Month: September 2017

1. Creating awareness for the school so as to be acknowledged around the country and attract other deaf youth around the country who are passionate about computers to join the school and get computer training.
2. To attract potential donors and well wishers who can provide cash and/or in kind donations to the school in order to sustain the computer lab and improve on it further.
3. To inspire other local NGO and solicit for fruitful collaborations to further the project and improve other differently abled Ugandan communities in general.

DEADLINE EXTENSION: 3rd October, 2014 for applications

AfChix Uganda collaborates with AFNOG and NSRC in hosting the  UNIX System Administration & Networking Workshop for East African Women Engineers, Kampala, Uganda (10th – 15th November, 2014)

Background

The African Network Operators Group (AfNOG ) invites women engineers from East Africa to participate in an intensive Unix System Administration and Networking workshop.

Workshop Goals and Outline

Overall objective: After attending this track, participants will be able to install, upgrade, secure and competently manage the Unix operating system on standard PC hardware, and use it to provide essential Internet services on a network. It is aimed at participants who are technically competent but may have had little or no prior exposure to the Unix environment. We have also introduced some Networking and Routing Topics. In addition they will be taught concepts such as:

•     Basic Internet Protocols and how they work
•     Some basic Internet services and how they function, including DNS, Web, SSH and E-mail
•     Designing installations for long-term scalability of services
•     IPv4 and IPv6 Basics
•     Routing

Who should apply

All East African women engineers, Software Developers and Systems Administrators with a desire to get Unix Administration and Basic Networking skills. The Workshop is largely sponsored but Participants are required to contribute the local currency equivalent of $200.00 towards their participation. Priority will however be given to applicants from Uganda and/or East Africa Female Network Engineers resident in Uganda.

Pre-requisites:

Experience in managing PCs and installing software (such as installing the ‘Windows’ operating system), but not necessarily Linux/Unix. Some prior Linux/Unix experience would be of great benefit.

Language:

Language of instruction will be English.

Application procedure:

Complete the application form online at http://goo.gl/yCCwSW.  Please ensure that you submit your application in time and fully completed. Selections will be on a competitive basis. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Application deadline:

The applications close on 24th September 2014. Applications received after this date will not be considered.

For more information email: afnogchix2014@afnog.org

Date: April 2014

Theme: Expand Horizons, Changing Attitudes

Objective: To inspire secondary school girls and disseminate information about the ICT Careers

Location: Uganda Institute of Information Communications Technology, Kampala

Target Participants: Secondary School Girls.

Activities:

1. Presentation about careers available in the ICT industry
2. Testimonies from individual Tech ladies in AFCHIX to inspire the girls
3. One-on-one discussions

Theme: Expand Horizons, Changing Attitudes

Objective: To inspire secondary school girls and disseminate information about the ICT Careers

Location: Uganda Institute of Information Communications Technology, Kampala

Target Participants: Secondary School Girls.

Activities:

1. Presentation about careers available in the ICT industry
2. Testimonies from individual Tech ladies in AFCHIX to inspire the girls
3. One-on-one discussions

AfChix Uganda is a chapter of AfChix Africa, a network of women in technology started in 2004 with a mission to network with women (those already in the ICT/Computer Science industry and potential girls in computer science/ICT for purposes of supporting them to grow in their careers and to encourage young girls to take up ICT/Computer Science programs for their careers.

AfChix Uganda consists of a team of young girls and women engineers and computer science graduates.

During their research for the Grace Hopper Paper 2013, a team of four members (Software Engineering Students) from Makerere University chose to write about: “Mobile Experiences for the differently abled users” and the Uganda Society for the Deaf Vocational Training Institute was their major case study.

Through an interpreter, the team interacted with the deaf students who were in the computer lab and being their first time to interact with the deaf, they were surprised at the level of understanding by the deaf students. The students had amazing vocational skills yet there was need for them to make their products and services known to the world but the only difference here was the language;  They were passionate about ICT but the computers that were considered to be working at the time were only four, very old models and according the school administration, and they were received in 2004!

As the team left after the research, we knew we could play a role in making their voices heard!

The starting point was when there was a call for proposal by Internet Society (ISOC). Being a  member of ISOC, on behalf of the team, the project coordinator of AfChix Uganda submitted a proposal to ISOC for the same and the proposal was considered.

Our objective was to enhance the computer/ICT facility by providing 20 better computers and connecting them to the internet, provide training to the deaf students through the interpreters which will eventually allow the students to take advantage of the benefits that come with the internet and ICT in general.

