By Folashade Braimoh | Project Leader
Dear friends,
Trust you are all doing great!
The first half of the year 2022 has been engaging for us at W.TEC with lots of activities and impact filled projects.
Our team have been working in various capacity to nature the next generation of female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders through the programmes we run.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
A. Loading… 2022 She Creates Camp
Since 2008, W.TEC has run and greatly impacted 581girls through the She Creates camp initiative in Lagos, Oyo, Kwara and Anambra state (Anambra camp launched in 2018) with wonderful success stories. The forthcoming 14th W.TEC She Creates Camp is scheduled to hold in Lagos & Awka from August 7th – 20th at Laureates College Mafoluko Lagos and August 15th - 26th at Kenneth Dike Memorial eLibrary, Awka, Anambra state respectively.
For the two weeks, the young women will participate in technology workshops, career presentations, excursions and leadership activities. The She Creates Camp provides high quality and exciting environment where the girls learn to create useful technologies for everyday living through computer programming, digital electronics, mobile application development, graphics and 3D design, electrical & electronic solution, filmmaking and digital animation programming.
This year the camp will be focusing on Software Innovations, Renewable energy & Electronics the girls will be learning computer programming, critical thinking, data types, program flow, computer programming paradigms, renewable energy, sematic diagrams, electronic symbols, solar system etc. at the end of the camp the girls would build different projects and present it during the graduation.
The She Creates Camp is aimed at helping to nurture more female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders, by inspiring and encouraging girls aged 13 to 17 years to explore and learn about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) subjects.
The Early Innovators Camp is a technology camp for girls and boys between the ages of 7 and 12 years and designed to make learning about technology fun and engaging, with the intention of also inspiring them to pursue technology-related careers in the future.
B. W.TEC celebrates the Girls in ICT Day in Abuja and Lagos:
The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aimed to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women all over the world to consider careers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. The global theme for this year's event is “Access and Safety”
W.TEC marked the day with 2 events:
I. W.TEC Celebrated the day with the W.TEC MakeHer Space participants:
A one-day event was held at the Education Resource Center, 55 Harper Street, Zone 7, Wuse, Abuja, FCT in commemoration of the 2022 Girls in ICT Day on the 28th of April, 2022 to celebrate the Girls in ICT Day with select MakeHer Space participants. It featured 102 girls between the ages of 13-20 years old across five MakeHer Space centers.
The MakeHer Space project is an initiative designed by W.TEC in collaboration with Google to teach girls to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). W.TEC is implementing this project in Abuja, Nasarawa and Abuja with Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA). W.TEC also runs the MakeHer Space project in Lagos and Kwara States.
The main aim of the one-day event was:
The event featured exhibitions of the girls’ works, numerous goodwill and keynote messages from educational, government and ICT stakeholders in Nigeria hand-in-hand with group mentoring session by tech mentors and Hackathon.
Some of the stakeholders on ground at the event, in addition to W.TEC, were from Google.org, YiSHDA, Wootlab, Education Resource Centre (ERC), Sprout Digital, and Auto Lady Inspire Foundation with TVC News Nigeria as the broadcasting media for the event.
Links to the news coverage (print and TV):
II. W.TEC Celebrated the Girls in ICT Day in Lagos
Members of our team and our girls participated in an interactive event, organized by the Microsoft Africa Development Centre in Lagos. They enjoyed presentations, mentorship sessions, career talks, and an office tour.
The event was aimed to engage young girls without prior academic degrees or careers in tech with the aim of introducing them to careers in technology and possible converts. Among others, the day featured, talks about careers in tech, quizzes, mentoring and games.
Thank you to the team at the Microsoft Africa Development Centre for an amazing day.
C. W.TEC Mark the 2022 International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March, it is a global day set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The theme for the year 2022 celebration is ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.
To mark this day, the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) organized a virtual event in collaboration with Oracle Academy to help enlighten existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs on best practices to follow to help protect themselves, their businesses and their wards on the internet against scammers, spammers, abuse/bullying, and ideas on how to safely utilize technology to improve their business.
