About
Source: Website
AFCHIX is a network of African women in technology who believe that gender diversity is crucial to building a thriving and innovative ICT sector on the continent. We mentor, inspire, and encourage girls to join the tech space through a range of initiatives.
About Us
What we do
AFCHIX mentors and inspires girls to consider careers in Computer Science and IT through visits to schools, technical workshops, events aimed at women in tech, and sponsoring our members to take part in local and international tech conferences.
We target upper primary and high school girls between the age of 9 to 18, young women studying in the ICT field, young women at the start of their careers in the sector, and experienced women in tech who want to grow into leadership positions.
AFCHIX’s reason for existence and the objectives of our work can be summarised in three words shown on our logo. We want to create Inspiration, Connection and Community.
Inspiration
AFCHIX wants to inspire more women and girls in Africa to learn how to use technology, pursue careers in STEM, and gain confidence in their own immense potential. We work to inspire change by advocating to close the gender digital divide that continues to keep women from accessing the internet or truly benefitting from connectivity.
Connection
AFCHIX exists to facilitate connection.
We create platforms and opportunities for African women in tech to connect with each other. We connect girls and women to the resources they need to gain skills and knowledge about technology to improve their lives. We support communities to connect themselves to the internet through creating community networks.
Community
AFCHIX uses the connections we establish to create more than a network of women. We want to create a community of women in tech that supports and uplifts not only each other – but also those women who are still unconnected.
The AFCHIX Story
AFCHIX was founded by African women and for African women. The organisation that would become AFCHIX was born in 2004, when Dorcas Muthoni and Ana Badimo founded a regional chapter of world-wide group, LinuxChix. Through LinuxChix Africa, they hoped to help build the critical mass of Linux skills among African women and to advocate the use of open-source software to help tackle development challenges in African communities.
Since then, AFCHIX has evolved into an independent African organisation and its activities have reached women in 25 countries on the continent. This includes over 7000 high school girls in Kenya and Uganda who have benefitted from our mentorship and career guidance programmes.
Mission, Vision and Motto
Vision
An equitable digital world for everyone.
Mission
To create an exemplary organisation and network of African Women in Computing with a desire to inclusively provide: opportunities, mentorship, capacity building and inspire young generations through role modelling.
Motto
Everyone involved.
Source: http://afchix.org/about-us/
Mission, Vision and Motto
Since 2004, AFCHIX has been inspiring African girls to pursue careers in tech, helping women in the industry to upskill, and using community networks to enable women to connect themselves and their communities to the internet.
Empowering African women to connect themselves to the internet
- 17,000+ Girls reached through training, mentorship and community events
- 670+ People accessing Wi-fi internet
- 4 Community networks established
- 1200+ Women empowered through digital literacy and technical training
- 13 Rural schools connected to the internet
- 5800 Students connected to the internet
Source: http://afchix.org/about-us/
Projects
As one of the winners in the first and then third rounds of the WomenConnect Challenge, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), AFCHIX is using community networks to help women in rural communities in Africa overcome the barriers that keep them from benefitting from the internet. WomenConnect is a global call for solutions to improve women’s participation in everyday life by meaningfully changing the ways women access and use technology.
As a winner in the first round of the Challenge, launched in 2018, AFCHIX worked with four rural communities in Kenya, Senegal, Namibia, and Morocco to install communications infrastructure and connect several schools and a limited number of households to the internet. We used a gender-sensitive approach and deliberately involved women as leaders in the design, installation, and maintenance of the networks.
Chosen as a winner of the third round of the Challenge in 2021, AFCHIX is currently working on a project, ‘Scaling up Women-Led Community Networks for Women’s Prosperity, to extend these networks. This project is adding to the infrastructure already installed in the four communities to extend internet access to more community members and continues to provide digital literacy and business skills training to empower them to use the internet to improve their lives.
Grace Hopper Celebration
The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) was founded in 1994 to honour the legacy of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper and inspire future generations of women in tech. As the flagship event of AnitaB.org, it brings the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront and highlights the contributions of women to the tech world.
Through the support of our partners, several AFCHIX members have received financial support to attend the conference, which takes place in the United States every year. This experience has enabled our members to network with women in tech who are leaders in their respective fields representing industry, academia, and government and has given them valuable exposure to a global platform for knowledge-sharing, opportunities, and support.
Mentorship for High School Girls
AFCHIX’s work to inspire girls to take up careers in STEM includes hosting various events, celebrating International Girls ICT days, and conducting school visits to introduce high school girls to ICT fields of study and the different job opportunities the sector holds. Our programmes include sessions to educate girls about career possibilities in ICT and allow successful women in the sector to share their inspirational stories. We also provide sessions on life skills to help strengthen the confidence of girls in their own ability to succeed in any career of their choice.
AFCHIX has hosted over 6000 girls at its Annual Computer and Mentorship Career Workshop in Kenya. This event was hosted in collaboration with the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya and its Mathematics, Computer Science, and ICT Departments. In Uganda, over 10,000 female high school pupils and universities have benefitted from our mentorship and career guidance programs, seminars and International Girls in ICT Days events.
Training to Upskill Women in ICT
AFCHIX’s efforts to build the capacity of women network engineers in Africa started in 2006 through a collaborative initiative between LinuxChix Africa, the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), and the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC).
This culminated in the inaugural Unix Administration Workshop which was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007. The aim of the workshop was to provide women network engineers with an opportunity to sharpen their skills in Unix System Administration and to increase opportunities for women to actively participate in other AfNOG activities. From 2007 to 2015, AFCHIX hosted a total of eight AfNOGChix training workshops across African countries including Ghana, Botswana, Malawi, and The Gambia.
Over 200 women engineers have benefitted from this training, helping to build their technical skills in using the Unix System, as well as their capacity to take up leadership positions in their sector. The women trained during these sessions also went on to share the skills and knowledge they acquired with others in their home countries.
Source: https://afchix.org/projects/
Community Networks
What is a community network?
Community networks enable communities to connect themselves to the internet when commercial internet service providers do not cover their area or offer connectivity that is too costly. Community networks use new low-cost electronic networking equipment to provide small-scale community-based network services. These networks are owned, managed, and used by local communities and can provide affordable internet access at a fraction of standard commercial prices.
The power of women-led community networks
AFCHIX believes that women can, and should, be key members of any group driving the establishment and ultimately the sustainability of community networks. When we empower women with information on the power of the internet to change their lives and how they can achieve this via community networks, they can become the best connectivity champions and agents of change.
The empowerment programmes delivered through community networks help women to establish their own businesses, provide important community services, and position these women as role models. This creates entrepreneurial opportunities for rural women to run local internet service providers, work as network engineers, build and grow small businesses, and enhance their digital knowledge and skills.
Read our blog to learn more about the latest activities in AFCHIX’s community networks and to hear the stories of some of the women benefiting from our projects.
Source: https://afchix.org/afchix-community-network/
Contact
Email: Email, Contact Page
Locations
Address
KOFISI 9 | 9 West, 7th Floor – Ring Road, Westlands
Nairobi, Kenya
