Happy New year

Since this is the year's first blog post, it's just right to wish you a Happy New Year. Offices have officially resumed by the time. Hopefully, productivity is beginning to kick in. Most organizations start the new year by reviewing how the previous year went, and we are not an exception. For us, last year was an inspiring and productive year. We kicked off many projects, held some events for the first time, and impacted many lives. Here is a run-down of how the year went.

We held the first-ever Women Techsters Open Day in January with 69 people attending from Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. The Women Techsters Open Day is a fully sponsored monthly virtual event organized to help young African women transition into tech and encourage more women to get into tech.

During the Women Techsters Open Day, we invite renowned women in the tech industry to share their career journey with us and helpful tips on how people who look up to them can navigate the tech world.

In February, a call for applications went out for the first-ever Women Techsters Fellowship, with 4,800 + applications received. It was exciting to receive that number of applications for the very first edition of the Women Techsters Fellowship. We also went ahead to organize the first edition of the Love Act.

February is known as the month of love. In commemoration of this, and partnership with our technology partner, Prunedge, carried out the Love Act's pilot edition. The Love Act was born out of the need to show kindness and love to the people in our immediate community who otherwise might not receive much love and care at that time

We held the second edition of the Open Day following the Love Act, which was even more successful than the first, with 538 young African women in attendance across all our channels.

In March, we launched the Women Techsters Initiative with the theme Road to 2030 in partnership with Microsoft. We unveiled the Women Techsters Initiative to bridge the gender gap in the tech sector and empower young women with the basic tech skills needed to thrive in a digital world or their workplaces.

This launch empowered us to do more, and so the first call for application for the Women Techsters Bootcamp Cohort 1 went out. We also started accepting Submissions of entries for the #IAMAWOMANTECHSTER Art Exhibition which was organized to usher in the #IAMAWOMENTECHSTER campaign.

In April, we held the first Women Techsters Masterclass. The Women Techsters Masterclasses are a series of training using 2-3 days cutting across our various learning tracks. The first Masterclass was a Data Analytics Masterclass facilitated by Mojisola Olawepo, Technical Strategist, Microsoft. The Women Techsters Fellowship also officially kicked off

In May, we spoke at the STI Forum, 2021 about the Women Techsters initiative was selected as one of the innovative solutions globally advancing science, technology, and innovation by the STI Forum in 2020, and we officially kicked off the first cohort of Women Techsters Bootcamp started with 306 beneficiaries

We partnered with the Olu Kosoko Foundation to create the OK Digital Education Academy projecT. A project designed to bring about Digital Literacy in Badagry. This project kicked off with 60 beneficiaries.

In June, we launched a new partnership under the Emerging Markets Model Initiative with the Federal Ministry of Youth and sports to train 36,000 youth within the space of one year using a virtual and physical learning approach.

In July, we kickstarted The Basic Digital Literacy for Rural Clusters in Southern Nigeria, funded by the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). This project aims to reach 1000 beneficiaries, in 10 rural clusters, across ten states in Southern Nigeria, targeting 50% vulnerable women and girls (aged 8-18; 45-65), 30% Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), e.g., mobility, speech, polio, etc., 20% for other vulnerable groups.

In August, we secured a partnership with Ifako-Ijaye Local Government (L.G.) under the BDL project to train 200 staff and 2200 youths in the LGA and signed on with Sterling Bank as Internship Partners for our Women Techsters Fellows.

In September, we launched the #IAmAWomanTechster campaign with the #IAmAWomanTechster Art Exhibition of 16 works celebrating women and women in tech. We organized the #IAMAWOMENTECHSTER campaign to create advocacy for the inclusion of women in technology while spotlighting women in the tech space and their contributions to the African tech scene. We also officially kickstarted the Women Techsters Bootcamp (Cohort 2), held the first Women techsters Meet and Greet at The Bulb Africa, Lagos, and launched the #Digitalforallchallenge.

In October, we held the first-ever Women Techsters Fellowship Demo Day. Here the Women Techsters Fellowship beneficiaries showcased what they had learned so far. We had 28 groups presenting 28 solutions during the Demo Day. We also launched the Digital Skills for Employability training and the #Digitalforall weekly challenge.

In November, we participated in the #16daysofactivism against Gender-based violence to educate people on what Gender-based violence is and how we can come together to put an end to the menace.

In December, we wrapped up the final Women Techsters Bootcamp Cohorts. Cohort 3 and 4 and applications went out for the Cohort 5 Bootcamp.