CYBERDADA TZ

by

Calister Simba | Aug 3, 2020 | in Women in technology challenge | Tech solutions for communities

State your goals

1. Creating a platform/stage that offers a voice to young girls/women in technology and digital security where they can liberate themselves by showcasing skills and innovations without doubts and nay-sayers to establish a gender diversity economy in Tanzania as well as promoting awareness in digital safety for girls.

 2. Upskilling young girls with passion and interest in technology and digital security with necessary and relevant skills such as entrepreneurship skills, marketing skills, branding skills in order succeed in this digital-inclusion economy as well as empowering them with amazing opportunities and resources in areas of IT and digital security with collaboration and partnership from other women-led companies/organizations/industries.

3. Mentoring young girls in primary schools, secondary schools, colleges/universities, fresh graduates, girls who want to change career into tech and digital security through regular sessions, meetups, and girls online networking platform that will enhance connections, inspire them to keep pushing as well as helping them in tackling social, economic, environmental and gender-related challenges.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

The gender gap in technology and cybersecurity areas from universities to even employment places/companies. In 2018, 21% of females graduated from the Computer Information Security course in UDOM and only 1 female proceed with a cybersecurity career. This can also be seen in other IT related courses where there are a small number of girls who are taking those studies. In companies such as Vodacom, only 3 out of 9 staff are women in the cybersecurity department as well as almost 15 women out of 100+ employees are working in the IT department due to a lack of skills and support which rule them to take more business-oriented or art-related studies and careers.

Lack of tech and digital security girls/female representation in companies,innovative businesses, or organizations. In Tanzania, there is a limited number of tech/cyber girls in companies, female tech entrepreneurs, female tech innovators that young girls can look up to and be encouraged to pursue tech and digital security field. Lack of female mentors in the tech and digital field makes it harder for young girls as they lack coaching, guidance, and motivation to proceed with tech and digital security related-careers such as pen-testers, programmers, data scientists, and others

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a rise in online training and tutoring which turn rise in cybercrimes. Due to a lack of cybersecurity awareness, many Tanzanians fell for this which in turn result in a lot of identity theft, accounts being hacked, and loss of mobile and bank money.

This pandemic caused a lot of young girls especially in rural areas were not able to proceed with their online tutoring due to a lack of devices as well the capacity to be able to use technological devices.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

1)       Preparation and establishment of technology and digital security 1-week boot camps for universities/college young girls (mainly focus on fresh graduates) annual in partnership with other big organizations/big companies such as Vodacom and Tigo Tanzania/ big industries who have shown to be in the fight for empowering girls in tech and digital security.  Within these boot camps, young girls will acquire the technical and soft skills necessary to empower and prepare them to take on tech and digital security career. These boot camps will be funded via fundraising as well as sponsors who we will collaborate them in turn of the promotion of their brands. Boot camps are in a plan for the next year due to the COVID-19 crisis. We had a chance to have a session in one of the IT boot camps in Tanzania created by Help to Help NGO in which talked about CYBERCRIMES AND GIRLS.

2) Women in Tech Hackathon: this will be the first to ever occur in Tanzania event for women/girls in which passionate tech and digital security students in secondary schools and universities and tech female professionals will participate in a collaborative programming session, tech and digital security quizzes, bounty hunting as well as tech collaborative projects and innovation. These events promote interactions, connections as well as motivate young girls in secondary schools and universities to keep pushing for tech and digital security career. This hackathon will require women who are working in tech and digital security fields to pay for the fees that will include her p-partner (who will be a student). This way we can include every young girl even those that don’t have funds to pay for these hackathons. We are currently working on this so that we can have our 1^st hackathon for women in Tanzania in November or December.

3)Establishment of CYBER CLUBS in primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and educational institutions that will motivate the young generation especially girls to pursue tech and digital security subjects and get motivated to reach further with it. These CLUBS will be sponsored and supported by the ministry of education, embassies, education-related NGOs/organizations such as NDOTO HUB, Jenga HUB, Haki Elimu, and others. These collaborations are necessary for the sustainability of clubs and will ensure when accessibility of resources for those schools that lack resources as well as create a better educational environment.

