Empowering women with GoGirls ICT
On the 9th of July 2011 South Sudan became the youngest nation in the world. About two years after independence, on December 15th 2013 the young nation experienced civil unrest.What the rest of the world refers to as a war torn country is home to so many people. Among them are young people who have stamina in building their country. Some of them do it from the diaspora others from home. Among such organizations is GoGirls ICT.
GoGirls ICT is an initiative in South Sudan which is targeted towards mentoring women and girls in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics related fields. The initiative focuses on three main areas: Engaging, Educating and Empowering the South Sudanese girl child who is the most marginalized in the South Sudanese society. GoGirls ICT Initiative follows a philosophy of ‘Chain Based Trainings (CBTs) with a focus on mentoring and creating independent, innovative and confident girls/women who can proudly compete with their male counterparts in the field of ICT. They empower women to be more involved in the ICT field and to not be afraid to compete with their male counterparts.
#defyhatenow is one of the main partners that works with GoGirls-ICT Initiative in their efforts to educate women in South Sudan in areas that are focused on ICT. GoGirls ICT was founded and is run by two young women – Eva Yayi and Yine Yenki who are very passionate about using education to bring development to South Sudan. As Nelson Mandela stated “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.” We have worked with GoGirls ICT since the beginning of 2018 in official capacity but the GoGirls ICT cofounders have attended many of the #defyhatenow events over the years and interacted with the #defyhatenow team. Some of the events we have done together have been focused towards educating the young generation on how to use digital skills to improve their lives.
Young students
From the description you are probably thinking that GoGirls ICT works exclusively with women. You might have a question, what if boys and young men want to attend their events, do they turn them away? To answer you, no they do not. They target women because over the decades as we all know there have been very few women in certain careers. They are using this platform to amplify the support that women can do as much as men do given a chance and empowerment. Being a women-run organization you could say they are biased towards their own gender but this is the kind of bias that benefits the world. The organization has been in operations since 19th, December 2015. These few years of operation have taught them that working with both genders it is easier to recollect where the biases towards women come from and to help shape the future discourse of how to smash the biases towards women. They empower young men to treat women with as much respect as they would like accorded to them.
Read more about them at GoGirls ICT
Follow their work on Facebook : GoGirls ICT Initiative