The event featured the following speakers: Folashade – Programme Manager, W.TEC (Moderator) Bekere– Program Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Oracle Academy, Victoria– Reporting & Business Intelligence Systemspecs Limited Janet– Marketing Director Africa, Oracle Academy Kasia– Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead at IBM
The event held virtually for 1 hour 30 minutes (from 12noon- 1.30pm). Participants of the event included past SHE CAN with ICT (Sustaining Her Enterprise, Career and Network) participants - an initiative designed by W.TEC to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses and other interested businesswomen within and outside Nigeria.
During the course of the event, there was a fun Icebreaker session which gave the opportunity to the fastest finger participants to win recharge cards to subscribe for internet/ data; the session was coordinated by Mrs Preye of Kita Concepts. After the speaker’s presentation, the event gave opportunities to participants to ask questions, give feedback and comments about the event.
Participant Feedback:
Below are some of the participant’s feedback after the enlightening session:
News and Publication with links:
The event was featured on both print and internet media:
• Business Day newspaper (scanned copy): https://www.facebook.com/205592802814765/posts/7368895189817788/
D. W.TEC was again, nominated for the #WSISPrizes award this year.
W.TEC’s MakeHER Space project was nominated for the coveted 2022 #WSISPrizes in the Capacity Building Category, which is the 4th category of the awards.
For the 3rd consecutive year the MakeHer Space project made the shortlist of 360 nominees out of 1,000 projects submitted from all over the world. Our MakeHER Space project, - an initiative designed by W.TEC in collaboration with Google to teach girls to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) technology and engineering empowerment programme for women. The project is supported by Google and has trained over 3,551 women and girls in numerous tech skills across Nigeria since 2020 till date.
WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.
To win the award, W.TEC must emerge with the most votes in the nominated category. Voting ended in March 2022 and we are currently keeping our fingers crossed for the result announcement.
E. W.TEC held her Early Innovators Camp in April 2022
In April 2022, W.TEC trained boys and girls through the Early Innovators Camp, themed: Tech Craft.
W.TEC Easter STEAM – camp (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) for girls and boys between ages 5-12 is slated to run from April 11th – 22nd, 2022.
The camp is directed to ensure a fun, creative and engaging learning sessions for the children. We aim to help the participants develop an early interest in computer science, information technology and related careers with the aid of our experienced facilitators.
Camp Curriculum:
More skills students learnt included; Programming, Basic electronics, Creative Arts/design, Team Building, and other fun activities.
Our curriculum was well-selected to help exhibit the student’s creativity and STEAM-related skills in an increasingly technology-driven world.
The W.TEC Early Innovators Camp is an initiative by W,TEC designed for boys and girls aged 5-12 years to create a generation of young programmers, designers, and entrepreneurs who can innovatively build amazing games, apps, and more. Over those past few years, our STEAM camp has been described as memorable and educative by parents of alumni.
F. W.TEC Academy resumes its third term for the 2021/2022 School Year
It’s back to school season in Nigeria after the second term break and resumption for the third term in schools across the country. W.TEC is also set and has resumed classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
The second term was an interesting training session for the girls across the two states (Kwara and Lagos) as they went through a practical and engaging curriculum comprised of computer fundamentals, programming with scratch programming, video game design, video editing and graphic design. The academy took place in 23 schools across the two states with over 700 students. The term ended with a post-evaluation test and a talk session with the girls from selected female educators in the various school and certificates were issued to the participants of the programme
For the third term, the Academy is taking place again in 23 secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states with a target of 600 school girls participating. The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skill and empower them with the necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future.
The W.TEC Academy team members has also put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls. The new students selected for this term in Kwara state will be learning computer fundamentals, scratch programming and graphic design. While the Lagos schools will be learning Scratch programming, video game design and video editing.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Science and Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) and the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
G. W.TEC Academy, Lagos rounded up the project with Lagos State Research Innovation Council (LASRIC)
The W.TEC Academy in collaboration with Lagos State Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) which commenced in April 2021 ended in all participating schools on March 23rd 2022 as schools began their revision in preparation for the end of term exam. All girls who graduated from the W.TEC Academy earned a certificate of participation from W.TEC.
