I am still catching up from my trip to South Africa with the TechWomen Delegation. Some of the highlights for me of this inspiring trip to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and nearby Townships were spending time in a professional workshop or coaching session with girls and women, particularly at the Phateng Secondary School (in Mamelodi, Pretoria), TheBarn incubator (in Khayelitsha, Cape Town), and at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (in Muizenberg, Cape Town) where I was honored to give a talk on mentoring. It was a great pleasure to spend the week with the other two 2011 TechWomen Alumnae in the SA Delegation – my dear friends Sukaina Al-Nasrawi and Maysoun Ibrahim. We have not seen each other in-person since Jessica and I visited them in Beirut in 2012.
Eileen Brewer and I gave away dozens of “TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East” posters and card decks (now for sale!) – often in a brief formal presentation at the end of the Delegation’s visit. We hope that these educational materials will continue to inspire women in their technical aspirations for many years to come. This trip marks the farthest South I have ever been!
Our Delegation was all technical professional women with the addition of two brave husbands!
Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
