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. 

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:,

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

 

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.

National professional organization (open to students, professionals, and small business owners) for black women in IT in South Africa.  Holds workshops and skills training programmes, networking events, conferences, incubation activities, mentoring, and awards for women in IT.

The essence of this new lab can be described by three keywords:

Innovation: Innovation generally refers to the creation or improvement of products, technologies, or ideas that signifies a substantial change or difference. The pioneers working in BongoHive want to bring innovation to the world of economics, business, entrepreneurship, health, education etc.

Creativity: We are out-of-the box thinkers that know new ideas need nurturing and support. We also know that having an idea is good but acting on it is more important. In our thinking, results are what count.

Sustainability: We believe some applications and services can leapfrog development in Zambia. To us successful applications and services need to have the capacity to endure. With a connected and conducive place for techies to work on technologies that can leapfrog development in Zambia we hope to produce sustainable outcomes.

Membership of BongoHive is free. Members must agree to specific agile development methods used at Lusaka’s Innovation Hub. We promote development, teamwork, collaboration, and process adaptability throughout the life-cycle of a project.

Team composition in an agile project is usually cross-functional and self-organizing, without consideration for any existing corporate hierarchy or the corporate roles of team members. Members of BongoHive must take responsibility for tasks that deliver the functionality a project requires.

That’s the secret to BongoHive’s success: geeks or nerds, are self-organising to equip themselves with the expertise and experience needed to solve social problems and enhance their personal development.

Contact:
Email: http://bongohive.co.zm/contactus/

Physical address:
25 Mpulungu Rd,
Olympia Park,
Lusaka,
Zambia
Tel: +260955769936

The purpose of Camp TechKobwa is to provide young women with unhindered access to computers in order to develop skills and creativity in using technology as well as to inspire them as the next generation of Rwandan technology entrepreneurs. The camp encourages young women to become active citizens by building their self-esteem, confidence, and skills; and empowers them and their ICT teachers to start computer and media clubs upon return to their schools.

Code4CT is a holiday program for high school girls in Capte Town. The participants will learn how to build websites and solve challenges. At the end of the program, theywill pitch the website theybuilt to clients.

The Digital Girls Club will provide hands-on technology education for Nigerian girls in secondary schools through weekly workshops; to nurture interest in ICT amongst girls. Girls interested in participating must register in the digital girls club of their schools before access to portal. Parents/Guardians who want their girls to participate in the Digital Girls Club should contact their school to find out if the club already exists to enable them enroll their wards; otherwise, inform school to participate. 

DIGITEST, an initiative of Digital Peers International is a children and youth empowerment program aimed at bridging the digital divide. DIGITEST is an annual IT based summer creative camp and competition for children and youth ages 8 - 18 years  where they are taught to develop content for the internet, learn and work with various software covering desktop publishing, web design, animation amongst others. Emphasis is also placed on the development of quality youth leadership, promotion of role models and inculcating values in children.

The Objectives of DIGITEST are as follows:

1. To generate and develop ICT capabilities in children and young people
2. To promote knowledge based summer camping for children and youth
3. To refocus youthful energies to gainful activities

Now in its 13th edition, DIGITEST has grown to become the largest IT camp for children in Africa, attracting an average of 300 - 400 children on an annual basis.

DIGITEST 2012 is scheduled to be held in Abuja, Nigeria from August 5 - 16, 2012

Django Girls is a non-profit organization that empowers and helps women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. Each Django Girls event is a free, one-day workshop for 30-60 people about building your first application using HTML, CSS, Python and Django. A typical workshop takes 8 hours and people work in small, 3-person groups with a coach dedicated to each group.

The core belief of the the group is that technology is for people and everyone should be able to use and build it.

The workshops organized take place all over the world from Rio de Janeiro, Tunis, Austin, Brlin to Geneve. Don't forget to sign up for the upcoming events. The attendance is completely free of charge.

You can find more information on the link below.

Eko-Konnect is a cluster of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (ngREN). Its aims to support network connectivity and collaboration between education and research organisations in the Lagos area as part of wider efforts to establish a functional and sustainable National Research and Education Network (NREN).

It was established in December 2009 in an initiative led by the University of Lagos to exploit the geographical proximity to sea cables and telecommunication companies to secure high speed and affordable Internet connectivity for the research and education community.

Eko-Konnect has as it's objectives:

- Connecting participating institutions in a high speed network suitable for academic activity.
- Good inter-operability between research organizations and higher education networks that enable secure anytime, anywhere access by students, teachers and researchers.
- Fostering of collaborative research in network technology and the development of internet resources, training, and usergroups amongst participating institutions.
- Collaboration with other stakeholders to establish the national Nigerian Research and Education Network (ngREN) and regional West and Central African network (WACREN).

Eko-Konnect is registered in Nigeria as a non-profit association to further these aims and objectives.

Programs:
- ATI. The “Africa Training Initiative” is a 4-stage sustainable program developed jointly by Eko-Konnect and TeamCymru, a US-based Internet Security and Research Organisation, to help the Internet community in Africa meet this challenge through:
   - Training and Education
   - Collaboration and Intelligence building through data sharing, research and industry networking
   - Development and deployment of operational practices
   - Development of relevant support and facilitating bodies – CERTS, NOGs, etc.

- EkaLib. Eko-Konnect KohaAutomated Libraries (EkaLib) is a collaborative project for libraries dedicated to creating a shared catalog and an integrated system for libraries using Koha, the free and open source software library automation package.

- Eko-Geeks are students from various disciplines of the member institutions of Eko-Konnect. The group seeks to empower its members with technological knowhow irrespective of discipline and is focused on spreading the use, development and deployment of open source tools and services in their various institutions of learning.

- Girls in ICT is a program to equip girls and young women for a career in ICT. It aims to encourage girls to actively participate in ICT careers and provide opportunity for girls to learn the fundamental skills they need to be competitive in an increasingly technological world. Through specially tailored activities, the program will help young women think outside the box in the use and production of technology.

- ng-Mobicon is a series of activities related to mobile application and usage that will lead to the following program outputs:

   1.A comprehensive report on the use of mobile applications in Nigeria
   2.A capacity building workshop on Android mobile development for Eko-Konnect students
   3.Participatory design sessions with civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations with a view to understanding the requirements for their mobile applications.
   4.Development of 5 mobile applications that can impact areas of social change, citizen engagement, youth and gender rights and education in Nigeria.
   5.Develop Mobile Software Innovation Labs on Eko-Konnect campuses beginning with University of Lagos.

2015 TechWomen Eligibility Requirements

An applicant must:

• Be a woman with a minimum of two years of full-time professional experience in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields and/or a career requiring significant expertise/knowledge/application of technology;
• Have a university degree;
• Be proficient in written and spoken English;
• Demonstrate a willingness to participate in exchange programs, welcome opportunities for mentoring and new partnership development, and exhibit confidence and maturity;
• Be citizens or permanent residents of Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Yemen or Zimbabwe at the time of application, and while participating in the program;
• Not have applied for an immigrant visa to the United States, or participated in a visa lottery in the past five years;
• Be able to obtain a U.S. visa;
• Not hold U.S. Citizenship or be a U.S. legal permanent resident.

Preference will be given to applicants who:

• Have demonstrated themselves as emerging leaders in STEM fields;
• Have limited or no prior experience in the United States;
• Have a record of voluntary or public service in their communities;
• Have demonstrated entrepreneurialism and commitment to innovation.

Application deadline: February 10, 2015