admin
More than 100 girls from Harare attended the inaugural Techwomen launch at Hyper Hub in Belgravia last weekend.
The launch which was meant to introduce application development using a software called App Inventor was part of the Technovation competition centred on young women.
Speaking to CLS, one of the organisers said the competition is for 10-23 year olds and there was overwhelming turnout especially from teens.
“The main reason is to encourage girls to take up technology careers and to teach them entrepreneurial skills so that they know how to pitch market research,” said the organiser.
The competition will run for three months and was split into three sections: teen issues, women and gender based violence and identifying an organisation and design an application.
The girls were put in groups of five and are supposed to pick one category and work on it.
Girls were drawn from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
The winning team will pocket US$5 000 for the young category from 10-16 years while Form Fours to Upper Sixth students will win US$10 000 and an opportunity to participate globally in the Silicone Valley in USA.
Technovation is the technology entrepreneurship programme for girls.
With over 1 300 alumnae spanning 19 countries already, Technovation has reached far more young women than any other global technology entrepreneurship programme for girls.
Online Reporter