The event took place on Thursday, April 25, 2019 at The Malawi Polytechnic under the theme, ‘Transforming the lives of women and girls through ICT.’ It brought a lot of key stakeholders including the representatives from corporate world and the academia.

Speaking during the event, the guest of honour, The Polytechnic ICT Directorate acting director, Alima Jika encouraged girls not to undermine themselves but to be courageous enough to lead various positions in ICT sector.

“You should not undermine yourselves as you are capable of doing everything as males do. So I am encouraging everyone to dream in colours and have goals that you want to achieve one day. Therefore, whatever you are doing now in class do it with an extra touch. Everything is possible to be achieved if one puts an extra effort and remains focus to it,” Jika advised.

 ICTAM Executive Committee member who is responsible for ICT women, Doreen Chimaliro said they organised the event in order to motivate and inspire girls to consider studies and careers in ICT field.

“The technology sector is one of the fastest growing industries globally. For this reason, one cannot run away from ICT because every professional job needs to cooperate it. For instance, almost every industry or organisation has an ICT department hence they are running away from manual to computerised systems, “Chimaliro said.

One of the participants, a form four student from Pact Secondary School, Beatrice Ligomeka said that event has given her a chance to work extra hard in her studies as she has   been motived and encouraged by women specialist in ICT field which is commonly dominated by males.

Ligomeka further hailed the organisers as the event has equipped the students with various skills in ICT.

The students had a chance to appreciate various IT related projects presented by a Micromek LTD, Chief-Executive-Officer, Dumisani Kaliati and students from Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).

They further indulged themselves in coding session toured by women ICT specialist. The   groups that did well were awarded with various items including USB drives and self-sticks curtsey of Telecom Networks Malawi (TNM).