AfChix - Women in Technology Group

Background

The AfChix Mailing list is composed of a group of African Chix (Women) in Computer Science / Information Technology that was previously called Linux Chix Africa (since 2004) and participants of the AfNOGChix series of workshops (since 2007). Linux Chix Africa was the brainchild of Dorcas Muthoni and Anna Badimo - two great African women in Computer Science / Information Technology that had a dream of how to support women in Computer Science / Information Technology to prosper. This group has since evolved to what is now called AfChix and its activities have been championed by Dorcas Muthoni with a focus on the following:

1. Career Fairs in Kenya targeting high school girls with the objective of enticing them to take up careers in Computer Science and related areas
2. Support for women to attend global and regional Computer Science / Information Technology related conferences for exposure
3. Targeted partnerships for training women in technical fields such as Linux Systems Administration, Network Infrastructure & Services, Internet Education among others
4. Management of the Afchix mailing list to share information and opportunities with women in Computer Science / Information Technology.

Purpose of the AfChix Group

The goal of AfChix is to create a vibrant network of African Women in Computer Science and related areas for the purpose of supporting each other. Specific objectives include the following:

1. Facilitate networking and sharing of opportunities with women in Computer Science / Information Technology - recognizing that there is power in purposeful collaboration and networking.
2. Establish a platform for mentorship targeting upcoming young women in Computer Science / Information Technology.
3. Identify opportunities and broker partnerships for professional training / development and exposure of women in Computer Science / Information Technology

Our website is: http://www.afchix.org/ and our blog is: http://afchix.blogspot.com/

The African Centre for Women, Information and Communications Technology is a pioneer Kenyan based Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) Organization with a regional reach whose mission is to promote women’s access to and use of ICTs as tools for social, economic and political advancement.

ACWICT’s programs are designed to be highly flexible and scalable. The programs can support scaling-up by supporting creation of additional community technology learning centres, identifying additional thematic areas, specifying age groups, and entrepreneurial activities, technologies [ICTs] adopted, training modules, numbers of people, income levels and geographical coverage amongst others.

Into their educational programs are:
The Women innovative Teachers Program (IWT): The program aims to build the capacity of women teachers in ICT while at the same time addressing the issues affecting Girl Child education in Kenya. The Innovative Women Teachers Program is expected to reach 150,000 women primary and secondary school teachers in Kenya by a phased implementation strategy. The Program is based on a Trainer of trainees (ToT) approach in which Bachelor of Education alumna from various Kenyan universities are trained at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) and deployed to train female teachers in the countryside.

All Girls ICT Training: The camps are a capacity building / mentoring initiative by ACWICT which are run during every school holiday are aimed at promoting science and technology as a career path for young women in high school. The camps help the participants improve their performance in mathematics and science subjects and acquire Information and Communication Technology skills. They also learn how the internet works and how they can deploy it as a tool for learning.

Techno Serves Young Women in Enterprise (YWE) Program seeks to raise the level of entrepreneurial activity among Kenya’s young women–particularly the most disadvantaged, to catalyze the start up of employment-generating, women-owned small enterprises. YWE is designed to provide young women ages 15 to 22 years with support, skills, and experience needed to transform ideas into successful enterprises. 

Building leadership skills for social and economic development in Africa.

ALICT is a blended learning course for full-time working professionals. ALICT combines online, offline and applied learning.
We are accepting applications for the second round of ALICT:
• Closing date for applications August 1st 2012
• Course commences October 2012
• Course concludes May 2013
• No fees are required
• Applicants may be requested to make proof of their credentials and qualifications available to GESCI
Download the ALICT brochure for a description of each module at: http://www.gesci.org/assets/files/ALICT%20May%202012.pdf
 

The AWDF Main Grants Programme is pan-African and supports local, national, sub-regional and regional organisations in Africa working towards women's empowerment

Contact:

The African Women’s Development Fund
Plot Number 78, AWDF House
Ambassadorial Enclave
East Legon, Accra, Ghana

