Impact Stories from Youth Engagement Policy Area
HapaKenya Interview
Fellow(s): Chao Mbogo
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Entrepreneurship, Youth Engagement
Dr. Chao Mbogo, 2017 fellow of Kenya, was highlighted in an in-depth interview on the Kenyan news platform HapaKenya. Chao details her personal and professional journey to become a computer scientist, researcher, teacher, mentor, and recently, the Head of the Computer Science Department at Kenya Methodist University. Chao also provides updates on KamiLimu, a mentorship program she launched in 2016 for university level computer science students, and Project Digniti, the seed grant-winning action plan project she developed with the other 2017 fellows of Kenya. Chao has also received grant awards from Anita B.org and Google for her work with KamiLimu.
Read More »Report Date...: 11/20/2017
TechCamp Ramallah
Fellow(s): Ruba Awayes, Rasha Hammo, Razan Qraini
Country: Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Youth Engagement
From November 18-19, Ruba Awayes, Rasha Hammo and Razan Qraini, 2017 fellows of the Palestinian Territories, participated in TechCamp Ramallah: Business Success through Academic Excellence, which was hosted by the U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem. Ruba and Razan were trainers at the camp, with Ruba leading sessions on tools for self-learning and Razan leading sessions on mobile app design. TechCamp Ramallah was designed to strengthen linkages between students and Palestinian businesses by focusing on the power of technology to solve real-world problems and drive economic growth. The program also emphasized a skills-based curriculum that addressed private sector needs.
TechCamps are public diplomacy programs managed by the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) at the U.S. Department of State.
Read More »Report Date...: 11/20/2017
KasiMaths in HuffPost South Africa
Fellow(s): Danai Nhando
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Youth Engagement
2017 fellow Danai Nhando has written a blog post for HuffPost South Africa about the South African team’s seed grant win and their plans to carry out their action plan, KasiMaths, a low-cost, scalable, after-school math enrichment hub in low-income communities. In their Pitch Day presentation, the team identified the KasiMaths program as a way to take a “holistic approach to teaching maths that demystifies all aspects of maths and shows how it relates to the everyday world.” They are already hard at work on making their idea a reality, with a plan to set up the first KasiMaths Hub in Alexandria Township in Johannesburg and take on their first cohort of 30 students in early 2018.
Read More »Report Date...: 11/13/2017
Africa Code Week
Fellow(s): Ruth Kaveke and Chao Mbogo
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
In late September, Ruth Kaveke and Chao Mbogo, 2017 fellows of Kenya, received grants to organize coding workshops as part of Africa Code Week 2017. The mission of Africa Code Week is to empower future generations with the coding tools and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century workforce and become key actors of Africa’s economic development.
Ruth’s organization, Pwani Teknowgalz, held workshops that introduced more than 100 women from Mombasa to coding. The workshop was supported by Eskill4girls, an initiative that tackles the existing gender digital divide in low income and developing countries. KamiLimu, co-founded and led by Chao, held digital skills trainings for 110 students between the ages of 13-21, 46% of whom were female. The students came from Children’s Garden Home, a charitable organization that provides care and support to children who are orphaned and/or living in poverty. The trainings, led by mentees in KamiLimu’s mentorship program, were part of a continuing relationship between KamiLimu and Children’s Garden Home, and KamiLimu has plans to work with girls from the home on the Technovation Challenge.
Report Date...: 11/6/2017
Support Girls into STEM Careers through Technovation
Fellow(s): Darya Alontseva, Diana Tsoy
Country: Kazakhstan
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Darya Alontseva and Diana Tsoy, 2015 fellows of Kazakhstan, have received an alumni grant from the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan to implement a project called “Support Girls into STEM Careers through Technovation.” Project activities commenced in early October with an introductory seminar about the Technovation program, which attracted 77 students and teachers from 15 schools from the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk and its suburbs. In the style of a TED talk, Darya shared her motivation for organizing these seminars and spoke about the importance of encouraging girls from Kazakhstan to pursue careers in technology. Diana shared about her experiences starting and coordinating Kazakhstan’s Technovation program and the success of the Kazakh teams in the 2017 competition, where two teams made it to the finals in Silicon Valley and one team took home the grand prize. Girls from one of those teams also joined the seminar to share about their experience with the competition and answer questions from the audience.
The introductory seminar was designed to bring together students and teachers who could form teams for the 2018 Technovation competition; the next seminar, which will be held in February 2018, will prepare these teams for the competition.
Report Date...: 10/30/2017
Career Girls
Fellow(s): Amel Ghouila and Ruth Kaveke
Country: Kenya, Tunisia
Cohort: 2013, 2017
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Amel Ghouila, 2013 fellow of Tunisia, and Ruth Kaveke, 2017 Emerging Leader from Kenya, have been featured in videos on the Career Girls website. Amel shared about her work as a bioinformatician and researcher with the Pasteur Institute and encouraged girls to be curious and learn as much as they can until they find what they are passionate about. Ruth spoke about her work teaching girls how to code at Mombasa Girls in STEM and how, as part of the Technovation program, she guides her students to come up with innovative solutions that help solve community problems.
Read More »Report Date...: 10/23/2017
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.
Read More »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.”
Read More »Report Date...: 9/25/2017
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.
Read More »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.
Read More »Report Date...: 8/28/17