DOT | Digital Opportunity Trust

It’s Girls in ICT Day! We’re celebrating by featuring the incredible work of young innovators who are tackling the gender digital divide in their communities and countries.

In this video series, young people with social enterprises focused on girls in ICT are interviewed by influencers, supporters, and advocates from the private sector about their initiatives, impact, and inspiration.

We’re excited to bring you three interviews: 

Shopify’s Serena Ngai interviews Kijoli Mjombo, a young social innovator from Tanzania

About Kijoli Mjombo

Kijoli is an Information and Communications Technology graduate, and a proud woman in tech. Currently planning the launch of her first social enterprise social enterprise, Kijoli wants to empower girls from low-resource primary schools with technology skills and knowledge. Kijoli is also a #DOTYouth who runs digital literacy programs for marginalized young women in her community.

About Serena Ngai

Serena Ngai is a UX lead at Shopify, building products that help grow their business. 

IBM’s Gina Tesla interviews Ariane Umuringa, a young social innovator from Rwanda

About Ariane Umuringa

Ariane first became involved with DOT as a #DOTYouth social innovator who was supported to test and prototype her business idea; she participated in DOT Rwanda’s Impactathon, and attended the 2017 DOT Youth Unconference.  Ariane is the co-founder of Starlight Rwanda, which a social enterprise that produces solar light using 3D printing technology. The initiative aims at improving the quality of life of rural households by removing the health hazards associated with kerosene lamps and reduce time spent obtaining fuels. Starlight Rwanda has also an education program that has established STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) clubs at schools throughout Rwanda where girls are encouraged to join STEM through learning about solar technology and 3D printing. 

About Gina Tesla

As one of the top members of the leadership team in IBM Corporate Citizenship and the IBM Foundation, Gina’s portfolio spans multi-million-dollar investments in three strategic areas: education and skills, health, and community resiliency. She leads Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability across IBM, covering employee engagement, environment, human resources, public policy, supply chain, governance and research. Gina also leads IBM’s award-winning Corporate Service Corps and Smarter Cities Challenge initiatives.

SAP’s Batoul Husseini interviews Charbel Trad, a young social innovator from Lebanon

[An English-language translation of the Arabic portions of this video is available here]

About Charbel Trad

Charbel is a #DOTYouth social innovator and co-founder of Instaconsult, a mobile consultancy platform that helps people get on-demand information from top specialists, consultants, influencers, clinics and businesses. He holds a Masters in Computer Software Engineering from Antonine University. As the project manager for BOT, a social procurement platform, he is at the forefront of creating a youth-led economy of social good in Lebanon.

About Batoul Husseini

Based in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Batoul is Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP MENA where she is responsible for the strategic development of SAP’s government relations activities, including building relationships with local and federal institutions and entities. As well as driving CSR initiatives which promote social entrepreneurship and youth empowerment, Batoul has initiated Refugee Code Week, a corporate social responsibility collaboration between SAP and UNHCR that empowers youth with coding skills inside refugee communities across the MENA region.

About Girls in ICT Day

International Girls in ICT Day, an initiative led by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), aims to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider car​eers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April.