Interview Carolyne Ekyarisiima – Apps & Girls
To know more about Apps & Girls : http://appsandgirls.com/
Carolyne Ekyarisiima is a twenty-eight year old woman originated from Uganda. She is the fifth born of a seven children family. She moved immediately after graduating from her Bachelor of Computer Sciences, and began her carrier as a tutorial assistant in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. At university Carolyne always felt that boys were underestimating, misjudging and looking down at her and the other rare girls of her class. As a matter of fact, some of her classmates never got the chance to finish their studies, and ended up getting a poor job, or a husband. It is this big gap gender in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) that Carolyne wanted to confront, when she decided to create Apps & Girls. In fact, the social company provides teenage girls with access to computers and ICT courses (e.g.: web design, blogging, mobile application development), in order to give them “a chance to improve their life through ICT”.
Apps & Girls was launched in June 2013. The beginning was difficult. At this time, the company owned only three computers. Twice a week, Carolyne had to take the – extremely slow – public transports, called dala dala, to pick up and bring back computers lent by friends, in order to have enough equipment for her ICT classes. Besides, Carolyne’s friends and family had difficulties to understand why and what she was doing: “Why don’t you charge the girls? Why aren’t the parents paying for their lessons?”. The only one to support her, was her fiancé, another ICT and social entrepreneurship passionate. Moreover, Carolyne had to use her own money to pay for the computers, transportation costs, etc. But she was working and was persuaded that the future of her social enterprise would be worth the investment.
In fact, from 3 computers and 20 girls involved in the program, Carolyne has currently 25 computers, employs two persons and teaches twice a week to 242 girls, in nine different schools. She won the Tigo Reach for Change Challenge, which helped her to develop her project and convince sponsors to join the adventure. However, Apps & Girls still has to face three crucial challenges. At first, the company lacks computers, and Carolyne frequently has to make girls wait until she manages to find new equipment. Secondly, some parents consider that ICT and more precisely the Internet are dangerous for their daughters, and that they can be spoiled by the shocking images and behaviours of the web. Moreover, girls are frequently considered not to be able to study sciences, for the reason that they are not as smart as boys and even if they were, that they wouldn’t have time to perform household chores and scientific studies at the same time. Finally, Carolyne also has to deal with the head teachers of the schools. Indeed, some of them don’t really care about the project and can randomly decide to cancel the courses without prior warnings. And that is when they don’t try to make Apps & Girls pay for the access to usually free rooms.
Despite all of these troubles, Apps & Girls has a major impact on their students. The girls come from various backgrounds, but are all treated the same way by Carolyne: three to four girls, one computer, HTML and CSS lessons, the formula is effectively simple. Indeed, Carolyne noticed changes in the attitudes and ambitions of the girls. Their plans for the future have changed, and an important share of them decided either not to quit school, or to apply for ICT courses in university, when they will reach the required age to do so. Carolyne has also remarked that the girls are on average not afraid any more to speak in front of a public and have gained self-confidence thanks to the program.
This is partly due to the next big event that will be held by Apps & Girls. In less than a month, 40 girls will have to defend personal projects in front of a jury. The girls designed and developed websites focusing on societal challenges (e.g.: shameful diseases and community acceptance, student harassment in public transportations). They will have one day to finalize their project and prepare their presentations. Which will be followed by a day used to sort the projects and chose ten finalists, who will get the chance to present in front of a final jury and maybe win the 600,000Tsh (~300€) and six months of formation proposed by Apps & Girls. All along this event preparation, rehearsals after rehearsals, Carolyne saw that the girls’ motivation and communication skills improved, which makes her feel so impatient for the final.
As a conclusion, Apps & Girls will have numerous obstacles to face in the coming months and years. But Carolyne is prepared and knows that her project will require a lot of energy and resources. She is also still persuaded that ICT is essential to avoid Tanzania to be left behind in the global development, and that her project is helping and will continue to help girls to adapt in their society. When Carolyne falls asleep, she dreams about girls, all over Tanzania, learning ICT on laptops in a van equipped with solar panels, about a world where all parents would accept their daughter’s wishes to study sciences, about ICT manuals in every languages, about a society using ICT tools for its social development.