Change Agent Awards Panel – sponsored by Google
From Anita Borg Institute Wiki
The Anita Borg Change Agent Awards celebrate the accomplishments of technical women from emerging countries. These awards are designed to recognize up-and-coming leaders that impact or advance women’s participation in technology, while also internationally expanding the reach of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference. This panel made up of the 3 amazing award winners who will talk about their work and how they are using technology across the globe.
The official blog post for this presentation can be found at: http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/change-agent-awards-panel-%E2%80%93-sponsored-by-google
Notes by Shannon Madison, live GHC note taker
The Anita Borg Change Agent Awards honor technical women that live and work outside the United States. Change Agents work in their community to attract and support women in technology. Recipients are recognized for their technical leadership and advocacy work.
Halima Ibrahim from Nigeria
Halima Ibrahim is the Director of Mu’assassatul Mar’aatus Saliha Women’s Skill Acquisition Centre. The center provides ICT & Handcrafts Skills Training for underprivileged women. Halima Ibrahim has worked as a teacher for 23 years under the Ministry of Education Bauchi State, Federal Republic of Nigeria while pursuing her passion to aid young girls and women in handcrafts skills acquisition training programs. She participated in Microsoft’s “Unlimited Potential Programs” via the Professor Iya Abubakar Community Resource Center’s partnership with Microsoft. She has since single handedly driven change in Bauchi and other communities in the North East of Nigeria by empowering underprivileged women and girls. Her initiative, the Mu’assassatul Acquisition Centre, is the biggest initiative that has emerged from the Community Technology Skills Program in Nigeria over the last three years. It has so far empowered over a 1000 other women in ICT and Handcraft skills whilst fostering local innovation and creating jobs and opportunities for people. This is despite challenges centered around funding, power and infrastructure. These women have been motivated and equipped with knowledge that has made most of them financially stable and independent from the comfort of their homes in their seclusion status. The rate of divorce amongst this group of women has reduced due to the economic empowerment of women because they now have more value in their homes. Through her Adult Literacy classes and the Islamiyya School, adults and children are being equipped to ensure that their lives are improved with the use of technology and other resources. Support systems have emerged, where women can count on groups to provide assistance in times of need. Women now have a stronger voice because they are aware of the values and what they bring to the table. In addition her work is helping to preserve and export their culture as they are working toward uploading local recipes for the world to copy. Most importantly, the socio-economic status of the community has changed. Halima has a National Certificate for Education (NCE) from the College Of Education Azare, Bauchi State.
Oreoluwa Somolu from Nigeria
Oreoluwa Somolu is the Executive Director of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), a non-profit based in Nigeria working to encourage Nigerian women to use technology to empower themselves socially and economically. W.TEC’s work is carried out through projects which build technology skills among women, technology literacy workshops, research, career counseling and mentoring. Notable among these is the Girls Technology Camp, which seeks to help girls develop an early interest in computers and other information and communication technology. Oreoluwa worked for several years in the United States at an educational non-for-profit organization on a number of projects which explored the interplay between gender and technology and which sought to attract more girls and women to study and work in science and technologyrelated fields. She managed an oil and gas career awareness program for secondary school and higher education students in Nigeria prior to setting-up W.TEC. She has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Essex University, U.K., a Masters degree in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics & Political Science and a Certificate in Applied Sciences from the Harvard University Extension School. Her interests are the applications of technology in improving lifelong learning and raising the economic and social conditions of people (especially women and children) in the developing world. Oreoluwa’s published work include ‘Telling Our Own Stories: African Women Blogging for Social Change’ (Gender & Development Journal, Nov 2007) and ‘Making the Most of On-line Learning: An Introduction to Learning on the Internet’ (Education Development Center, 2004). She also maintains personal and professional blogs.
Took a six months diploma in computers, set up a db for a small family business to track inventory. At university, worked at typing essays for other students as a small business. This sparked an interest in using computers to earn a living, while pursuing her degree in Economics. This sparked the idea of using computers to help economically empower women. Got a grant to fund a small tech program for girls. Partnered WTEC with other companies. Becoming known for the tech camp, introducing girls to IT tech, women in tech, to inspire ideas about opportunities and provide counseling. Also have program for women already in Universities to make themselves more marketable when looking for jobs. Third program for women activists. Much of the work focuses on younger women. 15 girls or women at a time, b/c only staffed of 2, limited by resources.
