Turning her passion for Mentorship to elevate Young African Women – Meet Ms. Nodumo Dhlamini

Ms. Nodumo Dhlamini (center) with some of the Girls from AfChixUganda

Afchix Uganda was originally born as LinuxChix Uganda. It came about after a group of women led by Dorcas Muthoni and Ana Badimo met at Kalangala Island in Uganda in January 2006. Evelyn Namara and Lillian Achom championed the formation of LinuxChix Uganda. Evelyn was the board member for Eastern Africa on the LinuxChix Africa Board and Lillian Achom was the Council Member. AfChix Uganda was re-organized in 2009 and is led by Lillian Achom. When Ms. Nodumo Dhlamini came into Uganda in January 2009, she sought out Evelyn and Lillian and they agreed to rejuvenate LinuxChix Uganda under the name AfChix Uganda. Their simple goal is to give back to the community by supporting girls and women to succeed as IT Professional.

Passion for Mentoring Girls
Ms. Nodumo discovered she was passionate about young girls while working at Africa University in Mutare Zimbabwe from 1999 to Dec 2008. She found herself drawn to support girls in the IT Department as well as support girls in her role as part-time Assistant Warden responsible for female hostels.

In Uganda, Ms. Nodumo believes AfChix Uganda has done some good work - visiting schools to talk to girls about careers in Information Communication and Technology (ICT), celebrating girls in ICT days, identified girls to mentor and held their hands, held meetings to strategize in developing proposals for funding and met to draft conference papers for international IT related conferences. As the girls did all this, they had immense fun, became a family and learned from each other.

What kind of AfChixUg do you see in the next 5years?

• Ms. Nodumo would love to see each Afchix Uganda member picking one girl every year to mentor. Mentorship does not have to be stressful - it can be checking on your mentee regularly, identifying opportunities for that mentee to participate in, giving career advice and supporting them if they are going through a hard time at school, college, work or personal life.
• She would like to see Afchix Uganda champion the holding of an international conference for women in IT - something like a version of Grace Hoper Conference for Women in IT in Africa.
• Finally, she would love to see the AfChix Uganda social media platforms growing to e.g. 8,000 Facebook likes and 10,000 Twitter Followers.

Rewarding efforts: Mentorship goes a long way - Nodumo's legacy. 

Here are some testimonies from the girls. 

Lillian Achom: Lillian's interaction with Ms. Nodumo dates back in 2006. In about six months’ time, she will be celebrating ten (10) amazing years of quality friendship with her. Over the past years, she has found Ms. Nodumo to be a dynamic woman who by heart, has a unique insight and tremendous ability to connect with people, inspiring and nurturing them to move in a positive direction; Ms. Nodumo is devoted to taking the time to understand your goals, dreams and aspirations, is dedicated to your success and finding new ways to support you. One of the very important moments in Lillian's  life was her education. She would not have got scholarship to upgrade her studies had it not been for Ms.Nodumo's devotion.

CONNECTING 1000 GIRLS TO ICT

Help us connect 1000 young girls from rural schools in Uganda to ICT

THE IDEA & WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
We would like to celebrate the International Girls in ICT day on Saturday 25th April 2015 and invite 1000+ girls from rural schools in Uganda to participate in a one day seminar. The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative backed by all International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Member States. It aims to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The Afchix Uganda community of women considers gender diversity in the Computer Science & ICT industry very critical for increased creativity and innovative performance of the industry. We believe that by exposing these rural girls to possible career opportunities in Computer Science & ICT, we will empower them to join technical fields confidently.

AfChix Uganda is a chapter of AfChix Africa women in technology. One of our goals is to network with young girls and encourage them to consider careers in Computer Science and other technical fields.

In 2013 the AfChix Uganda community held 4 career guidance seminars targeting 1,250 girls from 4 urban schools. The volunteering AfChix members visited these schools on different dates. We learnt that such career guidance seminars were very important and would also benefit girls from rural based schools. We also learnt that it would be more economical in terms of time to get the girls to converge in one venue on a selected day. This would enable us to invite successful African women in technology to share their experiences and inspire the girls to pursue and excel in Science and Mathematics and hopefully gain entry into Computer Science and other Engineering careers. We shall give the girls handouts with information about the various careers in Computer Science & ICT. We will also interact with them and respond to their questions.