4) Preparation and implementation of sessions and webinars for young girls from secondary to universities with tech girls’ speakers from different industries and companies to enlighten on different IT and cybersecurity areas/topics such as data analysis and virtualization, web application attack, data security, programming/coding for different languages. On 24^th July, we prepared and did 1 webinar for DATA SCIENCE and it was engaging and good. By the end of this month, we shall have another one focusing on HACKING using the google meet conferencing tool and invite another amazing lady to take us through with HACKING. We are also in a planning session with SHEHACKS KE from Kenya to have a collaborative session in Web Application Attacks.

4) Establishment of innovation labs and showcasing platform where young girls with ideas can birth their ideas into products such as applications, systems, AI-enabled software, security-related tools and provide them with a platform to showcase their tech-innovation products. This will create a great image for the hub, welcoming more funders/sponsors and besides that, a few percent of the product sales will be going back to the hub for the sustainability of the hub.

5) Formation of WhatsApp groups that girls can network and share ideas and challenges in several areas of tech and digital security, promoting digital safety awareness as well as bring closer different opportunities.

6) Designing videos/audios/animation and printing of posters/newsletters/t-shirts that can help to motivate girls to take technology and cybersecurity studies such as “Technology for women” as well as promoting digital safety to girls through campaigns such as SAY NO TO CYBERBULLYING.

7)  Establishment of regular seminars and girls meetups from schools, universities, and companies for them to networking, inspire as well as motivate more girls.

8)  Designing and development of applications (apps) and websites that will assist in providing skills on IT and cybersecurity as well as the promotion of digital safety awareness

1)      Due to this COVID-19 pandemic, we found that there was a need to publish books that can assists students especially in rural areas where technology has not yet advanced so publishing of it and cybersecurity books (with understandable language e.g. Swahili) is also one of the strategies that will improve knowledge, skills as well as awareness.

2)      During the pandemic period in areas such as rural areas, a great percent of students and teachers were not able to proceed with studies because of limited technologies such as laptops, TVs, smartphones, and learning iPad so providing them or schools with this equipment will be a great assistance and will uplift students especially girls’ students.

Share your story (your narrative)

Being a female and coming from a poor family line, I have been interested in computer studies and I struggled to have and trained to use one, it was until I went to college that’s when I had a chance to have my computer and be able to use and learn different skills especially programming.

During my high school education at Jangwani Girls Secondary school I had a computer teacher who encouraged me to become more interested in Computer and seeing my computer class with few students (15) who later dropped it due to lack of resources, I held on to the subject and promised myself that I will be one of the people who will improve this situation by encouraging and support students especially female students to achieve different ICT skills.

Due to my poor background in Computer Skills, I struggled in Universities as I had to study extra hours and practice a lot after classes to keep up. Even with all the effort, I was making, I was very excited because I knew that someday this will pay off and I will be able to use the knowledge acquired to improve other people's situations as I promised myself before. Being in a class of 48 students and only 10 females I end up becoming the best student not only in the class but also in the whole program and that still motivates me to gain more skills and experience to advance in a Cybersecurity career.

Noticing some Tanzanians become a target to several cyber-attacks such as SMS and email spoofing, identity theft, cyberbullying, data exposures has driven me to obtain knowledge in cybersecurity. My greatest intent in this to ensure I use my knowledge to empower my fellow Tanzanians especially young girls through mentoring, promoting awareness, establishments of meetups /seminars, and sessions that aim to connect girls and encourage each other and bring closer opportunities for girls. As technology advances, we need every hand on deck, and women/girls won't be left behind because as Swahili folk says "Educate a girl you educate a society".

Witnessing the number of women in my class/ IT department was small compared to the number of men due to societal perceptions that have opened my eyes that there is a need for a change in Tanzania society. As a result of these experiences faced motivates me to make a positive impact on my society. As an energetic and skilled young woman, I have a responsibility to be one of the individuals who can contribute to making a change. I have to be on the frontline to build a secure society and become an example/model for the young generation.

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes