— Girls in Tech Guyana impacting hundreds
SCORES of girls and women in Guyana are being taught how to digitise their knowledge within their field of work to make it applicable to digital platforms which will ensure that they are not left behind as the world advances in technology.
Providing this training is Girls in Tech – Guyana (GIT), the local chapter of a global non-profit that works to end to gender inequality in hi-tech industries and startups. On August 7, GIT celebrated its one-year anniversary, starting with a series of events from August 15 to 31.
However, before then, it has been actively empowering women and girls in Guyana to let go of the fear and stereotypes of being involved in ‘tech’. The organisation’s local chapter has 25 volunteers, 75 registered members, and an over 200 attendance base.
Explaining the oganisation’s current drive to encourage women that technology needs them, Managing Director of the Guyana Chapter, Evie Kanhai-Gurchuran told the Guyana Chronicle that the organisation’s current drive is to encourage women that technology needs them.
“Instead of thinking you need a technical background to be involved in ‘tech’, we’re saying, whatever your knowledge is now, you can bring it to technical learning and advance yourself in that way. If a woman, for example, is involved in accountancy, now we’re saying, if you’re an accountant, let’s show you how to look at the digital side of that.”
Since its inception in 2019, GIT has rolled out several mentor/mentee engagement forums attended by more than 200 participants, and focused on the education and empowerment of women in technology and entrepreneurship.
The forums were targeted specifically to tertiary education, university and professional women, teaching them to identify and solve the obstacles keeping then from achieving their professional goals.
Though GIT is celebrating just one year, Kanhai-Gurchuran has been actively involved in the training of women over the years to take their businesses Online, and has captured data on the interest of women in learning digital and technical skills.
She said that women have a strong interest in learning how to move their businesses Online, and the COVID-19 pandemic has proven this skill to be even more beneficial, as more persons move towards working from home.
“If you look at our cultural context…women are more groomed for jobs in the home and family care, while boys are groomed to take on the world and take on what is considered to be manual-labour tasks. We need a shift in thinking,” she urged, adding:
“Whether or not you started out not being interested in ‘tech’, it demands of you now that wherever you are in your knowledge, wherever you are in your knowledge or your age that you have to be interested in evolving, or you really wouldn’t be able to be successful.
The events that women and girls, now learning of GIT, can participate in as the one-year anniversary is observed includes a Virtual Celebration, Tech Pro Convo, Girl in Tech Check, a Virtual Tech Fair and a Virtual Career Fair. The next scheduled event is a Girl in Tech Check set for today, Saturday, August 22, 2020.
Despite the onset of COVID-19, GIT plans to continue to raise the profile of the organization, and explore synergies with other organisations to identify opportunities to work together, and raise funding to create a greater impact by running global programmes.
GIT was founded in 2007, and is headquartered in San Francisco, in the USA. The ‘Girls in Tech’ global community is 60 chapters strong, with an impact of more than 100,000 members in 36 countries.
