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. 

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.

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

Samasource offers computer-based employment to women and youth in cases where gender roles may prevent them from pursuing traditional employment such as India, Uganda and Kenya.  Employees work in the following areas: content services, data services, image services, and machine learning.

Youth for Technology (YTF) is sponsoring Girls in ICT Day in four countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Colombia.

1) NIGERIA:  YTF is partnering with technology companies in Lagos and Imo State in Nigeria to encourage and inspire girls to choose STEM careers.  Participating are 5 secondary schools in Lagos and 4 secondary schools in Owerri, Imo State. YTF will be sharing our work to inspire girls to pursue STEM education and careers by introducing them to 3D printing and related technologies. 

The event includes hands-on experiences with 3D printing, modeling, and scanning, presentations by prominent women in ICT careers, and inspiring TedXGirls presentations.   

Lagos events are scheduled for April 23rd and the event in Imo State is scheduled for April 30th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

To participate or for further information, contact Peace Anosike, YTF Program Coordinator, at or call +2348038665843.

2) KENYA: In Nairobi, on April 23rd, YTF will host 20 girls at Niles Secondary School from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The day includes:  teaching girls how to use a Raspberry Pi and Arduino technologies, hands-on experiences with 3D printing, modeling, and scanning, and presentations by prominent women in ICT careers.

Also on that day, YTF will launch 3D Africa for girls in Kenya at Niles Secondary School, an engineering and prototyping space for 3D printing and related technologies (www.3dafrica.org).

Contact: Joseph Kamau at or at +254721311041.

3) UGANDA. In Wakiso on April 23rd, YTF will host 20 girls at from the Kitebi Secondary School at the Wakiso Digital Village from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The day includes: a 'Using Social Media for Change' class, student ICT exhibition, and sports and games.

Contact: Bernard Kimera at or at +256771625663

4). COLOMBIA.  In Soacha on April 23rd, YTF will host 20 girls at the Soacha Digital Village from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.  The girls will participate in a digital literacy class and, in partnership with Semilla y Fruto, YTF will launch GirlsRock!—a digital literacy program to educate and inspire girls to use technology to research, document, and disseminate information related to their health and well-being.

Contact:  Diana Castillo at or at +0573017816323