Girls in Tech (GIT), a non-profit organisation which focuses on the empowerment, education, and entrepreneurship of women in technology around the world, on Wednesday launched its Guyana chapter.
Founder and Managing Director of GIT Guyana addressing the gathering on Wednesday evening
GIT currently has 47 chapters with some 62,000 members in 33 countries in six continents.
The organisation’s mission is to support women with the access and space they need to succeed in the technology industry, by educating and empowering women who are passionate about technology and entrepreneurship in technical industries.
As a result, GIT offers mentorship, global classrooms, coding courses, boot camps, hack-a-thons and start-up competitions for any age or profession.
These global programmes will also be supported by local initiatives such as ‘Coffee & Code’, a monthly mentorship meet-up and an annual tech fair.
The aim of this is to not only introduce young women to the possibilities of careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), but also to encourage industries to develop automation processes.
The Founder and Managing Director of Guyana’s chapter, Evie Kanhai-Gurchuran, said GIT Guyana is aiming to create support for what matters the most to women in Guyana.
“We want to create support for what matters to women most, such as compensation and pay, opportunities for promotion, work-life balance, sense of purpose or mission, and ongoing skills learning. We only hear about the wellbeing of women, but we also have designed programmes and activities for us all to grow together as culpable media entities, government entities to create a better workforce culture and to benefit from motivating, diverse and inclusive work force,” the Managing Director said.
According to the founder, GIT will allow for women to benefit from a global network and resources and for equity to be built for our women here.
Kanhai-Gurchuran encourages Guyanese women with an interest to become part of the organisation.
Sharing inspiration and encouragement, Tamika Henry-Fraser shared her personal experience on how she was able to study and work in the forensic science field.
“For days on end, my mom and I went to the Office of the Presidency and we kind of camped out, we would go every day, me in my QC uniform hoping for a glimpse of the President, who was at that time Bharrat Jagdeo. One day, we saw him, he was walking from one meeting to the next and we stopped him in the corner and in that moment my mom asked him, can you give my daughter a scholarship to study forensics – didn’t know who I was at the time either— I don’t know what happened or why it happened but he said yes. He didn’t read my documents, I don’t think he had an idea of what he was saying yes to, but he did and to this day, I am grateful for that moment,” Henry-Fraser reflected.
GIT Guyana’s board comprises: Penelope DeFreitas, University of Guyana, Head of Department for the Computer Science Department; Indrawattie Hirai – Tech entrepreneur[KM1]; Rosanna Ferreira – ICT Engineer in the e-Government Agency, Public Telecommunications Ministry; Vineeta Persaud – Lecturer at the University of Guyana; Tanika Jones – Programmer/Developer with the United Nations; and Marissa Lowden – Entrepreneur with a focus on development.
GIT was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
