Techwomen Zimbabwe are hacking the so-called “man’s world” by making techies out of Zimbabwe’s girls and women. These women have shown that they have the bandwidth to programme young girls and women into technology. They even have ten-year old girls from marginalised communities building apps for big business—process that for a second.
Schneider is a 12-year old from from Shingirayi Primary School in Mbare. She and her team built a game prototype called TakeCare which is a fun, interactive and informative game for adolescent girls. The objective of the app is to curb early marriages.
Schneider stated “When I was conducting the market survey people were fascinated by the idea and were asking when they would be able to access the app/product. This is now putting me under pressure to produce.”
PIC: Courtesy of Mobilelearningzone.com | Ten year old Thandeka holding her prize, a robotics kit. She built an app called Uripi, a child tacking app.
Tariro Sandra Muzowaka, a 14-year old from Harare High School commented, “I did not know how to use a computer when I started the Technovation Challenge and I was scared. It was tough at first but now I can code, I am now able to use Google drive and share documents. We had to program and write a business plan, the coding was more fun!”
She continues “Together with my team, Victor Girls, we built a mobile application called Junior Study Place, to help primary school pupils to do self-study and improve their grades. Our app is like a one on one teacher experience because in most of our schools there is a teacher pupil ratio of 1:60 and teachers do not have adequate time to concentrate on each pupil.
TechwomenZimbabwe (TWZ) is a non-profit organization providing an institution of practical learning and direct preparation for the world of work and business using Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM). The organisation’s focus is on the participation of women and girls in leveraging ICT for socio-economic development.
Research indicates that women are underrepresented in the STEM field. An Intel Survey on women and the Web published in 2012 show for instance that across the developing world, close to 25% fewer women than men have access to the Internet, with the gender gap increasing to nearly 45% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The 2014 SADC Gender Protocol Barometer indicated that due to affordability and availability, women’s access to ICTs and new media remains very low, limiting their rights and exacerbating existing inequalities. It is against this background that TWZ was established to bridge this gender divide.
PIC: Courtesy of Techwomen Zimbabwe | Rumbidzayi Mlambo Co-Founder of Techwomen receving an award in Dubai for her work.
Their activities include :
Technovation Challenge
Technovation is a 3-month technology entrepreneurship competition for middle and high school aged girls, most of whom have zero prior coding experience. These young women work in teams to develop Android app prototypes to address a community problem and also write a business plan to assess the viability of their start-ups. Teachers, parents and community leaders volunteer time alongside female mentors to coach these young women through the challenge.
More than 400 young women have been reached in Harare and Bulawayo since 2014. Over 30 functional app prototypes have been built by the women and girls they serve.
This First Lego League is run by Trust for Education in Science & Technology whom Techwomen entered into a partnership with to bring in the girls. During the challenge they train high school girls on practical hands-on robotics and coding. They construct and program a robot to solve a specific challenge and compete against other teams which are pre-dominantly male only. Eighty girls and young women participated in 2014.
Taungana STEM Expo
Thirty rural high school girls from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge in Johannesburg South Africa every August to gain exposure to STEM industries and careers. They also receive mentorship from leading female STEM professionals. This is a program run by STEM-it Forward South Africa in partnership with Techwomen Zimbabwe and Asikana Network South Africa.
Ten high school girls from Matebeleland North, Midlands, Masvingo, Mashonaland West and Central participated in August 2014.
Pamusha STEM Village
Pamusha STEM Village is a space for girls and young women from under-served communities to bridge the gap in technology access, literacy and usage at the grassroots level. Pamusha fuels innovation, facilitates knowledge sharing, provides support, fosters discussion and collaboration for socio-economic development. Pamusha is a place to learn, apply and impact by women for women.
Three hundred and fifty women and girls have been reached in Mbare since September 2014 to date.
HerCode
HerCode is a developer bootcamp. It is an intense, focussed 12-week Software Development Training course where learners are trained by experienced software developers. The entire focus of the Bootcamp is workplace & entrepreneurial readiness. The Bootcamp provides practical web and mobile development training that prepares recent graduates with relevant, practical and marketable skills.
These women are truly inspirational. They are hands on with the girls they train. Aretha Mare, a co-founder of TWZ commented “We do it out of love”. These women assume no airs and graces, they are hands on and have invested a deluge of sweat to the Zimbabwean community. Techwomen Zimbabwe pioneered a trend that is being emulated all over the country by different organisations. We lift our pens to you.
