Minister tells young ladies to dream high

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Concerned 10 years ago

This donkey kwraa, what goes on in his head to appoint people like this

This donkey kwraa, what goes on in his head to appoint people like this
seth 10 years ago

Because the lady is smart. So that she can model the young ones to also work hard. Are you ok now?

Because the lady is smart. So that she can model the young ones to also work hard. Are you ok now?
Ekuoba Kwabena Gyasi 10 years ago

Yes I agree. This woman is smart and one of the few ministers who actually works hard and knows exactly what she is doing, unlike most of Mahama's circus clowns. Kudos to her!

Yes I agree. This woman is smart and one of the few ministers who actually works hard and knows exactly what she is doing, unlike most of Mahama's circus clowns. Kudos to her!
CORNEY 10 years ago

Idiot caling him or herself Concerned,what is the qualifications of a minister or what is the criteria in selecting a minister which you think is above this lady?

Anyway,she ihas been a minister since 2009 but ignorant peo ...
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Idiot caling him or herself Concerned,what is the qualifications of a minister or what is the criteria in selecting a minister which you think is above this lady?

Anyway,she ihas been a minister since 2009 but ignorant people like you don't know that but you claim to be a scholar from Ghanaian.
Analyst 10 years ago

She proudly holds a doctorate degree. What do you hold?

She proudly holds a doctorate degree. What do you hold?
mahama 10 years ago

foolish woman, these ladies have nowhere to put their heads. think twice before you speak

foolish woman, these ladies have nowhere to put their heads. think twice before you speak
Ekuoba Kwabena Gyasi 10 years ago

You are the bigger fool to write and condemn without any basis. Idiot!

You are the bigger fool to write and condemn without any basis. Idiot!
Kofi 10 years ago

Dream high? What is that?

Dream high? What is that?
Tekonline.org 10 years ago

Kenyan Women Create Their Own 'Geek Culture'

DECEMBER 24, 2012 1:24 PM ET

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. And it's time now for All Tech Considered.

SIEGEL: ...
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Kenyan Women Create Their Own 'Geek Culture'

DECEMBER 24, 2012 1:24 PM ET

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. And it's time now for All Tech Considered.

SIEGEL: Say the words high-tech start-up and chances are you picture a world that's mostly white, male and set in Silicon Valley. There's been a lot of talk this year about how to get more women entrepreneurs into the male-dominated world of tech. And today, we take you to Nairobi, Kenya, a growing tech hub for the African continent that's also trying to rethink geek culture.

NPR's Gregory Warner reports.

GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: When a group of women computer programmers in Kenya needed a name for their ladies-only club, they took their inspiration from Japanese cult film.

JUDITH OWIGAR: So akira is a Japanese word. It means energy and intelligence. And we are energetic and intelligent chicks.

WARNER: Judith Owigar is the president of Akirachix.

OWIGAR: C-H-I-X.

WARNER: A group like Akirachix would have been unthinkable even five years ago, but Kenya is making a big push toward IT - part of the country's plan for achieving middle-class status by the year 2030. The country has laid hundreds of miles of fiber optic cable. IBM and Google have come here to set up shop. The city even has plans for a $7 billion technology hub just outside the capital.

But you need more than broadband and tech giants and even money to launch a local tech industry. You also need a culture of computer geeks. That's where Judith and her collective Akirachix comes in. They want to make sure that the girl geeks are encouraged as much as the guys.

OWIGAR: You're the oddball, I mean, just because of your gender. Already, you're the oddball.

WARNER: Because it turns out that in Kenya, just like in Silicon Valley, the problem with getting more women in tech is that there aren't more women in tech.

OWIGAR: There are probably other women in tech who are alone and, you know, they think they're the weird ones. But maybe if enough of us, we are going to meet together, you know, it won't be so weird anymore.

WARNER: Susan Oguya is also an Akirachick. She grew up on a farm in Western Kenya without a computer. But she had an uncle who worked in Nairobi. And when he came home for the holidays, he would haul his entire workstation in the car back with him - the monitor, the CPU, the keyboard - and set it all up again in Susan's living room.

SUSAN OGUYA: So he'd bring it over, we use it, and then he would go back with it.

WARNER: So what would you do in the times when you didn't have a computer?

OGUYA: So in the times I didn't have a computer, there were books that he left. Books about what is a computer, parts of a computer, what is a ROM, what is a RAM?

