National Girls in ICT Day Symposium

4/27/2017

The Americas, Guyana, Cow Dam / Concrete Strip, Leonora, Guyana

After successfully hosting a Tech Day Camps in Linden in observance of Girls in ICT Day 2017, a grand symposium was held at the Leonora Secondary School to celebrate the day itself. The event featured presentations by the Minister of Public Telecommunications, Hon. Catherine Hughes, the Managing Director of the National Frequency Management Unit, Mr. Valmikki Singh and a female ICT engineer from the National Frequency Management Unit.   The Minister encouraged the girls to pursue careers in ICTs and gave examples of women who have used ICTs to successfully grow their businesses and careers. She spoke of the different government initiatives that are being conducted to improve access to ICTs in Guyana and explained how the participants at the symposium could access and make use of these initiatives. The girls were very enthused by the minister’s remarks. The participants were divided into groups, guided by female University of Guyana Computer Science students and National Frequency Management Unit staff. The groups were each given a topic to discuss and then they made a short presentation on their discussions. The topics discussed were: 1. Using tech/ICTs as a tool for development in my community 2. Careers in Technology 3. Cyber security? What is it and what does it mean to be secure online? 4. Innovation & Entrepreneurship using ICTs 5. Famous women in Technology 6. Making ICTs fun 7. How can Technology/ICTs enhance school and classroom activities? 8. Mobile applications for Guyana 9. How does Technology/ICTs affect families? 10. How can we create more digital content in Guyana? The students gave innovative solutions to problems they identified in their discussions. This was encouraging as it helped to develop their confidence in their ability to talk about tech. The event was successful and left an indelible mark in the minds of the presenters and students. New friendships and partnerships were forged with the intent of growing the initiative.