Anne Ikiara from Nairobi
Anne Ikiara is the General Manager of Nairobits Trust, an organization dealing with youth/women empowerment through ICT, where she also serves as a gender and HIV/AIDS focal person. Anne has been with Nairobits for six years. Within this time, hundreds of women/girls from non formal settlements have gained ICT skills that have improved their lives economically, socially, culturally and politically. Most notable is the entry of women/girls from disadvantaged communities to the formal ICT economy. This hard to reach group would otherwise have no chance of ever having access to ICT/Computing. Through her leadership, the Nairobits concept has grown in Kenya and has been replicated in the non formal settlements of Nairobi with five training and information centers being opened. Through the training and exposure of these girls/women to ICT, lives of other women in their localities have significantly improved and positive ripple effects are being felt in these localities. To expand the benefits of this successful concept in the developing world, Nairobits is replicating the concept in similar settings such as Addis Ababa, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar by giving African women a significant stake in the ICT arena. To further strengthen the replication and make it possible for a larger number of women to benefit, Anne together with Butterfly Works is setting up an organization called Mamabits to develop content and concepts that utilizes ICT’s for the benefit of a wide range of youth throughout the developing world. Mamabits envisions developing online curricula in entrepreneurship, life skills and creative multimedia skills and ICT concepts that improve lives. Besides the field of ICT, Anne has made a remarkable contribution in the field of research specific to women. In recognition of this contribution, Anne has won several international research grant awards competitions. Her contribution in poverty alleviation in youth and women in ICT has been recognized by key organizations both in Kenya and abroad. The International Youth Foundation has appointed her into the partner advisory committee representing the African region. Anne holds a Diploma in HRM, BA social work and MA in Gender and Development studies from University of Nairobi.
Began 8 years ago involved as an activities in the women's movement. In Kenya, this is more fundamental, preventing marriages of young girls, genital mutilation, abuse, dealing with cultural aspects of heavy discrimination. Very little focus on gender equality so much as economic empowerment > autonomy. Huge economic disparity, very wealthy vs very poor, no middle class. Poorest haven't even got housing, much less access to ICT. Approached young women, trained them in small center using old donated equipment. Problem is that old tech is not marketable. The majority of trained women secure jobs within a year, then required to reach out to five others.
Questions
How do you reach out to and select the women for your programs? Can you give examples of outreach that has NOT worked for you?
Oreoluwa: visit schools, let other organizations know what they're looking for. Word of mouth, media. For women, reach out to other NGOs, especially those organizations working with women/girls. Usually get a lot of interest. In terms of what hasn't worked, Last year tried a program for activists. Would have a different theme each week, ask the women to go to the project log and write ideas and get suggestions from mentors. Would encourage them to go to cyber cafe and post about experiences, but most didn't bother for a variety of reasons. Better to stay with them and do the work together. If introducing a new technology, must have a psychical presence.
Ann: Reach out to the role models within community. For the women, looking at those who want to improve their lives. For young people, use kids 17 to 5. What didn't work: envisioned young girls starting up young businesses, even those who want jobs. It seems people prefer the security of a job to starting their own business. Put incentives for entrepreneurship.
Halima: use other organizations, such as the organization for the widows. Next may use the organization for divorcees. Go to the schools directly to find children, inviting at least 15 per school. Will even arrange mobile training for those without transportation. Was very discouraged when few people showed up.
Is your passion for this work something you've always had, or was there something in particular that inspired you?
Halima: Didn't have the inspiration for helping women initially, but the interest in computers for the past 15 years. Most of (the women in her community) will not leave the house, much less attend school or universities. Found organization that helped widows who have no choice but to support themselves.
Ann: passion for women & girls is something she's always had, as the oldest had a sense of responsibility. Missed having an older woman role model apart from her mother. Always tried to encourage young women to be a role model for other girls.
Oreoluwa: interest in helping women has a lot to do with her own experiences. Comes from eastern part of Kenya, very low position as youngest child, 4 brothers. Had to do all of the cleaning for her brothers, didn't understand why her parents didn't take her education as seriously as her brothers, expectation that she would simply fail and only become a wife. Didn't want her future daughter to experience this. Finally did manage to get through school, knew her passion belong to the women's movement.
How do you keep going when things get hard? In these kinds of projects, there is a theory that “if you train one man, you train only one. If you train one woman, you train a community”. Do you believe this is true?
Oreoluwa: When she meets someone who has been through the program and sees them thriving, or sees them write of a success on a blog, she doesn't care about the failures. Has seen firsthand the effect of training women vs men. Women will aways stick around, will stick with their children. A man, even well educated, will simpy walk away in the face of strife.
Anne: Very challenging work. When starting WTEC, had already received funding which was a tremendous blessing. Since then has been very challenging to get funding. You put a lot of yourself, friends, family into it. What keeps her going is the reason she got into this in the first place: for anyone in a social enterprise, the ends really does justify the means. When you see the women you've been able to touch and see how they use the knowledge, even the short-term impact of girls recognizing that technology careers are possible, when they tell their friends, that makes everything worthwhile and keeps you going. It's very true that the impact extends beyond the individual that is trained. Men see information as power and won't share. The women always pass along their experiences, training and passing along what they've learned, or even just sharing with one other person.
Halima: Experiencing hard times makes you even tougher than you were. Her sister is her pillar of strength. We have friends and family to turn to when things get hard. We have people with whom we can share our work. Our social responsibilities to these women and children extend to others who can help. “A mother chicken never grows fat” because whatever a mother gets, she'll give to her children, assistance to her benefits the entire family. A man may simply take for himself or give to his mistress.
For those who have very small businesses, technology obsolescence is commonplace. Are there legitimate organizations where we can recycle our old technology, or does it just end up in third world landfills?
Anne: Computer Aid seems to be very helpful Halima: has been a direct recipient of Computer Aid (Halima's sister): The equipment is very well vetted prior to being distributed, it's an ideal source of affordable equipment.
