Ms. Cynthia Kamau spoke to Miss.Africa Voices about how her mobile App training experience at Miss.Africa Digital changed her life and how technology can be used to solve the COVID-19 crisis. She says
I was in Campus when I got a scholarship to do a Miss.Africa Digital fully sponsored Android development course at eMobilis.
It was the first time I got to do android development and a great opportunity to understand the fundamental of Android development. IĀ met amazing ladies who had the same goals as I did and learnt a lot from them too.
The technical skills I gained at eMobilis’, Miss.Africa Digital funded were the foundation of my Software development career. They enabled me to excel in my final year project which was an android application to help young parents track immunization schedules of their children, get credible information and contact doctors and medical practitioners for queries.
This experience also inspired me to teach high school girls between 14-18 yrs of age android development using MIT App inventor at Technovation Challenge, a nonprofit that empowers girls and families to become leaders, creators and problem-solvers.
I am a software developer working in Healthcare Technology and part of developer communities that are impacting lives of youth.
I believe technology plays a key role in creating solutions during COVID 19. The solutions range from dispensing information on ways people and protect themselves from transmitting the disease to contact tracing mobile applications to social mobile applications that enhance communication as people are working from home and having self-quarantine.
My personal experience working from home is not exactly what I envisioned it to be. At first I was excited, because I knew I wouldn’t have to wake up early and spend a lot time on my commute. The freedom of having flexibility excited me.
I didn’t know that working from home has its own pressures. There a lot of distractions during working hours. There a lot of TV shows to watch and social media can be quite addictive. In a team setting, communication is quite challenging. Some people do not have reliable internet. There is also a learning curve in giving updates due to new tools. Oneās social life also gets affected as you may be stuck at home all alone.
Due to the flexibility of working hours, sometimes one can work non-stop not realizing you did not even have a break, or skipped a meal, which is quite unhealthy.
However, setting up a few guidelines like healthy breaks, healthy working hours and doing physical activities can make working at home quite productive.
