Leone
Country: Sierra Leone
Cohort: 2013 - 2018
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Special Report, Youth Engagement
On day two of the delegation trip, following an initial day of visiting cultural landmarks, delegates traveled to The Services Secondary School in Freetown. The school has partnered with Catch Them Young (CATHY), an initiative started by 2017 fellows Chrisla Koroma, Haja Sovula, Umu Kamara, Victoria Kamara and Jestina Johnson. CATHY aims to provide a platform for young minds to engage in STEM activities, providing peer mentoring and supporting the students in finding their passions and career pathways.
Throughout the morning, mentors and fellows rotated between four classrooms, sharing their career experiences and learning about challenges and opportunities that students face in Sierra Leone. The mentors and fellows encouraged the students to be tenacious, remain curious and start thinking about their futures. Mentor Pamela O’Leary spoke about the diversity of careers within the tech field, saying, “With technology, you can create a job for yourself that doesn’t even exist yet.”
The delegates also had the opportunity to visit the school’s science lab, where fellows from CATHY are working with school leadership to update the lab and provide materials and equipment to better engage students in science activities. Before leaving for the day, 2018 fellow of Sierra Leone Sebay Momoh shared an encouraging message with a classroom: “We are often the only women in the room,” she said. “There is so much you can do if you enter the sciences. Please keep working hard, be consistent and do your best. We are here for you.”
Report Date: 2/25/19
Mentors share their expertise at Women in Leadership Forum
Fellow(s): TechWomen delegation trip to Sierra Leone
Country: Sierra Leone
Cohort: 2013 - 2018
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Special Report, Youth Engagement
At Wednesday’s Women in Leadership Forum, nearly 100 mentors, fellows and Sierra Leonean women leaders came together to discuss challenges and opportunities for women to step up as leaders and develop in their careers in science, technology and business fields. The morning’s program aimed to generate momentum to inspire, encourage and nurture the future generation of women leaders.
Seinya Bakarr, 2016 fellow of Sierra Leone, opened the conference speaking about gender differences, highlighting the fact that in Sierra Leone only 12% of parliamentarians are women – a signal of a more prevalent challenge in her country.
To address the lack of women in leadership positions, mentor Shawne van Deusen-Jeffries stressed during her TED-style talk the importance of speaking out for others: “We as women have the opportunity and obligation to enable other women.”
The panels that followed were themed around creating supportive communities, sharing best practices on how to succeed in male-dominated environments and mentoring other women. In the first panel, “Lifting up the next generation of women,” panelists discussed cultural differences, exploring the idea that historically, women are taught to be seen not heard. Trudy Morgan, president of Sierra Leone Women Engineers, shared her personal experience of feeling she needed to be tougher in front of men in order to prove her value. “The power structures haven’t changed,” she said, “but we as women should not change who we are in order to be what they want us to be.”
In the last panel of the day, “Finding and owning your voice,” fellow Sebay Momoh spoke about how she saw her life as a brand and that “we inspire more people than we think.” Habiba Wurie, a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, also gave her insight encouraging her fellow women to “find your tribe, cultivate your tribe, maintain your tribe. The networks will eventually come.”
Report Date: 2/25/19
Fellows and mentors coach young entrepreneurs at Pitch Night
Fellow(s): TechWomen delegation trip to Sierra Leone
Country: Sierra Leone
Cohort: 2013 - 2018
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Special Report, Youth Engagement
Thursday’s Pitch Night and Startup Exhibition provided an opportunity for the delegation to engage with young women and adults to support them to learn the fundamentals of delivering an effective pitch. After explaining the core elements of a powerful pitch, 2018 fellow of Zimbabwe Natsai Mutezo led by example through demonstrating what a persuasive pitch looked like – a pitch that brought the audience in, made them imagine a scenario that they were directly involved in and brought them into the story.
Two groups of budding entrepreneurs were then asked to brainstorm a solution to an identified problem in their community and develop a pitch to sell their solution to the audience. In the young women’s group, one team chose to address the issue of trash disposal and its effect on both water sanitation and teenage pregnancy. With guidance from mentors and fellows, the girls identified a common thread, realizing that young women who go out late at night to fetch water are vulnerable to sexual violence and unplanned pregnancies. They discussed that if the community disposed of their waste responsibly, the water would be cleaner and the rate of teen pregnancy would decrease. Armed with their narrative, the girls pitched their proposal, which included leveraging local community leaders, educating young people and advocating for the safety of women at night. Although pitch winners were chosen at the end of the evening, the event was not about winning; it was about developing entrepreneurial skills, practicing teamwork and showing growing leaders that they have the ability to implement change in their communities.
Report Date: 2/25/19
Fellow delivers speech at youth summit in Gaza
Fellow(s): Dalia Shurrab
Country: Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Last week, 2018 fellow of Gaza Dalia Shurrab was a featured speaker at the United Nations Population Fund’s Youth Summit held in Gaza. The summit focused on youth rights, challenges and opportunities, aiming to empower attendees by showcasing successful individuals and organizations with inspiring stories.
