Panel Discussion: The role of women in ICT

28/11/12

Changing the game: The role girls and women play in domestic internet economy.

After the full day of gathering content for our app "Food for thot" we were all invited to stay back for the Panel discussion on Women in ICT. While helping set the place up for the evening function I was notified that I will be one of the four panelists. The other three are also young women participants from this Forum.
The Key Note speaker was Mrs. Stephanie Danclair (Chief Operations Officer of Bright Path Foundation) and remarks were given by Katalaini Duaibe (from United Nations Women department).

I do not consider myself in the ICT sector so I was extremely nervous about being on the panel. But it was not that bad.

The first question was:
What do think about the development in Fiji and what role do you play in this? 
The developments taking place locally are escalating at different wavelengths and Youth development is huge. Young people are developing in all spheres of life. They are excelling in Education (experimenting with different types of careers, doing volunteer works, going abroad for studies and also engaging in vocational studies), Sports and Advocacy work as well. The Youth community uses the Internet for communicating and searching for information daily and they too become part of the ICT network in doing so.

What is my role in this? 
I thought that all this time I am not a part of the ICT world. But my blogs are also a big part of the ICT world. The blogs I write are also a big part of this ICT World. It is helping me connect the information I have to people in the wider community and most importantly with my Internet family.

The second question was:
What challenges do you face in your professional work and what are the solutions?
Challenges we face are one too many.
1) Time: Timing of events are usually in the evenings and many young women face difficulties in attending forums in the evening. One reason is because they have home commitments and the second reason being many of them do not feel safe to travel in the evening.
2) Being taken seriously is an issue. Just because we are 'youth' we do not have enough experience to make decisions - is a common myth!! Youth also have experience (even though it is not much) even if it experience of a few weeks, months or years.
3) As a tutor a challenge I have faced is the two set of students I have. The fresh out of high school students know more about ICT than I do, while the matured students face more difficulties. So I have to learn from the students on one end of the wavelength and try my level best to impart that information to the students on the other end of the wavelength.
4) Commitment - Not everyone shows the same level of commitment as you would want them to. This I have noticed in Youth groups and in Students. Weather it is doing community outreach or completing assignments some youth are very reluctant and leave things to be done last minute. A better time management system needs to utilized for effective results and for us to be taken seriously in the community.

There is a grave need to change the mindset of people regarding Youth and ICT and most importantly towards women in ICT.

Till bad internet connection do us part . . .
:-) 

Make It Happen. Inspirational Women

International Women's Day 2015; #MakeItHappen is aimed at recognizing women who inspire us.
I started to doodle the other day and started off with this image;

The female symbol. 

The final image turned out to be an A3 page full and gave me an idea (which a story for another time). I edited the image above to something like this (below) and decided to use this as my facebook profile picture because there are too many women in my life who inspire me. 

My inspirational journey begins with none than my giver-of-life my mother.I have seen my mother work with dedication and commitment. She has always given us good advice and brought us up with good values. She always used the reward and punishment system to correct our behavior and motivated us to do the best in life. She encouraged us to try to new things and to never be afraid. She taught us "If see something you like. Buy it. It might finish if you wait for later." than she taught us "Spend your money wisely" Oh dear mother!! You shopaholic you!! But we have used that phrase in life. Don't wait for someone else to do things for you. If you want something go and get it. Tomorrow it might be gone. Love you heaps!!  

Number 2 on my list is my one and only sister. She is simply beauty with brains and amazing skills is what she has. She is a graphic designer by profession and one of the best ones I know of too. Over the years I have seen her grow from one 'tomboy' to this young woman who now matches her clothes with ear rings bags and shoes. :-) She has super awesome skills. Driving like a maniac (sometimes) and drawing the most gorgeous of things, capturing the soul of what ever she photographs and she owns the kitchen too, mixing spices of all sorts. She loves her food, games and iGadgets. She inspires me to be creative and stand out in the crowd. She inspires many others too!! #SisterSister :-)

What would we be without aunts! Aunts who spoil us with goodies, who threaten us to do our home works and than take us out for ice creams :-) Aunts! I love my aunt more so because she is more like a mother and a best friend to us and less like an aunt. Always supporting us in our life decisions and guiding us through difficulties. Encouraging us to take that difficult step and lending an ear when we need to vent. My aunt has always been my support network and always looked out for us. She has contributed immensely to my upbringing and contributed towards the drive of becoming an independent young woman!! Watching her go to University with big books and late night studies I was determined to become a graduate too. She motivated us to explore our options on job/career and so we did. No one could ever tell us we couldnt do it because she was the louder voice of reason saying "You can do it and you will."  thanks to this powerful woman we have done it :-) #AuntsAreForSpoilingUs :-) 

There are so many other women who have been my inspiration and motivation. Most of them are close to home. I know these women on a personal level and am able to contact them when I need the support. I think it is equally important that we recognize the women in our (personal) lives who have motivation to us just as much as we recognize women who have made history. 

Another young women I would like to acknowledge here is a dear friend I made in Bali during the UNAOC 6th Global Forum where the youth put together 8 Recommendations 

Meet Ms. Kavindya Thennakoon (first from left in Blue). Young woman from Sri Lanka who is doing so much for her community. She is also one of the recipients of the Queens Young Leaders Award (2015) and we will be crossing paths again in London. Kavi; set up the organization Without Boarders and for someone so young she is representing her youth voices of her country at International Platforms and doing it so well. She is a great friend and has a very strong personality. AND she loves TEA too <3

A very happy International Woman's Day to one and all!!!

And a happy wedding anniversary to my parents who tied the knot on such an important day!! :-) :-) Little did they know what it meant, it meant giving birth to two very strong, opinionated, independent and creative daughters :-) 

My beautiful family :-)

Until Next blog;

:-) :-)