Post originally from https://barbarabirungi.wordpress.com
This year I was nominated for the ABIE Change agent award and I won!
This was my first experience/attendance of the GHC. I was overwhelmed by the numbers in attendance, 8000 women. Not just women, but women In computing! This was massive! I learned that African, American, Asian, we all face the same problems as women in Tech, just few are region specific. The solution is the same. We need to put aside the fact that we are women and see ourselves as equal to men, can do what men can do and up our skills game. I found the workshops and talks so helpful for me as a women in tech entrepreneur and leader. Truly inspiring and teaching. I have made note of many different things and approaches we need to take in Uganda to improve the situation and all this was at the GHC. I made friends with whom I look forward to collaborating with to make this history. I not only made friends but met role models that I look up to and want to emulate.
I listened to CEOs/Directors of giant tech companies and during the career fair, this was one of my best take aways. I have been thinking to myself why we don’t have such events in Uganda, where employers come to give information and recruit. Then it hit me, ….. None of us has thought of doing or has done. We need to stop saying we will do and start doing instead.
I look forward to working with tech employers and innovators to grow the WIT eco system in Uganda, Africa and the world. WITU, Akirachix and Asikana network have been collaborating over the last couple years and I am glad to have met the asikana crew in person for the first time at GHC!!! we are planning big stuff for WIT Africa in the coming year! You will want to be part of this! its going to be epic….
I am honored to have gotten this award. The journey for me has just begun and I look forward to the day that the technological gender gap will be history. I believe it possible. Don’t like something, change it or do something about it.
Here is my acceptance speech Video. http://new.livestream.com/anitaborginstitute/events/3444251
The Android Developer training happened over the weekend on 8th and 9th of August 2014 at WITU HUB. The training was intended to handle introductory lessons to android development and the benefits and use of the Intel XDK for android development for participants and have working prototype apps by the end of the boot camp.
The trainings took place over the course two days, with morning and afternoon sessions. 58 attended the event over the two days, with majority being female and only 3 male trainees, all at various skill levels of development.
The Day 1 session consisted of an introductory morning session that covered the basic topics around learning Android development. Participants also took part in an app brain-storming session where they were engaged to come up with app ideas they are looking to develop.
The afternoon session moved on to practical hands-on android development with Day 1 lessons covering:
An introduction to the Android IDE (Android Development Studio)
An Introduction to Java Android Development.
Creating your first Android Application
Compiling your first Android Application
Day 2 of the training split participants into two groups with intermediate trainees being trained in a separate session from the beginner students for the morning session. This meant that we would be able to be more efficient in training them and delivering content.
We had a total of three trainers, one from Intel and two from WITU, the later two are currently handling the training continuation to have the apps fully developed. Thus creating an Android Developer Club at WITU HUB.
In this session the beginner students were taken through the fundamentals of software development. Two demo applications were developed as a guide for the lesson with students engaged as the development was carried out.
The afternoon session had the students pitch their app ideas to their counter parts. Based on what they’d learned over the course, trainers and trainees offered input to these ideas. These helped participants refine their own app ideas. Four apps were developed and over 10 app ideas created. There were 3 winners chosen out of all the apps.
These lessons were intended to give the participants firsthand knowledge of a developer’s involvement in building android applications, with the end result being that each participant would have a good idea of the steps involved in development and the knowledge to begin creating their own. Most of the participants are keen and eager to further develop their skill and have requested for additional training.
Sarah 18 yrs a senior 4 school drop out , who had never coded before or built anything, was thrilled and eager to pursue the development passion she just developed and looked forward to creating apps on android. Sighting its not as complicated as she always imagined.
95% of the trainees will continue to develop their android development skills and create social applications for their communities.
The training was mostly successful. The participants are equipped to start developing android applications. The training would need to be continued training for these sessions. A large number of the participants expressed interest in continuing these classes. This would be very beneficial to them in the long-term.
Thanks to Intel and WITU for being part of this journey to create a ZERO technological Gender Gap in Africa.
If you would like to join the Android Developer club at WITU, its on saturdays at the WITU HUB 11am to 2pm. Come with a laptop if you have one, if you dont, still come we will provide a computer! Just send an email to [email protected]. If you would like to Volunteer as a trainer ( and you have excellent Android development skill) please send us an email too!
Its looking bright for African Women and Technology.
We’ve all heard of hackers. Many of us have even suffered the consequences of hacker actions. So who are these hackers? Why is it important to know about them? How can you become one ethically! Come attend these classes and you will be one!
In our effort to bring a 50/50 Technological Gender Balance in Uganda, WITU and INTEL “She Will Connect” have partnered to offer a two day android development bootcamp on 8th and 9th August, 9am to 4pm at WITU HUB on Plot 18 Kanjokya Street. Its for ladies only and free to attend. Please fill the form below to save yourself a spot!
If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online:
So many issues affect women in society regardless of where they are geographically. What is common is that regardless of where you are, you tend to hear the same issues with a slightly different dynamic in different settings.
What happens when you invite women in one room and set them up to brainstorm issues that affect them in society and have them brainstorm how they can design solutions to these issues?
Well, on 8th February 2014 – A group of women gathered at the new Women in Technology Hub (WITU-Hub) to participate in this process.
The event that was organised by Barbara Natali who has been designing and programming for the last 8 years and is currently working on her Master’s degree at the Art Center College of Design in media design.
User Centered Design is an approach that focuses on the user and the design process requires a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyse and foresee how users are likely to use a product, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regard to user behavior in real world tests with actual users. – This is more of the approach that Barbara used at this event beginning it off with a brainstorming and prototyping session.
A lot of the designing process we did was more about brainstorming ideas on issues concerning women in society. How are women treated in the media industry? What about the women in technology and the workplace? What about women in the economic sector? Are they allowed to own land? What issues are affecting women in governance? What about issues around women and their family expectations?
A lot of women who are passionate about issues above and more really came out and had a great brainstorming session. When you are not involved in this process, you do not realize the underlying issues affecting women.
I was for instance surprised that in the Eastern part of Uganda, It is majority of women that work – while the men sit back and wait for the women to bring the money home so they can go drink alcohol. What can be done to protect the woman’s finances in such a scenario? Why should a woman’s hard earned income be wasted on matters that do not advance the family?
Women at the workplace also face a lot of issues, from stereotypes to straight up being side-lined because of their gender. A lot of discussions also focused on what the role of a woman is in bringing these stereotypes on themselves.
Are women stepping up to say, we know we have the potential and we will do whatever it takes to claim our rightful positions? Is culture playing a major role in enforcing the stereotypes in terms of what a man should do and what a woman shouldn’t do professionally?
The brainstorm process saw a lot of great ideas on this matter resulting to one of the groups designing a solution that would change the cultural aspect of how young girls and boys are sub-consciously guided into what they can or can not do because of their gender.
The solution would include a series of animation that show the process of what an ideal world would be if there were no rules. Imagine if we had no color codes – blue for boys, pink for girls! Imagine if boys and girls would be allowed to choose their own games to play with. Imagine if decisions right from birth were left for these children to decide, how would the world look like?
That shows you how the thinking process was at the Designing event. A lot of women working on different problems came up with great ideas.
The beauty of involving women in the design process is because we know the issues we face in society and we are able to map out what solutions we believe can impact the lives of other women in a positive way.
WITU hub is providing a space where women can go and connect and be able engage in such conversations and activities that affect women in so many aspects. What is really cool about this is that, you do not have to be a technical person to be involved in the process – as long as you use technology in your business or field of work – you qualify.
The designing event was followed up with a Hacking for women event where the ideas from the brainstorming and prototyping sessions were developed further with a hope that they can be real products that can help better the lives of women in Uganda.
These are some of the events that really help engage women to share freely and continue to collaborate on issues that affect them in so many ways. What a way to start great initiatives at their brand new space – WITU Hub.
Looking forward to more great initiatives like these in the future, for women – by women.
“I believe everyone in life has the same equal opportunities to succeed. What makes the difference are the steps we take to get there and mentorship is one of them. ” argues Brian Ndyaguma, a mentor and Operations manager at Hive Colab.”
Two months ago, my boss tasked me with filling a mentorship guide. Little did I know that it would reawaken dreams that had long seemed impossible to get a grip of. Amongst them, I’ve always wanted to counsel younger ladies, help them realize their goals and dreams.
Until only about 5-7 years ago, mentoring was considered to be the work of religious leaders, parents and grandparents to talk to young children about hard work, morals and living a spiritual life, now its rapidly becoming a necessity in academic institutions, workplaces, sports, music, leadership and many other careers.
