A jewel from the Pearl of Africa

Seminar #1 – East African Fellows, Class of 2013

“Create something that will make the world awesome” – The Kid President said in his Pep Talk, what an amazingly inspiring young future leader – I would love to still be alive and see the kind of change such a young mind will bring to his generation. (Watch the full video of the Kid President [...]

Acumen fund | 2013 East African Fellows named

The world is calling out for a new kind of leader – a leader who has the humility to see the world for what it is, and the audacity to envision the world for what it could be. Development in East Africa must be driven by people who have the business and operational skills, as [...]

GirlGeek Kampala brings first ever RailsGirls event in Africa

Who says women can not code? Who says girls are not meant for the hardcore programming courses? All those stereotypes against women in technology will long be gone if forums like Girl Geek Kampala keep rising up to do an amazing job at showing that it can be done. Girl Geek Kampala is an innitiative that seeks [...]

Women in Technology Uganda (WITU) opens calender year with networking session

Planning for a calender year is always an essential part of every organisation – It involves planning for how you want things to spin out in an entire year – and this is not always an easy process. Many companies spend a lot of time planning out activities and plans and goals they want to achieve [...]

TEDxWomen makes thrilling debut in Uganda

What happens when you bring people together who are passionate about different things in life and give them a platform to share their ideas with others? When you have ideas and gather people together, have inspired speakers to share knowledge and thoughts – it is the most inspiring thing. That is the core of what [...]

Seminar #1 – East African Fellows, Class of 2013

Posted by enamara on January 29th, 2013

“Create something that will make the world awesome” – The Kid President said in his Pep Talk, what an amazingly inspiring young future leader – I would love to still be alive and see the kind of change such a young mind will bring to his generation. (Watch the full video of the Kid President on my featured video on the right panel)

Being a part of a world where people stop thinking about themselves and moving on to feel the desire to touch, change and make the world awesome is what this class of 2013 fellows subscribe to.
Seminar one of the East Africa fellows 2013 took place last week in Nairobi – Kenya and it was an experience I will never forget, If I were to describe what that experience meant for me – I would say it was a moment of believing that change can happen, and that Africa indeed has a future, a bright future.

20 very diverse young leaders from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda were chosen as fellows for the class of 2013. I was touched by the kind of change people are driving in their social change projects. We all have different dreams, and we can either follow our dreams, or let them go, like the Kid President said in his peptalk – “Don’t give up on your dream, unless it is stupid”. – This batch of fellows are the kind that will do anything to go for it!

The first seminar brought all of us to a place of learning to know each other – we are embarking on a year’s journey with people with different dreams, different visions, and different aspirations, and getting to learn why each of us is driven to do what we do was key as we started off.
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Acumen fund | 2013 East African Fellows named

Posted by enamara on January 29th, 2013

The world is calling out for a new kind of leader – a leader who has the humility to see the world for what it is, and the audacity to envision the world for what it could be.

Development in East Africa must be driven by people who have the business and operational skills, as well as the moral imagination to create lasting solutions to the region’s most intractable social problem.

This is the kind of notion that Acumen Fund buys into, with the East Africa Fellows Program, Acumen offers Fellows the opportunity to receive world-class leadership training along with the tools to accelerate the progress of their social projects.

East Africa is full of resources, resources that we can use as young leaders to be the future of tomorrow, to build lasting businesses and to answer the call of ending poverty in this region. I believe in the power of innovation, and I believe that Africa has it’s own resources to become larger than it is today. It all begins with able leaders, it begins with having great people who are willing to challenge the status quo and do what needs to be done to get things going.

I aspire to be that kind of leader, I aspire to use the resources within my reach to empower and build my social cause to the best it can be, that is why when I saw the call to apply for the Acumen Fund | East Africa Fellows Program, I did not hesitate.

With over 600 applications received, the process to come down to the named fellows was intense. I made it, am one of the 2013 fellows that will be trained by high class professionals running social businesses around the world, and above all, learning from my fellow fellows.

