Being young women has not stopped them from having an impact on a field that is dominated by their male counterparts. They have developed applications and games that have been embraced globally. Some have started initiatives that are helping to draw more women into technology.
The Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) field in Uganda has been growing by strides over the past years, this has been as a result of some individuals who have spearheaded this advancement. I present to you some of the young women who are having an impact in this field.
Barbara Birungi
She is also the founder of Women in technology Uganda (WITU), an initiative that seeks to encourage, inspire and train more women in the tech field through networking, training, mentoring and partnering so as to increase the number of women in technology and the number of tech women entrepreneurs. She believes that every woman has the potential to become anything she aspires to be.
Ampaire Christine
She is also co- founder of Girl Geek Kampala whose mission is to infuse entrepreneurship and programming skills into girls passionate about IT. Their main objectives are:
- Inspire the next generation of girl geeks to get involved in tech by equipping them with the basic programming skills.
- Inspire girls to turn their great applications into businesses
- Give visibility to the girl geeks that have stood out
- get more girls into the growing tech scene in Kampala.
Theresa “Terry” Karungi
“The best things so far have been; being nominated for the Mobile World Summit Award as finalists from East Africa, and being given a spot to present at Google’s Uganda Conference earlier this month which got us a lot of publicity.” -says Theresa who is still at university
The same team is also behind Zword a game which helps you improve your spelling and vocabulary while killing zombies, by filling in the blanks and knifing the zombies. This game which was developed during Garage48 was voted as the funniest app
Maureen Agena
She currently works as a program Manager at Text to Change a Mobile for Development company. she is a recipient of an ARDYIS 2010 EastAfrican award winner, passionate about ICT4D mobile technology and Gender issues in Technology. she also work as the Online communications Consultant with UNFPA Uganda Country office. Prior to working with Text to Change she worked with WOUGNET as the Communications Officer. She is a co- founder of Girl Geek Kampala together with Ampaire Christine and Evelyn Namara.
Evelyn Namara
Additional information from OutBox, Blogger, Kola Studios, Witu and Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology