The miss.africa digital program is a gender-focused initiative targeted mainly at female youth audiences in Africa to increase their personal involvement in early technology use and adoption with a view to improving their digital self-awareness and empowerment, and overall self-esteem.
The “Miss.Africa” digital program is envisioned as one of the central pillars of DCA’s corporate social responsibility program. It is aimed at attracting more young girls and women to the Internet platform to enable them form a sizable demographic of Internet users in Africa, thereby involving them in complementary gender development initiatives that improve the lives of young girls and women.
The first Pan-African Initiative to support women-in-technology
ABOUT
The Miss.Africa program aims at signing up young ladies and women interested in being part of technology.
MISSION
To enlighten ladies about the technology industry through mentor-ship programs, outreach enhancement initiatives.
HISTORY
The program was first launched and publicized by the Yes2dotAfrica Campaign during the ICANN 41 Singapore.
President Obama’s strong support for Women at 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Quotes on Women and Youth empowerment by President Obama on GES 2015
- Women are powerhouse entrepreneurs. When women succeed, they invest more in their families and communities.
- Around the world there is a tradition of oppressing women and treating them differently and not giving them the same opportunities, and husbands beating their wives, and children not being sent to school. Those are traditions. Treating women and girls as second-class citizens. Those are bad traditions. They need to change.
- Any nation that fails to educate its girls or employ its women, and allow them to maximize its potential, its doomed to fall behind the global economy,
- We are in a sport centre and imagine you have a team and you don’t let half of the team play? That is stupid, If half of your team is not playing, you have a problem. In many countries, half of the the team is women and youth.
- When it comes to the people of Kenya, especially the youth, I believe there is no limit to what you can achieve.
Quotes on Women and Youth empowerment by Ms. Sophia Bekele
- “As most are toggling between the ongoing Rio World Olympics 2016 and US election, we call upon women who continue to excel in what they do best and land a spot in history, such as Simone Biles, the first American women gymnast to win four gold medals in a SINGLE Olympics or the Ethiopian Almaz Ayana to win the women’s 10,000 meters setting a new World and Olympic record, as well as Africa’s first Gold Medal. Amazing!” — Exclusive for The Hill
- “Miss.Africa, Generation.Africa and the .Africa gTLD – We know we rallied Africa”,– CEO, DCA Group, Sophia Bekele for TedBits
- “We are passionate about the future of our Miss.Africa Initiative as well as generation.africa, because there is a great future in technology especially in Africa.” — Sophia Bekele at CBCTECH2020, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, USA
- “Please mainstream women into your efforts.” — Sophia Bekele, Keynote Address, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, California, USA
- “An educated girl is already empowered, since she can pursue her life goals independently” —Sophia Bekele Keynote address at the Diamond Jubilee – 60th Anniversary celebration of the Nazareth School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
KeyNote: Sophia Bekele, Founder of Miss.Africa at the 2015 Africa Business Forum, UC Berkeley, California, USA
Sophia Bekele Keynote UC Berkeley HAAS School of Business
Twenty Five Miss.Africa App Developers graduate, Nairobi, Kenya
Twenty Five (25) women selected from over three hundred applicants benefited directly by receiving 3 months training at eMobilis which was selected DCA Trust’s partner. The students presented prototype mobile apps ranging from safety and crime prevention, health, education, fashion and child safety. The top 3 app developers also received mobile devices as prizes.
Read more from our latest newsletter
The Internet is a ‘SHE’ – Sophia Bekele says at a KeyNote on ICT Girls day event by ITU
Sophia Bekele the DCA Executive Director was invited to give a Key Note speech at the annual Girl’s ICT day on 24th April 2014 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Read more
Comments by Miss.Africa Seed Fund Winners
We are very very grateful to receive this good news. It is with much pleasure and gratitude that we have to write this letter thanking your organization for supporting our efforts by women. I wish to thank you once more and to inform you that this money is going to help us greatly in our movement. Mr. Ngangsi Richard, Pycon Cameroon
On behalf of Pyladies Antananarivo and Django Girls Antananarivo Team, we would like to thank DotConnectAfrica Team for their support. Without the Miss.Africa Initiative, we didn’t have the courage to achieve this first workshop….Let me personally tell you that the prize gave me partly the boldness, and the courage to discuss with my CEO and ask for advice and help concerning the workshop initiatives. Yay! It’s awesome :). Thank you so much for your support, I hope that it would not be the first and last award from Miss Africa Seed Fund. This is indeed my first experience in asking funds for a specific project. It is plain that willingness and tech skills is not enough to promote women in tech. Tech MDG / Pyladies Antananarivo, MDG, Ms. Aina Anjary Fenomamy R
We are thrilled to learn that we emerged as a finalist and winner of the inaugural 2015 Miss. Africa Seed Fund. Thank you to DotConnectAfrica Trust for directly supporting eMobilis Mobigirlz initiative and awarding us with the grant to improve technology literacy and education among girls while strengthening their stance in the tech field. We believe that for us to drive tech progress in Kenya and Africa as a whole we need to put girls in the driver’s seat and empower them to reach their full potential. We are very excited to work with DotConnectAfrica in this partnership. Ms. Nancy Wanjira- Mobigirlz Program Manager, eMobilis. Visit the Winners page and Follow us on Instagram for more pictorials
Relevant links
Comments by Miss.Africa Inductees
“There are so many people trying to discourage women and tell them that they can’t make it.What girls and women need is someone to remind them that the future is theirs for the taking, someone to show them the way. That is why it was so inspiring to work with Miss.Africa. Miss.Africa is not only telling women that they can do it but also equipping them to do it through the Miss.Africa Seed Fund. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never forget.” Ms. Linda Wawira, Multimedia University
“The Internship opportunity was eye opening as I got to learn about technology and innovation in Africa and the youth opportunities in Africa. Miss.Africa is a very future proof program that I would encourage other young women to participate in since I was mentored well. More over I got an opportunity to relate to what I had learnt in class theoretically in a real work environment. I will say YES! To Miss.Africa” Ms. Linda Ayodi, Strathmore University
“Participating in the Miss.Africa program has been very instrumental in connecting me to the very essence of ICT’s and its immense potential. I came in quite green but have grown through the mentorship and opportunities for personal improvements that I have been accorded unreservedly. I will be a proud ambassador of this profound project” Ms. Bernice Wangu SBS