After receiving the grant from ISOC, our project attracted anumber of other partners who came on board and were willing to assist. Among these we have Orange Uganda who offered bandwidth and other accessories and Bank of Uganda who recently donated 10 computers to support the project.

The team already did the base line survey of the network, found out the level of understanding of ICT knowledge by the students, got quotations from over 10 potential suppliers and the selection committee chose the right suppliers who are now working on the network with our team. Due to the long procedures from the new donations from Bank of Uganda who kept us waiting for the computers, our work was slowed down and we are now only targeting to finish with the networking of the computers by first week of May.

Do Women Make Better Leaders?

Three blogs or thought leaders that I respect have addressed this intriguing question

1. CBS News feature John Zenger and Joseph Folkman. “In decades of analyzing exceptional leadership, John Zenger and Joseph Folkman have identified 16 traits required for success. These include integrity, initiative, self-development, problem solving and a drive for results. Zenger and Folkman have made their names and their business by designing powerful tools to test for these qualities and to develop them in high potential executives. That’s given them the data to analyze where the qualities are most likely to be found. With regards to the differences in effectiveness between male and female leaders, the results were striking: Women outscore men in leadership effectiveness”. See full article here
2. Diversity Woman suggest a need to (a) Understand the differences in the perceptions of Caucasian, African-American, Asian, and Latino women and how those perceptions can impact the ability of women to break into leadership positions and (b) Understand that a good leader has both traditionally male and traditionally female leadership qualities. It is not an either-or. The styles are complementary. Read More Here
3. FORBES featured Elena Bajic, the founder and CEO of Ivy Exec, as well as a contributor to Forbes on topics of HR and Entrepreneurship. She says that “We need to move past questioning whether women are as capable as men, or are better suited for this role or that role…and focus on the skills and capabilities they bring as professionals. Please see more here

Part 4 of 5 – AfChix Uganda Stories Featuring Viola  Bazanye

Viola Bazanye is a member of the AfChix Network and is currently a Developer Platform Evangelist Intern for Microsoft East & Southern Africa. Viola recently completed her Bachelor of Software Engineering degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and will graduate in January 2014.

On Saturday 7^th December 2013 Viola facilitated the Afchix Code Session focusing on basics of C# and Windows 8 App development. The event was hosted by ThoughtWorks in Kampala Uganda from 10am to 1pm. Ten women and thirteen men attended the session. She encouraged attendees to join the Microsoft developer community and to find more resources on C# from C#Station and other developer tools from Microsoft Dreamspark.

The week of October 2^nd to 5^th, 2013 was memorable Viola Bazanye, Joan Nayiga, Lisa Katusiime and Liz Mirembe as they had a chance to attend this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration for the first time. Viola says that she particularly remembers one statement that inspired her by Megan Smith the Vice President at Google during her keynote speech onmoonshot thinking and disregard for the impossible: “In effort there is joy, technology is hard but there is joy in it.”

Viola says that she learned lessons on the importance of us Africans developing our own technology for differently abled users.  Her advice for other young aspiring women in technology is “to remain persistent in everything that you do, no matter the color of your skin or where you come from, never give up on your dream. Think big, drive forward!”

Viola is very grateful to the following: Anita Borg Institute for the scholarship that enabled her attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, the AfChix Network for mentorship and her family for the moral and financial support.

Emily Namugaanyi is a member of the AfChix Network – she is a natural mobilizer, is enthusiastic about developing applications and she also delivers on time. She is proficient in systems analysis & design and programming in Python, Java, HTML and CSS. Emily recently completed her Bachelor of Software Engineering degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and will graduate in January 2014.

Emily missed attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing Conference that was held in Minneapolis USA (2-5 October 2013) because of a conflict of engagements after she was recruited byThoughtWorks Uganda Ltd as an Application Developer. She had to travel to India for orientation at the ThoughtWorks University – a program designed for new hires to be introduced to the software world.

Emily had worked with her team members to successfully submit a paper for GHC 2013 entitled “Mobile Experiences for the differently-abled in Uganda”.  While at the ThoughtWorks University in India, Emily organized a “lunch and learn” session where she presented this paper. In response to her presentation that was well received, the following issues came up:

1. Developers in the audience said that they had never thought about developing apps for the differently-abled users. The audience challenged Emily and her team to make a difference by developing apps for the differently abled.
2. An app challenge was proposed as a method of creating awareness and getting developers to begin developing for the differently abled

Emily is flying high, has big plans for a career in software development and looks forward to being a first time GHC 2014 attendee in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.