Learn more about the East African Fellows Program here;

I don’t think the world is ready for what I aspire to be! Am more than thrilled to be one of the Acumen Fund East African Fellows – Class of 2013.

Check this page again for a full list of all the 2013 East African Fellows.

GirlGeek Kampala brings first ever RailsGirls event in Africa

Posted by enamara on January 21st, 2013

Who says women can not code? Who says girls are not meant for the hardcore programming courses? All those stereotypes against women in technology will long be gone if forums like Girl Geek Kampala keep rising up to do an amazing job at showing that it can be done.

Girl Geek Kampala is an innitiative that seeks to create a community that promotes and celebrates Women in the Technology field by infusing entrepreneurship and programming skills into girls passionate about IT. It is practical when it comes to Girl Geeks. A lot of smart young girls at Universities have come out of University with good grades, and having the ability to program but they do not think beyond their very best program. With the education system that instills a more theoratical way of thinking and dealing with problems, it is always hard for these smart girls to come out and be relevant in a tough world that will demand real world solutions.

That is where Girl Geek comes in, they help take up these women and girls who are passionate about computing and IT and they build a platform that helps them build skills that they can use in the real world whilst mentoring and coaching them to learn to code in a specific language while taking on real projects. I think that is the best sustainable approach. No matter how beautiful your code is, or runs, at the end of the day the girls need to think like enterpreneurs, how do you then take that code to build a program that will be used in a real world setting and make some money?
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Women in Technology Uganda (WITU) opens calender year with networking session

Posted by enamara on January 21st, 2013

Planning for a calender year is always an essential part of every organisation – It involves planning for how you want things to spin out in an entire year – and this is not always an easy process. Many companies spend a lot of time planning out activities and plans and goals they want to achieve – and it certainly helps to know how far you have drifted from the plan every now and then by evaluating your plans.

Women in Technology Uganda (WITU) which is an initiative that seeks to encourage, inspire and train more women in the tech field through networking, training, mentoring and partnering with an aim of increasing the number of women in tech had it’s first event of the year on friday, the 18th January 2013. I love that they chose to structure the first meeting as a networking session.

In Uganda, just as in many other countries, the involvement of women in technology is still minimal compared to men’s involvement in technology. I would however love to note that the trends are getting better, many years ago you could hardly find real technical women in the industry but now we can see many of them stepping up to take their rightful places. This was evident at the WITU event – for once I entered a women in tech event in Uganda and was impressed to find about 40 women in technology ready to take on the world. I was particularly impressed by Telecom giant MTN Uganda’s representation of women in technology, about 7 women in tech were represented from MTN, which I found impressive, none of the ladies from other telecom giants were present at the event.

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Sharing Video: #TEDxKiraTownWomen Learning the Art of Self Belief and Following your Passion

Posted by enamara on January 7th, 2013

When I was asked to speak at #TEDxKiraTownWomen – I just did not know what I wanted to share about, I had so many ideas but I settled with just sharing my career path story and what has inspired some of the decisions I have made as a person to date!

Each one of us has one life – Would you rather spend your entire life doing something you do not love just because of circumstances or should you look around you and find something that you can’t stop thinking about and doing it to our best?

We are all different, the way we speak, what career path we choose, which friends we choose and ultimately how we choose to live our lives – let every choice you make be a choice that you are happy to live with for the rest of your life.

Here’s the link to my #TEDtalk.

Enjoy

A new year is upon us, Hello 2013

Posted by enamara on January 1st, 2013

With much humility I would like to thank everyone of you who took the time to visit my website once in a while to read my posts! You guys keep me going and inspired.

It’s been an amazing 12 months of 2012 – and I can only say – it was a great year but 2013 will even be more bigger and better!

Am ready for 2013 – infact, am beyond ready – I have plans, big plans, I have ambitions, big ambitions, and I have determination to go follow my dreams! I will target to hit the Sky and if I do not reach, I will most definitely land amidst STARS! – That will be my driving motto this year!

If you are ready, then join me in this journey as we document and see more greatness in this year 2013!

Happy New Year from me to you!