HOW MANY GIRLS WILL BENEFIT
More than 1000 girls from rural based schools in Uganda

BUDGET BREAKDOWN
We have secured a convenient venue for the Girls in ICT day celebrations at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. We have a dynamic team who are ready to volunteer their time to help with the logistics.  As their commitment to this event, the respective schools are facilitating the transport for their girls to and from Uganda Christian University. Please help us to inspire 1000 girls. 

This is the breakdown of our costs:

1. Printing & Stationary   - USD 1100
2. Refreshments   - USD 2,770
3. Promotional materials   -  USD 960
4. Public Address System & Tents  - USD 1000
5. Power back up   - USD 400
6. Transport and Communication costs -USD 370
7. Thank you gifts for Volunteers   - USD 400

Total Budget:  USD 7,000
If we receive USD 7,000 we will invite 1,000 girls from rural based schools in Uganda between the ages of 15-17. If we receive a smaller amount, we will scale back the number of girls to attend, accordingly.

Click here to make a contribution

AfNOG Supporting Training of African Women in IT - Uganda

Some of the participants who attended the training

African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) is a forum for technical coordination and cooperation among African Internet service providers and network engineers from the region’s universities, research institutions, and industry.

AfNOG aims to build a community of engineers to help each other operating Internet Infrastructure in Africa, and on the Global Internet as well as promote the discussion of issues relating to implementation of new networks and communities that require community cooperation.

AfNOG recently concluded its first training in Uganda in partnership with AfchixUganda. Thirty  participants attended this training which was hosted at the Uganda Women Network. During this week, a special Dinner was hosted at the Lawns with guest attendance from the Vice Chancellor of Uganda Technology & Management University, Professor Venansius Baryamureeba. Below are the Online discussions of what transpired during the week of 10-14 November, 2014.

For more information, please read the previous post on AfNOG call for participation by clicking here.

Girls in IT Reaching Out - School of Deaf Launch a Success

See more of the launch by clicking here or view more by of the above by clicking here.

UNIX Workshop for East African Women Engineers, Kampala, Uganda (10-15 November 2014)

DEADLINE EXTENSION: 3rd October, 2014 for applications

AfChix Uganda collaborates with AFNOG and NSRC in hosting the  UNIX System Administration & Networking Workshop for East African Women Engineers, Kampala, Uganda (10th – 15th November, 2014)

Background

The African Network Operators Group (AfNOG ) invites women engineers from East Africa to participate in an intensive Unix System Administration and Networking workshop.

Workshop Goals and Outline

Overall objective: After attending this track, participants will be able to install, upgrade, secure and competently manage the Unix operating system on standard PC hardware, and use it to provide essential Internet services on a network. It is aimed at participants who are technically competent but may have had little or no prior exposure to the Unix environment. We have also introduced some Networking and Routing Topics. In addition they will be taught concepts such as:

•     Basic Internet Protocols and how they work
•     Some basic Internet services and how they function, including DNS, Web, SSH and E-mail
•     Designing installations for long-term scalability of services
•     IPv4 and IPv6 Basics
•     Routing

Who should apply

All East African women engineers, Software Developers and Systems Administrators with a desire to get Unix Administration and Basic Networking skills. The Workshop is largely sponsored but Participants are required to contribute the local currency equivalent of $200.00 towards their participation. Priority will however be given to applicants from Uganda and/or East Africa Female Network Engineers resident in Uganda.

Pre-requisites:

Experience in managing PCs and installing software (such as installing the 'Windows' operating system), but not necessarily Linux/Unix. Some prior Linux/Unix experience would be of great benefit.

Language:

Language of instruction will be English.

Application procedure:

Complete the application form online at http://goo.gl/yCCwSW.  Please ensure that you submit your application in time and fully completed. Selections will be on a competitive basis. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Application deadline:

The applications close on 24th September 2014. Applications received after this date will not be considered.

For more information email: afnogchix2014@afnog.org