(LAUGHTER)

OGUYA: It's really basics.

WARNER: When she got to university, she majored in information technology. One of the striking things about Kenya is that even impoverished farmers have cellphones. So Susan had this idea for a mobile phone app that would help farmers like her parents. The app would allow them to check the prices of crops with text messaging, skipping the middleman.

OGUYA: Yeah, corrupt middleman. Let's say skipping the corrupt middleman.

WARNER: But Susan was one of only 10 women in her department of 80. It's about the same ratio you'd find in a computer science class at Stanford. Susan's teachers doubted her ability to actually program this app she'd thought up.

OGUYA: In my culture, it's like men can only communicate with men. And I was like, OK. Then if I could share this passion, like try and explain to the person, this is what I want to do, it's only a woman who could understand me better.

WARNER: It wasn't until her third year. She met a computer researcher at the same university. Jessica Colaco says she bumped into Susan in the hallway.

JESSICA COLACO: I remember when I met her in the corridor, Susan was really shy. She was like, excuse me, are you Jessica Colaco?

OGUYA: So she invited me and was like, come meet other women who also have a passion like you, but they can't - they want to relate out to other women who don't know that this exists.

WARNER: Susan started spending some Saturday mornings with Jessica and other women, snipping code, poring through hacker cookbooks - informal gatherings that became the Akirachix - while Susan graduated and turned her mobile phone idea into a company called M-Farm. At 25 years old, she now has 18 people working for her and 7,000 African farmers using her app.

Just one floor up from Susan's office, you find a kind of oasis of geekdom - a gathering space for Nairobi's tech community called the iHub. It feels like any sort of hacker space you'd find in San Francisco or New York City. It's got comfy couches, fast Wi-Fi and cappuccinos served by a barista named Miss Rose.

But the techies you meet here are not trying to come up with the next Facebook or another app to share your photos. They're solving local problems, like there's an app that brings math and reading prep to remote village schools by cellphone. There's an app that lets Kenyans who don't have computers do their online shopping, again, by cellphone. There's another app that's a kind of micro-insurance that measures the rain falling at cellphone towers and then automatically distributes money to farmers when there's a drought. All applications aimed at the developing world started by women. Judith Owigar says they're sending a message to the next wave of girl geeks.

OWIGAR: We need them to see that we are doing it and we enjoy it. You know, you don't find many African women looking for the spotlight. Most people tend to hide their awesomeness.

WARNER: So the best time to carve a spot for women in geek culture, she says, is when there isn't much of a geek culture yet.

Gregory Warner, NPR News, Nairobi.
PRINCEWILLY@YMAIL.COM 10 years ago

The nun asked the class what they wanted to be when they grow up.

A little girl raised her hand:

Yes Mary, what do you want to be?

I want to be a Prostitute with I grow up!

The teacher, now red-faced and very ster ...
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The nun asked the class what they wanted to be when they grow up.

A little girl raised her hand:

Yes Mary, what do you want to be?

I want to be a Prostitute with I grow up!

The teacher, now red-faced and very sternly said: Mary! I will see you after class!

Class adjourned and the nun said: Mary, what did you say you wanted to be?

Mary replied: I said I want to be a prostitute when I grow up.

The nun gave a great sigh of relief and replied: "Oh, I thought you said you wanted to be a Protestant!"

Ekuoba Kwabena Gyasi 10 years ago

This is one hell of a hot, sexy lady with naturally dark, unbleached and beautiful African skin, inspiring the younger generation to set their sights higher. She will get my vote anytime, anyday, any place and I would be ha ...
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This is one hell of a hot, sexy lady with naturally dark, unbleached and beautiful African skin, inspiring the younger generation to set their sights higher. She will get my vote anytime, anyday, any place and I would be happy to go to jail for her any day.
Concerned woman 10 years ago

Good work Madam . Continue encouraging our young ladies.

Good work Madam . Continue encouraging our young ladies.
Foster 10 years ago

A football agent is looking for players whose date of birth starts from 1997 to 1998 for a tournament in Germany, interested persons should contact foster on 0247591647

A football agent is looking for players whose date of birth starts from 1997 to 1998 for a tournament in Germany, interested persons should contact foster on 0247591647
Sam 10 years ago

how can one aim high with poor goverance. u beta change n stop following dese shameful politicians.

how can one aim high with poor goverance. u beta change n stop following dese shameful politicians.

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Minister tells young ladies to dream high

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