Tech4Girls
Across the globe, women remain underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), This is especially true for women residing in the northern part of Nigeria. The field of STEM has been traditionally viewed as more a track for men as opposed to women.
We are taking technology skills to the very doorsteps of girls living in rural communities within northern Nigeria.We are setting up STEM centers in various local communities to teach young girls coding, web design, AI, and other IT skills.
Our vision is a world where there are greater numbers of women involved in, and reaching the top in , technology industries whilst being recognized for their innovations and inventions.
The problem is low enrollment of the female folk in technology and engineering career fields.The issue of gender parity aimed at reducing gender imbalance in economic, social and environmental development which leads to sustainable development.
The United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) alarm that at present, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women and only around 30% of female students select STEM-related fields in higher education.
Despite an increase in the enrollment of female pupils in schools, girls are still significantly under-represented in STEM subjects.
Most of these girls in the rural areas attend public schools where there are few or no teachers inclined in STEM education. Also the ratio of science teacher to student is about 1: 100. Our project gives the girls an opportunity to learn practical IT skills under the close observation of our expert volunteers in a conducive environment within their own community.
Tech4Her gives the girls an opportunity to learn practical IT skills under the close observation of our expert volunteers in a conducive environment within their own community.
Each girl is mentored and drilled in a particular IT package and at the end mandated to build a project prototype. The girls are trained in batches belonging to focus groups where they brainstorm and share ideas thereby creating a strong network of technology minded youths.
We set up a training center at a central location within each community. We come along with our laptops, internet device and other training materials during training sessions. Sometimes, these materials are left behind after training sessions in the custody of the community head/chief, so the girls can practice and complete projects.
We implore the services of young volunteers who are experts in software and technology companies to deliver the training. The project also organizes seminars and workshops on development of entrepreneurial and personal development skills.
Tech4Her targets young school girls between age 10-18 living in local communities within northern Nigeria. Educating girls is one sure way of empowering them to make genuine choices over the kinds of lives they wish to lead.
We are committed to equipping these girls with sufficient skills that would make them self-dependent, prepare them to enter into job markets and progress well.
- Strengthen competencies, particularly in STEM and digital literacy, for girls and young women to effectively transition from education to employment
Most of the girls in our target areas, have never operated a computer, our solution is not only equipping these girls with digital skills, it will also expose the girls to all the possibilities and career fields within the STEM workforce, thereby stimulating them to pick up careers in STEM fields.
The skills they will acquire will also be translated into businesses for the girls.
- Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth
- A new application of an existing technology
Our solution is innovative in that it is not only helping girls to acquire education but also equipping them with 21st century skills that will enable them to become creative inventors, it also integrates its beneficiaries back into the organization’s system by being part of a volunteering community that trains new set of participants. The volunteers also work closely as partners with the organization to execute projects in their fields of expertise.
Other solutions have the participants come over to their facilities for the training but we are bringing this opportunity to the girls at their doorstep at for free.
Our solution is not a technology, but a process of teaching the girls about technologies and their application. We teach them how to create using technologies such as AI, robotics, VR and AR, mobile application and so on.
In the course of the training , they get to experience first-hand and master how these technologies work so as to replicate them in their projects.
We also employ technology in executing the classes, as in the case of virtual classes lead by our partners that are not resident in Nigeria.
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Materials Science
- Robotics and Drones
- Software and Mobile Applications
- Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality
By equipping more girls with IT skills, they will geared towards choosing courses in STEM for their tertiary education , thereby increasing the number of female graduates in STEM courses and technology workforce at large.
- Women & Girls
- Children & Adolescents
- Rural
- Poor
- Low-Income
- 4. Quality Education
- 5. Gender Equality
- 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
- 9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
- Nigeria
- Nigeria
We have been able to reach out and trained over 50,000 girls in various digital skills through our school based and community intervention programs with 80% being students living in rural communities since 2015.
In one year, we expect that Tech4Her would have been able to equip 2,000 girls in under-served areas within Abuja, Nigeria with IT skills.