Dalia is the social media coordinator at Gaza Sky Geeks, Gaza’s first technology education hub that also functions as a startup accelerator and co-working space. In her speech, Dalia spoke about her personal journey, the challenges she has faced and her career shift from physics teacher to social media and tech specialist. She shared how motivation and hard work led to two life-changing experiences: speaking at an entrepreneurship summit in Kenya and traveling to the U.S. for TechWomen.
Dalia hopes that her story serves as motivation for the young people in the room to implement change in their lives and their communities. “I feel that I hold so much hope, and I really want to share it with my people,” says Dalia. “I wanted to show them how to take the initiative to upgrade your level of expertise and make the world hear your voice.”
Report Date: 2/18/19
Fellow and mentor collaborate to acquire laptops for students
Fellow(s): Sabine El Kahi, Rebecca Biswas
Country: Lebanon, United States
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Youth Engagement
The relationship built between fellow Sabine El Kahi and her Professional Mentor Rebecca Biswas of Juniper Networks didn’t end after TechWomen 2014. Sabine and Rebecca kept in touch, regularly talking on the phone and sharing professional updates including news about Kids Genius, Sabine’s organization that spreads maker culture to young students through hands-on activities and courses at their two centers in Lebanon.
After training staff at a local NGO on starting a Kids Genius makerspace, Sabine learned they had no working computers. She shared the situation on one of her phone calls with Rebecca, who offered to see if her company could help. A few weeks later, multiple departments at Juniper Networks had become involved, and together the group was able to organize the shipment of 18 laptops to the students in Lebanon. “I didn’t know the level of impact that this project could have,” says Sabine. “Now, the students are learning basic skills on the computer, and soon I will train and help the instructors on teaching them coding. I will never miss a chance to maintain those TechWomen connections and create new impact projects together.”
Report Date: 2/11/19
Fellow represents Kazakhstan at Global Game Jam
Fellow(s): Aliya Mukhametzhanova
Country: Kazakhstan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Last week, 2017 fellow Aliya Mukhametzhanova led a team of developers representing Kazakhstan at Global Game Jam, the world’s largest game creation event. The event, now in its 11th year, brings together participants from around the world to create a game within a 48-hour period. This year, 147,00 people from 113 countries participated, creating 9,000 new games.
Bringing Kazakhstan to the games for the first time, Aliya created two “jam” sites – one in Almaty and one in Astana – and organized teams of developers and gamers to participate. In the two-day period, Aliya’s teams created 13 games ranging from survival simulations to games where players are tasked with stopping environmental pollution. Both Game Jam teams hope to continue working together to further develop their games.
Moving forward, Aliya hopes to recruit more young people and create academies where students can learn about software development, design, animation and more: “I want to be a bridge and help others to find new friends in other countries and to show the gaming world to people in Kazakhstan,” Aliya says.
Report Date: 2/4/19
2018 seed grant winners launch workshop outside of Harare
Fellow(s): Edith Mugehu, Natsai Mutezo, Nothando Ndlovu, Prudence Kadebu and Sandra Chipuka
Country: Zimbabwe
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
This week, 2018 seed grant winners of Zimbabwe Edith Mugehu, Natsai Mutezo, Nothando Ndlovu, Prudence Kadebu and Sandra Chipuka kick-started their impact initiative, Vheneka/Khanyisa, in a farming community outside of Harare. Their project, which translates to “bringing light,” provides access to sustainable, affordable and reusable sanitary pads to women in disadvantaged communities.
After returning from TechWomen 2018, the team independently lab-tested sustainable and safe materials for their sanitary pad prototype. With outreach support from past TechWomen fellows, they held a workshop educating local women and girls on menstrual health and training them on making reusable pads. “We received amazing feedback from the girls,” says Natsai. “We asked if they felt able to make pads with materials from their home, and they all agreed that they could. They said our project was a welcome relief.”
Sixty percent of rural girls in Zimbabwe miss school each month due to their menstrual cycles. Through their workshops, Team Zimbabwe hopes to empower women and girls and remove a barrier to adolescent girls’ access to education. Vheneka/Khanyisa’s next training and workshop will be held on February 26 in Masvingo.
Report Date: 1/28/19
Fellow named to international STEM alliance board
Fellow(s): Sylvia Mukasa
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2014 fellow of Kenya Sylvia Mukasa was recently named a global advisory board member of the India STEM Alliance, a think tank that conducts STEM research and supports design, development and promotion of learning frameworks and solutions. Sylvia, the founder and CEO of GlobalX Investments, was selected as a subject matter expert on STEM education. Her latest venture, GlobalX Innovation Labs, provides creative spaces for children to ignite their curiosity in STEM fields.
Sylvia will advise the group on STEM education from the African perspective, ensuring best practices alongside board members from other parts of the world. “Working with the advisory team will ensure that learners are getting the right skills and that the STEM ecosystem evolves concurrently with the fast-paced world of technology,” Sylvia says.
Report Date: 1/28/19
