TechChix Tanzania

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Technology, Education
Founded:	Arusha, 2016
Headquarters:	P.O. BOX 6227, Arusha, Tanzania
Country:	Tanzania
Email:	techchix.tz [at] habari.co.tz
Website:	TechChixTz
Facebook:	TechChix
Twitter:	@TechChixT

TechChix Tanzania is a non-profit based in Arusha, Tanzania. The organization comprises professional women in various engineering and technology fields whose aim is to increase empowerment and engagement with young women and girls interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

These women felt it was wise to prove statistics wrong by empowering young women to beat the odds by not only taking careers in technology fields as well as engineering, but also to take up work related to their fields. Though statistics show that the number of women enrolling in technology related courses in colleges and universities is slowly increasing, there is still much work to be done. Despite this increase, there are still very few women who graduate with degrees in ICTs that take up careers due to either prejudice or lack of confidence in their ability to deliver, since most of these careers are dominated by men in Africa.

This organization is included in ICANNWiki's feature on Gender Issues in Tech & Internet Governance.

Mission & Goal

Mission: To provide the know-how on Technology usage for educational purposes so as to create a technology oriented young leaders and especially women to be on the forefront of the technology oriented Africa.

Goal: To have effective STEM skills embraced at lower educational levels and women as part and parcel of technological development, research, innovations and implementation.

Objectives

• To increase STEM awareness knowledge
• To promote girls in STEM-related fields and increase the number of women working in these fields by ensuring they attain high standards and deliver quality services.
• To inspire more young girls to join STEM-related fields so as to remove the mentality that it is a male-dominated career path.
• To form and train TechChix clubs in higher learning institutions, which help to motivate, encourage as well as hold events and exhibitions of projects.
• To seek out internships for girls in STEM-related fields in first-class technology industries and companies so as to broaden their experience.

Images

ICANNWiki & TechChix Event

In mid-November, 2016, TechChix partnered with ICANNWiki to hold the first ever Edit-a-thon in Arusha, Tanzania at the JR Institute. The purpose of the event was to create deeper awareness of general Internet Governance topics and to teach hands-on wiki-editing skills. 72 participants, 60% male and 40% female turned out from different stakeholder groups, including students, members of the technical community and others from academia. 120 articles in total were created by the end of the event.