The primary aim of the W.TEC Academy, sponsored by LASRIC is to help girls develop an early interest in science, engineering and technology, and support and encourage them to pursue STEM-related entrepreneurial and professional paths in the future. This aim was indeed achieved through the project with evidence from the girls and schools.
W.TEC primary target number for the project was 300; the target number was not only met but exceeded as we trained 671 girls. Feedback collected on our programmes indicates that beneficiaries of previous Academies regularly share the knowledge and skills they have gained with others within their networks, thereby family members, classmates, neighbours and community members also benefited from the Academy, showcasing the “female multiplier effect.
H. Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT) programme wrap up and resumption for the next circle
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme launched its 2021/2022 grant circle in September 2021 and has equipped 427 existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs with technical skills and knowledge. The programme proposed to target 300 existing and aspiring businesswomen in its in-person and online classes, and was able to reach 427 women due to the high demand and interest of the women.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment. The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is implementing the SHE CAN WITH ICT programme in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation,
The programme was well-received by women, and a mentoring session was set in a place to help the women connect with professional women in business who share their wealth of experience and help them with any problem they have and guide them through to achieve and run a successful business. The programme wrapped up for this circle in April with graduation in one of its centres at Ikorodu Lagos State, Nigeria, in attendance were female entrepreneurs, volunteers, partner organizations, media and staff of W.TEC. 5 women emerged as winners for the SHE CAN WITH ICT seed grants; each winner received a sum of N100, 000.00 to help their businesses. The participants of the training who have not registered their business also had the opportunity to do so with the help of the Secretary Association of Nigerian Women in Business (ANWIB) who was present at the one of the graduation.
Participant’s feedback:
During this programme, I have been able to learn about the photo Editing App called Inshot. Way before the programme I do go around talking to my customers about how my product is or how my fruit is but with this programme I am able to learn how to put together videos for my business using Inshot and making them more attractive. I can now load my videos on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. My videos now look more attractive since I put them well for my customers to view and they patronize me better than before and it attracted more customers outside my network.
- Ifeyinwa ( Ify’s Café)
“The Training has been an impactful one which I'm taking steps to implement to move my business forward. Before the Training, I had taken a dislike to the ways in which people go about marketing their products on Social Media. I know there's a need to use ICT to boost our business awareness and patronage, I also have Social Media handles for my business, but the manner in which businesses were going about it put me off. However, the Training gave me a better perspective and I see the need to revamp my approach to Social Media Marketing. I am now engaging better on my social media account and using videos to showcase my business.”
- Olufunmilayo, Team Lead/CEO, VineLife Industries Limited
The next circle of the SHE CAN WITH ICT training 2022/2023 resumes this year in our in-person centres as well as online classes. We look forward to equipping more existing and aspiring female entrepreneurs.
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Thank you for supporting and sharing our work. Please continue to donate to our work. Also, consider becoming a recurring donor and setting up automatic monthly payments to us. We especially need your support at this time.
Together, we can keep working to build a pipeline that supports girls and women throughout their journeys from early engagement to a career in technology and sciences. We thank you and our girls thank you too.
Warm regards,
Folashade Braimoh
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
ABOUT W.TEC & THE SHE CREATES CAMP:
The She Creates Camp is an initiative designed to help Nigerian secondary schoolgirls develop an early interest in computer science, information technology and related careers. The She Creates Camp helps to intervene early, combat stereotypes and tackle the digital gender divide. We teach girls to create digital content, create software and develop skills that use information and communication technologies. Our two-week immersion programme empowers girls to contribute meaningfully to the digital economy and improve their economic opportunities.
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
By Folashade Braimoh | Project Leader
By Oreoluwa Lesi | Executive Director
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