Author: Afchix

Joan Nayiga is a final year Computer Science MSc student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She got a chance to participate in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing Conference that was held in Minneapolis USA (2-5 October 2013) as a first time attendee.  This is what she had to say about the conference:

Being part of the GHC 2013 conference was such a great experience for me. This gave me an opportunity to present my poster entitled “Developing Computer Aided Tools for Pre-School Children”. The strengths and weaknesses of my research and poster presentation were pointed out and am now working towards improving these. Meeting with more experienced women in computing gave me a better understanding on how to plan my career in computing.

Sheryl Sandberg (CEO of Facebook and Author of Lean In) one of the keynote speakers made a statement:  “What would you do if you were not afraid” which really inspired me.  We met with so many inspirational women in computing. Some of these women received ABI Change Agent Awards like Dr. Shikoh Gitau and Violette Uwamutara who kept telling us never to be afraid no matter what but to go on and follow our dreams. This is the same message I would like to put across to other women in technology even those that are upcoming – to ALWAYS THINK BIG AND DRIVE FORWARD.

I am very grateful to the following: Anita Borg Institute for the scholarship, AfChix Network for reviewing my poster and encouraging me and my family for the moral and financial support.

This year’s Grace Hopper Celebration, to be held 2nd to 5th October in Minneapolis has inspired a lot of brilliant ideas from several members of Afchix. Some of them include; Emily Namugaanyi, Lisa Katusiime, Liz Mirembe and Viola Bazanye.

The team wrote a paper titled, ‘Mobile Experiences for the differently-abled in Uganda’ discussing how the differently abled, for example; the blind, deaf and physically challenged feel about the advancements in mobile technology in terms of accessibility, utility and how it has affected their lives. The paper also highlights the responses from the government and developer community in Uganda with a comparison to the developed world situation.

Members of the team where able to visit a selected number of schools, facilities and organizations that cater for the differently abled to find out, exactly, what barriers limit the disabled from experiencing mobile technology like normal people do.

From all those visits, it was concluded that, there is an opportunity to open the minds of female developers in Uganda and Africa at large to think big and drive innovative mobile applications for the differently abled but the major limiting factor is the high level of illiteracy in our country prohibiting these people from adapting easily to the few technologies that have been introduced by the organizations mentioned above. The government of Uganda has approved a number key policies to accommodate the differently abled but the challenge remains with the implementation of those policies to make a difference to the lives of the differently abled.

That leaves a question to all of us, what can we do, as Afchix, to contribute to changing that?

Written by Viola Bazanye

Tech3060 covers tech innovations, startups & conversations that connects with Africans. #Podcasts & #GirsInICT They take on trending tech topics and constantly distill concepts to tech enthusiast in Africa.

Recently Tech360 featured the career guidance seminar held by AfChix Uganda at Tororo Girls School on the 15th of June 2013.

Please read more about this story.

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Thank you to Nnenna Nwakanma

On the 15th of June 2013 four AfChix Uganda members travelled to Tororo Girls High School in eastern Uganda (210km from Kampala).  These were Liz Mirembe, Lisa Katusiime, Lillian Achom and Nodumo Dhlamini. The objective was to carry out a career guidance seminar encouraging 14-16 year old girls to consider careers in ICT / Computer Science.

Five hundred and eighty three girls (583) girls attended the 3 hour seminar.

We had a great time and life changing experience with the girls. We also distributed a questionnaire aiming to find out their level of interaction with computer technologies and perceptions on ICT and careers in ICT. We will share the highlights of the research outcomes after we have analyzed the data.

We also took video clips of selected girls giving feedback on the seminar. We will edit these clips and also make them available.

Please see some pictures attached.

School: Tororo Girls School

Participants: Form 2 and Form 3 students

Number of Students in Attendance: 550

Key Activity: Presentation about the various career opportunities in the industry.

Mobile Games and Game Technology / Apps

Game Technology offers great opportunities for addressing societal problems in a fun way. I think they are also great for mentorship, general education and change management.

The wikipedia defines a mobile game as a video game played on a feature phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet computer, portable media player or calculator. The first game on a mobile phone was a Tetris game on the Hagenuk MT-2000 device from 1994. Three years later Nokia launched the very successful Snake on selected models in 1997. Snake and its variants has since become one of the most-played video games and is found on more than 350 million devices worldwide.

According to the Half the Sky Movement website with low-cost handsets and increasing penetration of mobile phone networks globally, millions of people who don’t have regular access to computers or fixed-line telephones now use mobile devices as daily tools for communication and data transfer. Today, there are 3.5 billion mobile phone users in the world; more than 65 percent of them are in developing countries. Under the leadership of Games for Change and supported by USAID, three mobile games are being created that are aimed at communities in India and East Africa. To obtain a free copy of the games email hts[at]gamesforchange.org.

How can we use mobile games to mentor and support girls and women in technology?

Your comments and insight are welcome.

On the 27^th May 2013 thirty participants converged to attend the seminar on how to write a winning curriculum vitae. The seminar was organized by AfChix Uganda and the Makerere University College of Computing and Informatics Technology. It targeted the final year computer / information science female students.

The participants were taken through the following:

1. What is a curriculum vitae
2. Outline of a curriculum vitae
3. A Covering Letter and its importance
4. The Dos and Dont’s when writing a curriculum vitae
5. Sample Job Descriptions and Sample curriculum vitae
6. Practical Session – sharing CVs and reviewing another person’s CV

Please leave a comment if you would like access to the presentation and sample  curriculum vitae

I found this interesting posted by Linda Coles

School: Namirembe Hillside School

Participants: Forms 2, 3, 5 and 6, Boys and Girls

Number of Students in Attendance: 600

Key Activity: Presentation about the various career opportunities in the industry.