The
Gambia’s first-ever Premier Mozilla Club
was recently launched at the American Corner, Comium Building, along Kairaba
Avenue.
The
Mozilla Club of Hackathon Girls Banjul aims to mentor and inspire females by
empowering and encouraging them into the field of technology and web literacy
to break the stereotype most girls face in their communities.
Mozilla
Clubs is a global network of community members that share Mozilla’s mission to
ensure the internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all by
providing free training and resources to help clubs succeed and grow digital
literacy in community spaces.
Speaking
at the event, Juma Baldeh, a product engineer at InSIST Global, who also
doubles as the regional coordinator for Mozilla clubs and the founder of
Hackathon Girls, said they are highly committed to teaching young learners on
how to efficiently and constructively read, write and participate on the web.
‘’We are a group of young dynamic female minds
that are already in IT working together to make our way into the field of
technology,’’ she said
Ms
Baldeh revealed that they have a lot of projects involving IT and communities,
which would be of huge benefit to the Gambian society, especially in this age
of technological advancement and cyber security.
She
said that they have already started introducing the club in schools and
institutions like the UTG, GTTI and AIUWA.
Ms
Baldeh expressed the confidence and hope of ushering in more Mozilla clubs in
The Gambia in order to get more people to be web literate.
She
called on all and sundry including government, parastatals, philanthropists, IT
companies and well wishers to come on board and sponsor their projects for a
vision of a tech savvy Gambian society.
Ndey
Awa Hydara, IT student at the UTG and the Vice President of Hackathon Girls,
enjoined her female counterparts to be inspired by the club and encouraged them
to be more active in striking a gender balance in information and computer
technology.
