GirlsGoIT, Nigeria

Project name: GirlsGoIT

Project location: Nigeria

Website: http://girlsgoit.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GirlsGoIT/

Project description:

GirlsGoIT and The future of work

Since we stand on the brink of a technological revolution, which promises unlimited possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge. And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.
GirlsGoIT aims to boost entrepreneurship and innovation capacity of communities by empowering women and girls to acquire digital and IT skills. In August 2015, GirlsGoIT (Moldova) organized a 2-week summer camp for girls between the ages of 16 to 20 to learn web development skills. The summer camp was focused on girls from rural community, Roma girls and disabled
locomotive. As an outcome of the summer camp, GirlsGoIT has established local clubs in 7 regions in Moldova using local libraries as centre to get more rural and vulnerable girls to acquire digital and IT skills.
In the years 2015-2016 a total of 99 girls have benefited from GirlsGoIT program. 89 young women, 7 young Roma women, 3 young women with locomotive disability have been trained in web development. Also, the number of regions in which local clubs are established reached 10. This year, 130 young women will benefit from GirlsGoIt program.
In October 2016, GirlsGoIT crossed the borders of the Republic of Moldova and organized its first summer boot camp in Nigeria, which took place in Mushin, Lagos from August to October with the intent on empowering girls from rural and under-served communities to acquire digital and information technology skills.
At the end of the 12-week programme, the participating 10 girls from Community Secondary School and Itire Community Senior Secondary school were able to learn the know-how Web app development and eventually built & design a website for their schools, while they will further train their mates who were not part of the programme the basic of coding. They also developed their entrepreneurship skills during the boot camp.
The 2020 mission is to establish local clubs of GirlsGoIT in all regions in Moldova and more regions in Nigeria and Zimbabwe bringing technology in education to the most economically and social vulnerable girls in Moldova, as well as Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
GirlsGoIT is a platform supported by international organizations, government and private entitities, stakeholders with shares values and mission.

Goal and purpose of the project:

GirlsGoIT goals are structured on two dimensions, advocacy and education.
The goal on advocacy is to campaign for girls in technology by establishing community of positive champions of people who support women in technologies and girls/women who overcame fear and stereotypes and pursued tech studies and careers.
The goal of the program on education is to help girls experience STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education which would help them decide on how to connect their future with technologies.

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

Digitalization is creating a vast and open economy at both international and national levels. As economic activities are increasingly enabled through wireless and mobile platforms, new dynamics, rules and drivers of success will impact the quality and scale of employability and economic prosperity for communities, with a liberating potential, especially, for women and girls. The persistence of inequalities in hinders the development of the country and restricts the ability of women and girls to fully realize their human capabilities. Policies and laws aimed at enabling gender equality have not been backed by the sufficient resources to realize them. Young people, especially, have the willingness to explore the opportunities offered by a digital economy, but willingness is not enough. Sufficient support, in the form of training, mentoring, and exposure to international competitions and cooperative enterprises, is needed.
GirlsGoIT is a platform which provides gender based resources (education, inspiration, mentoring, networking) towards women empowerment in and through technologies. At GirlsGoIT we believe in the power of multiple stakeholders sharing common values and striving for a joint mission.

Use of prize money:

GirlsGoIT, being established in Moldova and Nigeria continues to raise awareness and resources to expand to more regions in these two countries. Being in 13 regions in Moldova, GirlsGoIT will continue to expand (from 3 to 5 more regions in 2017 and 2018). In Nigeria, GirlsGoIT strives to receive the needed support to continue the second edition of the program`s educational activities. If awarded, GirlsGoIT will mainly allocate the respective funds towards logistic expenses to allow access to remote regions in both Moldova and Nigeria.