The Vodacom Lesotho Foundation partners with BasaliTech : Girls Code Camp
April 21, 2019
April 25 is international girl in ICT day and the Vodacom Lesotho Foundation patnered with BasaliTech to host a 3 day camp at Vodacom Innovation Park on 18th - 20th April to commemorate this event.
With the current apparent gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (commonly referrered to as STEM) related courses and careers, the aim is to spark an interest for young girls, who may have grown up believeing that STEM is for our male counterparts which intimidates them and is backed up by the present low statistics of female participation.
The event hosted 21 girls in form D and E (grade 11 and 12) to teach them basics of website development using HTML, CSS and Bootstrap. The girls then used github to host their websites to showcase to the world at large what they learnt. The camp also included a short module on introductory electronics where principles of electricity were demonstrated and personality cards were created using basic circuits to indicate the diversity of careers within the STEM fields. They then showcased their projects on their websites. The list of groups can be found below with the links to their websites
| Group Name | Website Link |
|---|---|
| Womandla Tech | womandlatech.github.io |
| The Optimists | theoptimistsict.github.io |
| Vigorous Future Leaders | vfemaleleaders.github.io |
| The Big Four | thebigfourict.github.io |
| LLMT | llmtict.github.io |
At the end of the event, the girls took home certificates of completion, motivational books, t-shirts and the winning and runner up teams with the best websites were awarded smart phones as well.
Tech Kidz Session a Success !
April 13, 2019
Today, BasaliTech hosted a Tech Kidz Session at GrindNation Maseru, for boys and girls aged 6 - 13 with the effort to encourage participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields at a young age. The event saw 21 excited children gather in anticipation to learn the basics of Electronics, which was the topic of the day.
"Electricity is the movement of small particles called electrons in a circuit" said Maseabata Mongalo, a trainer at the event as she simplified the process of how electricity works to the young children.
Practical examples of applications of electricity such as providing light at home were made. Maseabata and her co-trainer Setsoto Hlohlomi then led the practicals that excited the students even more. One provided a clear example of lighting a house and one involved creating minions that moved around, giving the children an immense sense of accomplishment and demystified the complexity of Science, Technology, Engineeting and Math related activities.
The session also involved warning against unauthorised use of electricity and electrical appliances by children as it may cause shock and burning leading to terrible injuries and so the session was not only fun but informative as well. "Thank you so much, the kids really enjoyed themselves" said one parent whose two children had attended the event.
BasaliTech mentor graces Facebook Developer Circle Panel
March 31, 2019
On Saturday 30th March, in celebration of Women's Histrory Month and to appreciate women in technology, one of our mentors Setsoto Hlohlomi, an IT Support Specialist at ZTE Corporation was one of the key note speakers and she also graced the panel at the Facebook Developer Circle held in Johannesburg.
In her speech she covered how to interest not only girls but children in technology through innovative hands on projects, and how to help females in STEM courses to transition successfully into STEM careers through the mentoring programme.
The event not only covered the societal impact of what some women out there are doing but it also brought together several women from different tech disciplines suct as Artificial Intelligence, where one techie explained the MLKit which performs text recognition, face detection as well as recognition.
It is the success stories of women in technology like these that we need to present to the world to show that being female does not mean you are incapable. We are grateful for the representation we received at this event.
Mentoring Program Launched
March 26, 2019
With the current statistics that state that there is a gender inbalance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, alot of effort is made to attract females to the technology field, But what then? What happens to females that finally enrol for a STEM related course ?
This is where the mentoring program comes in. It pairs the student with a female professional in A STEM field to guide and advice her personally and proffessionaly and help her make informed career and life decisions.
Mentoring has been known to have benefits for both the mentor and the mentee in several ways like increasing self confidence for the mentee due to the support provided by a mentor, who has been in similar circumstances academically and possibly even in their personal lives. They are more open minded due to the challenges provided by the mentor and the same intellectual challenges benefit the mentor as well. Find more benefits of mentoring here and understand why mentoring is part of bridging the gender gap in STEM, in order to be able to attract females into STEM courses, transition them successfully to STEM careers and retain them.