Technology and Girl Power

A Chat with Chioma Agwuego - Executive Director of Techher NG

Chinyere is a thirteen-year-old girl living in Ojoto, a small village in the Anambra state of Nigeria. She wakes up early to help her mom prepare the wares for sale in the nearby Afor market as their primary source of income. Afterward, she walks to the school by St. Odilia's Catholic Church, hoping to learn how to escape poverty. Her underprivileged background means she has yet to be exposed to the forces technology has unleashed, which will dominate and change her world. While she may have heard of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, she does not know the opportunities they hold for her and the threats they will pose if she is unprepared to harness their power.

Her story is not unique. It is the story of millions of young girls across Nigeria and other countries worldwide. If Chinyere doesn't attain a proper education and does not embrace the world of technology, her future might be, in reality, similar to the lost tribes of the Amazon. I am being a bit dramatic for effect, but the truth is that Chinyere faces a bleak future. This awful reality inspired Chioma Agwuego to start TechHerNG, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching women and girls about technology. TechHerNG introduces girls from underprivileged backgrounds to technology's joys and promises.

On November 04, 2023, Chioma Agwuegbo, executive director at TechHerNG, became the first speaker in the Girls Across Borders Speaker Series. She has dedicated the last decade to working with women and girls who have no or limited exposure to technology and its opportunities. The community creates spaces for girls to learn, connect, and be themselves.

Given that knowledge is power, TechHerNG teaches its members to leverage technology to understand global affairs and current events. However, it is also aware of the dangers lurking in the corners of the internet, so it created education programs to ensure young ladies are safe. It also has a program with a cybersecurity focus.

During her talk, Chioma emphasized the importance of technology in today's world. She highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic showed how technology can be a productivity enabler but can also worsen inequality, especially between the Global North and South. TechHerNG stresses that those who use tech should also be empowered to create or advance it. As a result, TechHerNG gets girls involved in technology's innovative side so they can join in developing solutions to the world's problems. Chioma highlights how, over the years, men have built many solutions to women's problems. The problem is that those solutions are sometimes suboptimal as the men do not experience those issues as the women do. Chioma stated, "If you are not experiencing, you can't really solve the problem to the fullest extent." TechHerNG seeks to empower women with technology so they can adequately address their problems. She stated how TechHerNG's overall goal is to give women and girls the opportunity to learn about the world of technology to, in turn, solve issues using technology as the world continues to advance.