Tag Archives: Africa

February 6, 2014 · 1:16 pm

TechWomen at Girl Hub and Rwanda University

On our last full day together in Rwanda, the TechWomen delegation visited Girl Hub and the University of Rwanda – College of Science and Technology (formerly called Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management or KIST).

Girl Hub is a strategic collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Nike Foundation. Girl Hub helps transform the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty by unleashing their potential and empowering them with the assets they need to end poverty for themselves, their families and their community.

Girl Hub publishes Ni Nyampinga magazine and distributes it to 90,000 girls in Rwanda.

Four of the six 2013 Emerging TechWomen Leaders from Rwanda were KIST graduates. We spoke with the faculty, and enjoyed a well-escorted campus tour before meeting with about a hundred women technical students – answering their personal and professional questions. After our university visit, the TechWomen group went shopping for fabric, then had a farewell gathering at the hotel. Tomorrow, the first group of us departs for the mountains to see the gorillas. This has been a moving and inspiring week.

TechWomen Meet Technical Girls of Rwanda

The TechWomen delegation started today with a visit to the Carnegie Mellon University – Rwanda campus where we talked with the women Engineering students. Lunch was at the wonderful Shokola restaurant – on a covered deck in a garden. This was followed by a visit to the US Embassy for an address by Evan Ryan (Assistant US Secretary of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs). The TechWomen mentors then spent some delightful hours under a big tent on the embassy lawn talking about science, technology, and careers with about a hundred remarkable and lively girls from many local schools. In the evening, we enjoyed dinner with dancers at Heaven restaurant – with a night view of Kigali. Lovely and inspiring day!

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February 5, 2014 · 1:01 pm

Gashora Girls School – Guest Blog List

As part of yesterday’s TechWomen delegation visit to the Gashora Girls Academy (GGAST) in Rwanda, I worked with other TechWomen to present two sessions of the Blogging and Web Research Workshop. Here is the list of blog topics that the girls signed up to write about as guests on Katysblog:

Clubs at Gashora and what goes on
Novels in the library (especially by James Patterson)
Team sports and games
School talent and fashion show
End of term bonfire
Many clubs for personal interest, community service helping local families
Why Gashora is non-religious
Dr. Ben Carson’s books on America
School magazine (“Light of GGAST”) – reprinting good articles
GGAST focus on science and technology
“Peace and Love Proclaimers” Club – to remember the genocide
Graduation day
Parent visits
University counseling and plans

Amazing Gashora Girls Academy, Rwanda

The TechWomen delegation spent yesterday at the amazing Gashora Girls Academy (GGAST) in Rwanda’s Eastern Province of Bugesera, about an hour from the capital of Kigali. We learned about these talented and intelligent girls’ education, lives, and hopes for college and leadership in Rwanda. The TechWomen mentors presented to several hundred girls – discussions on careers in technology, engineering, and science, plus workshops on interviewing, blogging, software application development and other geeky subjects. I worked with other TechWomen to present two sessions of the Blogging and Web Research Workshop. We also brought English-language books by and about women for the school library. I will be posting the list of blogs that the girls promised to write as guests here on Katysblog. It was an inspiring day with remarkable young women.

Inspiring STEM Girls and Women in Rwanda

Today was the TechWomen delegation’s first day of meetings in Kigali, Rwanda. We met with the inspiring girls and young women students of the Akilah Institute for Women, coached proposals for STEM start up companies by kLab Open Space for IT Entrepreneurs, and heard about the ambitious projects of the Girls in ICT group – including their Miss Geek Rwanda entrepreneur contest (to be at the same time as the Miss Rwanda beauty pageant) on International Women’s Day. In the evening, we enjoyed an impressively-organized networking event and reception set up by our Rwandan TechWomen Emerging Leaders for two hundred local IT executives and the press.

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February 2, 2014 · 1:23 pm

Touring Kigali

The forty TechWomen delegation members have all arrived in Kigali Rwanda as of today. We spent the morning of our first official day touring the capital, changing money, and shopping for crafts. In the afternoon, we laid flowers on the mass graves and spent several hours at the Genocide Memorial Centre. We just got back from a splendid dinner and dance hosted for us in a private home by the TechWomen Emerging Leaders whom we mentored from Rwanda. We are all tired and more-or-less jet lagged but experienced today as a powerful introduction to the culture we have come to learn about. I am still thinking through the exhibits and museum displays of photos, bones, and artifacts of genocide victims. This will take time to process.

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February 1, 2014 · 12:55 pm

Heroes Day in Rwanda

Today was the 20th celebration of Heroes’ Day in Rwanda:

The National Heroes’ Day falls on every February 1 during which time Rwandan leaders and citizens pause and pay homage to specially fallen compatriots who paid the ultimate price for the greater good.

It was also our second day here in Kigali with the TechWomen delegation. Everything was closed for the morning to honor the heroes who fought against the Rwandan Genocide. So, five of us hired a car to see parts of the city and surrounding area that will not be on our official tour tomorrow. We saw one of the sources of the Nile River and even very briefly saw a monkey running uphill. We also went to the Caplaki craft cooperative and did some shopping.