November 21 2024, Africa Meetup
The Africa Regional Meetups are bimonthly video calling gatherings that bring together folks from the African region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, it is a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world. If you cannot attend the monthly meetups, we are taking notes of each gathering and linking to them below.
The African community is connected during the week in different ways. Either through the African channel on the TCU Mattermost or via different events organized on various topics during the year.
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 10am EST / 3pm UTC (What time is it in my city?)
Who: Facilitated by Mardiya
Where: The link will be shared in the Regional Africa channel on the TCU Mattermost one or two hours before the start of the meeting.
- Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.
Notes: Please put notes here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/africa-meetup
During this meetup, Laura Tich, Founder of SheHacks, along with her community, will be sharing the work of women hackers in Kenya.
Notes
Attendees: 6
SheHacks Kenya is a community of women in Cybersecurity in Kenya. The co-founder also founded Bolt tech offering cybersecurity services to organizations
About She Hacks Kenya
- Started as a group chat on whatsapp of women who wanted to engage in cybersecurity as an organic community in Kenya
- SheHacks go beyond teaching cybersecurity skills, to create a safe space for women who want to thrive in the cybersecurity space. And for them to thrive in the field of cybersecurity, without mansplaining, trolling etc.
- They currently have 43 students club
- Providing highschool career advice and support in technology.
- Started a program for cybersecurity education, where they started a SheHacks club in universities all across Kenya. The students provide peer-to-peer mentorship, and have gone ahead to join companies working on cybersecurity challenges in Kenya and with industry partners/ experts.
- They have webinars that bring together cybersecurity experts, and are created to be accessible to students who are unable to make it to their physical meetups and programs
- Child Online Protection Program: Teaching kids and guardians online safely
- Hackfest : hosted Five hackfests since 2016 to celebrate women in cybersecurity in Kenya, it is 2 full days of training, professional development, and networking
- SheHacks Kenya is more about community, because the cybersecurity world can be overwhelming for women. We are building a strong network of women in the industry and supporting each other!
- Cybersecurity is only going to get more complex, with the evolving threats and needs. SheHacks is looking to train more people and support them to break into the field
Community Engagements
- The community is looking forward to collaborations with SheHacks Kenya.
- And engaging more at digital rights events
Challenges
- Most supporting organizations have paused support for their programs due to geo-political crisis within other regions
- Trying to expand into other regions, but financial and logistical issues serve as constraints
Needs
- While there is a lot of interest, they need spaces to host meetups in the regions they would like to expand into
- Working in rural communities require extensive partnerships and resources to provide devices and internet access for trainings.
- Equitable pay has limited how much Africans are able to participate in digital rights based on where a person is based. Which is why folks are more likely to seek jobs with big tech companies remotely. It is important to have such safe spaces for honest conversations about the realities of working in digital rights as Africans.
