YWCA of Malawi
Malawi, 2016, April 28
The Concept
Girls in ITC was an event made to combine the international commemoration of World ICT Day and the empowering of women. The main idea was to inspire, motivate and put the world of ICT in the hands of the high school girls at Saint Patrick's International High School. To achieve this, influential MalawianWomen in ICT were asked to speak to and interact with the girls.
How It went
Girls in IT got off to a great start. The Malawi YWCA and Dibs Africa Ltd. Representatives got to the location on time and set up was done effectively with the much appreciated cooperation of the Saint Patrick's School staff. Times Television, Daily Times (Newspaper) and Malawi Broadcasting Corporation TV were there to cover the event. The speakers were, Mrs. Thandi Mbvundula, Macheza of Dibs Africa, Miss Kulukaya Sadiki and her team from Neuro Tech Malawi. The girls seemed to be unsure of what was going on at first but as the program proceeded, they seemed to warmup to the separate speakers and start to engage with the speakers and what they had to say. Especially when they were getting prizes for participation and sharing their ideas of what they would do with technology (prizes included YWCA t-shirts, and Neuro Tech stationary) At the end of the day, some of the girls went to individual speakers and told them how inspired they were.
Looking ahead
The concept of the Girls in ICT event has sparked interest in the participating organizations and individuals. Even as the girls were dismissed, talk was already under way about how to take Girls in ICT to different schools within Blantyre (to begin with).
The idea is to plant Girls in ICT club in each of the participating schools. This club would have a mentor Assigned to it and the girls will work on an idea together and then their project will be making that idea a reality, with their mentor supervising and coming into check on them and work with the month is project. And finally on the following World ICT Day all the Girls in ICT clubs from the different schools would come together at one venue and present their projects.