In a few weeks, Women In Technology Uganda (WITU), will open its doors to its technology and business hub solely focused on the transformation of the girl child in Uganda. The team at WITU is making it possible through the Code Girls Movement, a WITU secondary school initiative. Young girls between the average ages of 12 – 19 are being availed an opportunity to gradually develop their dreams into realities through the various learning programs and activities in their technology classes under the mentorship of fellow women.
Barbara Birungi the founder of WITU trained, counseled and coached more than 100 girls in 2013 alone in basic coding and programing; but that was not it, every 10 girls were assigned a mentor to help them discover their potential talents, passion, creativity portals and troubleshoot their weakness at a tender youth age. To Barbara , women posses traits that have long been thought of as particularly male strengths . They have the ability to develop and mentor others, build relationships as well as collaborations. She dreams of a world with technological gender equality.
This 2014, WITU targets to interact with at least 500 girls through its hub.
Time and again I question myself what career paths I would have taken only if I had a mentor early enough. Would I have realized my dreams at an earlier time? Would I have pursued a different career path? It goes without say that am proud to have one now and am more optimistic that I will change the world.
You might be reading this and your views differ from Brian’s opinion. My food for thought today is; do you think mentorship has a role bridging the technology gap? How best can we make technology be an equally shared opportunity?
There is a tremendous technological gender gap in Uganda with few women tech entrepreneurs and professionals which has greatly been flamed to by social cultural practices of gendering jobs, lack of role models, lack of self esteem and confidence thus leading to many young women not succeeding at technology careers and business. Right from childhood girl’s education is not considered as important as that of boys, making many parents without intending to, hinder there daughters from aspiring to be great achievers. Many are encouraged to focus on skills that will help them become good homemakers. Parents often discourage their daughters at the suggestion of a career in a technological field because they it’s a relatively new career path in Uganda and because of ignorance in the society right from parents, educators, policy makers and other stakeholders about the importance of technology in the future of employment, world of work and the growth of the economy. The world is increasingly becoming technological in everything, of course Africa has not yet caught up with these advances hence the lack of importance attached to it, (more…)
Everyone can agree that the number of women in computer science today is disappointing. For the first time, Silicon Valley founders, tech companies, nonprofits, and even celebrities, athletes, politicians are also doing something meaningful at a national scale to address the problem.
Problem #1: computer science is not taught in US schools
The problem isn’t that 13-year-old girls aren’t interested in computers. The problem is that90% of our schools don’t even teach computer science, and even when they do, it’s taught as an elective. Compare to calculus, biology, or chemistry: in the US public school system these fields have close to 50/50 participation by boys and girls. Why? Because every school teaches these topics. They’re part of the core curriculum.
Problem #2: as an elective, it doesn’t contribute to graduation requirements
In 33 states, computer science doesn’t even count towards high school graduation. When it’s only an elective or after-school activity, girls often don’t even try it, because they’re not seeing other young girls, or college students a few years above them, or women in careers, doing it either.
Problem #3: the nerd stereotype is proven to drive away women
As much as we try to fight it, most people have a very stereotypical image come to mind when they think of coders and software entrepreneurs: pale, unshaven, twenty-something males.
Lyndsey Scott is none of those things. Though passionate about acting, she majored in computer science in college and then went on to become a model for brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Gucci, and Prada.
Despite her success on the runway, Lyndsey never lost her passion for coding. While she chose not to take the traditional route with a software engineering job at a firm in Manhattan or the Silicon Valley, she continued to work on apps in her free time, with projects ranging from an app that lets you learn about and fund youth education in Africa to an app that lets actors and models create professional-looking portfolios with the ease that only an iPad app can deliver.
The perennial discussion about women in technology is in high gear once again, this time after remarks made by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham about the relative dearth of female tech founders and the perks of starting to code at a young age in an interview with The Information were picked up by Valleywag.
Discussions about career, gender and age with a dash of the inherent classassociationsthat often accompany them are always dicey topics, so it makes sense that this interview hit a nerve. For his part, Graham (who, it should be mentioned, in interviews with TechCrunchhas always expressed a very strong interest in funding more female founders and voiced pride in shifting the gender ratio in Y Combinator’s founder classes) says he’s beenmisquoted and misunderstood, and there are some very eloquent arguments being made that at least some of the pile-on seems to be unwarranted. That said, people on all sides of the debate are making good points, and will probably continue to do so for a while.
