These Zimbabwean techies are bringing Twitter, Mozilla execs to a week-long training program

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
Techwomen

Rumbidzai Mlambo, founder of Techwomen Zimbabwe

Techwomen Zimbabwe, a local organisation which has been championing the inclusion of girls and women in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related careers and fields, will be hosting a delegation of women from Silicon Valley from the 21st to the 27th of February 2016.

The 8 delegates, who work in prominent technology firms that include Twitter, Mozilla, Symantec and Juniper, will be visiting Zimbabwe for mentorship, skills development and training.

The week-long visit will consist of training workshops and career guidance meetups to be held in schools and tertiary learning institutions in Harare, Bulawayo and Bindura which include Harare Girls High School, the National University of Science and Technology, Bindura University of Science Education, as well as rural centres outside Bindura.

A handful of local entities which include the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development, Africom, Telecel, Logicode, Harare Institute of Technology and Bindura University have pledged their support to Techwomen Zimbabwe and the United States Embassy for the visit.

According to Rumbidzai Mlambo, the lead coordinator for Techwomen Zimbabwe, a number of events lined up for the visit will be open to everyone keen on engaging in networking and skills development centred around STEM for girls and women.

She also expressed her enthusiasm for Techwomen’s involvement in STEM skills development and career guidance at a time when Zimbabwe is starting a very ambitious drive to encourage the development of STEM appreciation.

STEM, the buzzword for all things geek has been trending lately on a national scale thanks to the offer of free education to high school students opting for that route.

This latest discussion on the advancement of sciences government has attracted a lot of attention for the government and started debates around the feasibility of championing this cause as well as its potential to give Zimbabwe a chance at competing in terms of relevant skills.

Techwomen Zimbabwe has continuously promoted STEM by encouraging girls and women’s participation in sciences. This has been through the running of events like the Technovation Challenge, lobbying for women’s inclusion in the national ICT agenda, mobilising girls to participate in events like the Hour of Code Zimbabwe and running skills development programs for girls in primary and secondary schools.

8 comments

  1. Barbra

    wonderful news

  2. Baba Tencen: Kuripwa Kugara

    Yes, these executives should bring enough food, otherwise they will be famished.

  3. purple

    Funny thing….Computer Science at A Level is considered a Stem Subject. 4 Shame

    1. purple

      Sorry for the Typo. Computer Science isn’t part of the subjects that will receive funding at A-Level. If a student takes up the subject with any other Stem subjects they r not eligible to receive funding. Is anyone going to address that?

  4. jhbm

    Good initiative … Any training happening in Bulawayo and when? Please may you also remember children in boarding schools … most activities tend to happen while they are away at school and they miss out on a lot of things

  5. Randy

    this whole idea is so wonderful …its so grt im actually in a techwomen workshop ryt now…

  6. Randy

    The presenters are so inspiring and im learning a lot …

  7. Aunty T

    Seems an inspirational program. Would want to be here more and be part of the participants in future. Please keep us posted.

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