[Kictanet] Software Freedom Day Celebrations

[Dorcas Muthoni]

RE: *** Invitation To The Career Workshop for High School Girls to
encourage them to pursue careers in Computing, 16th September 2006,
Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Missio Hall, Karen.***

LinuxChix Africa - Kenya Chapter in collaboration with Catholic University
of Eastern Africa (CUEA) welcomes you to attend a one day Computing Career
Workshop to be held on the 16th September 2006 at the Catholic University
of Eastern Africa, Missio Hall, Karen.

LinuxChix Africa (www.africalinuxchix.org ) was founded in December 2004
as an online discussion group to work on increasing the expertise of the
African woman with regards to FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and
ICT’s as a way of empowering women. Today, LinuxChix Africa is a
Pan-African organization helping toward building a critical mass of
computing skills among African women. We have 16 country chapters and over
300 members from all over Africa.

We believe that computing as a whole and Free and Open Source
Software(FOSS) in particular, can play a significant role in empowering
women. The copyleft nature of FOSS helps programmers learn from programs
or modify them so that they build on the innovations of others rather than
re-invent the wheel. As we learned from the famous scientist Isaac Newton:
Great achievements can only be made by standing on the shoulders of a
giant.

The overall objective of the Computing Career Workshop is to is to provide
students and teachers with information on computing and also answer their
questions on Computer Science/ Information Technology as a career.

IT innovations and the opportunities are ineffectual if people are
un-aware of them. The lack of awareness goes a long way in explaining the
notable dearth of women in the IT industry in Kenya. A situation, that
exists inspite of the fact that they achieve as well as the boys in
pre-university examinations.

Background

Every year, a non-profit Software Freedom International organizes Software
Freedom Day (SFD).  This is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open
Source Software (FOSS). The goal in this celebration is to raise public
awareness of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in
government, at home, and in business -- in short, everywhere! Software
Freedom International provides guidance in organizing SFD, but volunteer
teams around the world organize their own SFD events to impact their own
communities.

This year, the date set for the celebrations is 16th September 2006.

The Kenya chapter of LinuxChix Africa will once again hold the annual
Career Workshop for High School Girls to encourage them to go for careers
in Computer Science/Information Technology to celebrate SFD.

Participants

We expect up to 500 students to attend.

Speakers

Speakers will comprise luminaries from various IT disciplines. The
honorable, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and
Communications, Dr. Bitange Ndemo is expected to give the keynote address.
Speakers will make motivational speeches aimed at demonstrating success in
the IT industry is not impeded by one's gender. It is hoped that the
speakers will inspire and serve as role models to the girls.

Activities

Please see the attached program.

I hope that you will able to join us and look forward to welcoming you there.

Thanks and regards,


Dorcas Muthoni 				Irene Misoi
Co-founder, 				Kenya, Country Representative
LINUXCHIX AFRICA  			LINUXCHIX AFRICA
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