Inspiration.
Connection.
Community.
With these three words to summarise our very reason for existing, AFCHIX proudly launched our new website and logo. Our refreshed brand will undoubtedly go a long way in helping AFCHIX to continue to grow and mature as an organisation. But as we celebrate a new look, it was also important to us to our roots and identity.
Over the past 18 years, AFCHIX has grown as an organisation thanks to the support of a wide community of funders, volunteers, and extraordinary women in tech. Through their efforts, AFCHIX has reached over 17,000 girls through mentoring and events, facilitated Wi-fi internet access for over 670 people through our community network infrastructure, connected 10 rural schools to the internet, and empowered over 870 women through digital literacy and technical training.
AFCHIX’s new logo personifies these African women that have built our organisation, the women who have taken part in or benefitted from our activities, as well as those we hope will join us in the future. By including a winding cable, we want to give a nod to technology as the common factor binding our members together.
Our new tagline summarises AFCHIX’s key objective: We want to create: Inspiration, connection, and community. AFCHIX aspires to create and maintain a community of women in tech on the continent that can support each other, inspire more women and girls to enter the field and mobilise to provide the skills and resources needed to address the digital gender divide faced by women at the grassroots.
We chose organic tones for the colours of the new website to signify growth and deliberately steered clear of overtly feminine colours like bright pink and red, creating an updated take on the original logo colour palette. Our goal was to create a logo that is inclusive and sophisticated to represent AFCHIX as a credible and professional organisation implementing development programmes. We also avoid typical tech colours like greys and blues as AFCHIX is firstly focused on people and creating a space where women feel safe and welcome.
While gender equality in the tech space and other fields has certainly improved in the years since AFCHIX was formed, there is still much work to be done. Entrenched gender norms continue to maintain the exclusion of African women from the digital realm at multiple levels. Gender stereotypes, discrimination, and a lack of confidence keep urban and educated girls and women from pursuing careers in the tech sector or advancing to leadership positions. For girls and women living in poor and rural communities, these same challenges manifest as exclusion from access to devices or meaningful connectivity, opportunities to gain basic digital literacy or any real benefit from being online.
AFCHIX is excited about the potential to use our website, social media channels, and this blog as a powerful communications platform to help address these challenges. We believe that by using these tools, we will not only be able to showcase our work but to actively contribute to our goals of inspiring girls and women to enter the tech space and advocating to close the digital gender gap.