Ph. +233 (0) 302 521257/+233 (0) 302 923626/+233 (0) 302 28 722006

Email:grants@awdf.org, awdf@awdf.org

In a continent where women form a majority of the population and half of the workforce, it is an anomaly that the percentage of women working in technology is less than 15%. Technology is one of the key factors driving Africa’s projected economic rise. As such, there is enormous potential for maximizing the growth of technology through increasing the number and quality of women in technology. That is where Akirachix comes in.
AkiraChix aims to inspire and develop a successful force of women in Technology that will change Africa’s future. They plan to do this through their key programs areas of networking, mentorship and training.
The training program aims at giving these girls IT skills that would enable them sustain themselves. The inaugural set of students, who joined this program in August of 2010, recently graduated, on the 6th of August 2011, after a year of taking courses that ranged from basic computer packages, to programming and design concepts, as well as entrepreneurship and business development.
Started the AkiraChix Training program, teaching programming and web development skills to 29 young women. Recognized with the Unsung Heroes award by the US Embassy in Nairobi on International Women’s Day 2011.
Mobile Garage is a program funded by Infodev and to be implemented by Akirachix. The aim of the program is to create sustainable businesses for the knowledge economy through mobile applications for development, business incubation and technology entrepreneurship.
“We are intelligent and we bring all our energy together to help and inspire the greater community of ladies out there”.

Each year SAWISE awards the Angus Scholarship, to a Sub-Saharan black woman graduate with 70% or above grade average in her subject of study. The scholarship is awarded for 1 year of tertiary study at Honours level (or 4th year level of study) in any field of science and engineering.

Contact:

Prof. Jacquie Greenberg
Jacquie.Greenberg@uct.ac.za

SAWW awards Desmond Tutu Scholarships annually to qualified, financially disadvantaged students in South Africa. And grow the seeds of South Africa’s future through educating women

Contact:

24 Woodrow Av
Toronto,  ON
M4C 4S2

Ph. 416. 691.9406 
Fax: 416. 691.5916
saww@interlog.com
 

Asikana Network is hoping to engage with the companies in the private sector. AsikanaNetwork has partnered with organizations that offer support and mentorship to AsikanaNetwork including BongoHive, Anakazi, and Akirachix of Kenya.

Asikana aims to empower young women and equip them with ICT skills and help them in their various fields. We believe partnering with organization from the private sector will help us achieve our goals/objectives which include;

1.Provide ICT skills and training development.
2.Mentorship to the young ladies.
3.Placement for the young ladies who have qualifications in ICT.

Origins and Mission
AsikanaNetwork is the brain child of BongoHive, the first and only technology and innovation space in Zambia based in the capital city, Lusaka.
AsikanaNetwork was established in January, 2012. Our belief is that we can better the mindset of ladies/women in ICT and deal with negative stereotypes attached to ladies/women in ICT-related fields. Asikana Network has identified three groups of young women as the target group: those in high school, in University and those already in the ICT profession as the target group.
Operating methods.

Asikana Network operates through meet-ups online and physical. We also plan to have monthly trainings which will include various activities.

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated in May 2000 by several women’s organisations in Uganda to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively.

WOUGNET’s mission is to promote and support the use of ICTs by women and women organisations in Uganda, so that they can take advantage of the opportunities presented by ICTs in order to effectively address national and local problems of sustainable development. The new ICTs, in particular, email and the Internet facilitate communication with each other and the international community. Indeed, access to information about best practices, appropriate technologies, ideas and problems of other groups working on similar concerns have been identified as critical information and communication needs of women organisations in Africa.

While our emphasis is directed towards Internet technologies, we are also interested in how these technologies can be integrated with traditional means of information exchange and dissemination including radio, video, television and print media. Our goal is to improve conditions of life for women by enhancing their capacities and opportunities for exchange, collaboration and information sharing.

WOUGNET activities are carried out under three major program areas:

• Information Sharing and Networking
• Technical Support
• Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy

Contact:

Susan Mubbala, Program Manager
Margaret Kasiko, Sec General - (077)436378

Undergraduate scholarships for girls. Makerere University is forging partnerships with government, private sector and individuals of good will to raise scholarships to enable bright but disadvantaged girls to access University education.

Contact:

GMD Offices Secretary's Office. P.o.Box 7062 kampala
Uganda.

Ph. 256414540184, 0712422485.

Or visit: http://www.gender.mak.ac.ug/