In five years, we expect to have reached a total of 50,000 girls not just in Abuja, but throughout Nigeria focusing on the northern states.
Our goal is to unlock the creativity potentials in young girls in under-served areas by equipping them with digital skills that will enable them contribute to national economic and sustainability development thereby increasing the enrollment of the female folk in technology career fields by 10% by 2025.
The most limiting barrier currently is obtaining the parents' consent of these girls to allow them partake in the training. Though these sessions are held within their community, most of the parents still view the training as a waste of time due to the predominant cultural belief that girls are to be married off to become home makers.
Poor internet connectivity : Internet connectivity in Nigeria is very poor, and the ones that are a bit reliable are outrageously expensive.
Inadequate computers: we do not have as many laptops needed to go to these communities.
Insurgence and Insecurity in Northern Nigeria: In the coming years when we begin to expand to other northern states, the high rate of insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria is likely to either pose a threat on the safety of our team members or preventing the parents from granting the girls permission to partake in our sessions.
To encourage the parents to allow their girls participate in our project, we sensitize the parents on benefits of their girls participating in the sessions, the sensitization is usually done in their local languages. We also organize exhibition fairs where participants in a particular community display their projects to the entire community.
To tackle poor internet connectivity, we keep applying to network providers for subsidy and and data grants.
We also apply to tech organizations for computers.
We plan to have the approval of the various state governments in the insurgent areas, so that they can provide us with security personnel during our sessions with the girls.
- Nonprofit
Not Applicable
Our team consists of ten full time staff and about fifty volunteers.
As gender-equality advocates, we understand the need for women to gain recognition in the technology workforce.
As problem solvers we are constantly including projects to solve various community projects in our curriculum.
Among us are peer educator specialists who work to organize seminars to help build self-esteem and confidence in the girls.
Our team lead, Stella Uzochukwu-Denis is a STEM education consultant whose services have been employed within and outside Nigeria over the years. Her experiences are essential to identifying and outlining curricula for our training sessions.
She is a Tech-women(2019) Alumni and a regional ambassador for Technovation, a STEM education US- based NGO and Society for women Engineers.
Technovation :
We use their curriculum on an annual competition that encourages young girls to identify a problem in their community and build a mobile app to solve the problem. They have also supported us with laptops, internet, mobile phones and funds.
Us Embassy, Nigeria: They support our projects with funds and mentorship platforms for the girls
VGIF: Resources to train women and girls on Digital Marketing and webdesign
Society of Women Engineers: Provide expert volunteers that train the girls.
Australian Embassy, Nigeria: Provided funds to set up our Fabrication Laboratory
Sweden Embassy, Nigeria: Support our programs with consolation prizes for the girls.
AIAA: Provide Educational Robotics kits
Ministry of Education, Nigeria: Grants approval to work with schools.
Raw Materials Research and Development Council
Universal Basic Education Board, Nigeria
Secondary Education Board, Nigeria
Microsoft: Expert volunteers
DiscoveryE: curriculum for smart city modelling
We provide our beneficiaries with all the necessary requirements to help them acquire digital skills. Our team members along with volunteers visit the different communities on specific days of the week to train the girls.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
We are currently depending on grants and donations from partners and individuals but we are working on running a social enterprise as a sustainability plan.
Solve can help overcome the barrier of poor internet and inadequate computers by providing us with funds to purchase more laptops and subscribe to reliable internetoptions.
- Solution technology
- Funding and revenue model
- Talent recruitment
- Monitoring and evaluation
We are not well grounded in evaluating our impacts, we will be glad to have training to help build our monitoring and evaluating skills.
We need funds to purchase more laptops and reliable internet services
We will love to partner with more experts in the tech industry that will assist in providing training materials physically or virtually.
We will use the prize to include more and girls women in our skill acquisition programs and expand our reach to more states in Nigeria.
The prize money will be used to include young girls living with disabilities in our STEM education training.