Every year, across the globe women are celebrated for their social, economic, cultural, and political achievements on International Women’s Day, which falls on 8th March. Women everywhere are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions; whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or political. It is also a moment when governments, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders express their efforts to solve challenges that impede women’s advancement and involvement in decision-making processes.
This year, Soronko Academy partnered with numerous organizations to expose tailored digital tools to different groups from different backgrounds under the theme, “DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.”
The celebration continues …
On 6th April, Soronko Academy in partnership with the Bank of Ghana Ladies Association (BoGLA), joined the rest of the world to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, through a fun digital skills training program. The participants in the training consisted of over 200 women in person and online and some interested men who were there to learn and lend supporting hands to the women.
Mrs. Regina Honu, the CEO of Soronko Academy, led a team of three women; Mrs. Annette Quarshie(HR Manager), Ms. Delphina Agyare(Project Manager), and Mrs. Leticia Akwetey-Amavih(Creative Director) to train the BoGLA on the topic, “Enhancing your career with Technology and Innovation In this Digital Era.” She began by acknowledging some of the women who have changed the technological world and threw light on how technology is evolving in our everyday lives.
Mrs. Honu started the training with an icebreaker activity, “two truths, one lie.” This activity allows each member of a team to write down three “facts” about themselves, two truths, and one lie. The members of each group then take turns to share their three statements with the larger team, and members will then attempt to guess which one is a lie.
She introduced the women to technology tools that monitor children’s safety and security, digital tools to increase productivity, learning platforms to improve skills, and personal branding tools to make themselves more visible in the workplace. She allowed room for questions and followed through with a fun quiz game on Kahoot, to assess the lessons learned by the ladies. The first three were awarded for their speed and accuracy in participating in the quiz.
In groups of ten participants, mixed with the old and the new generations, the ladies were engaged in a 15-minute hackathon session to come up with solutions or tools to aid in the advancement of their careers. Among the teams who presented were; “Level Up”, “BoG Academy”, “Araba 360”, “HR Portal”, and many others.
BoG Academy, a team with both the new and old generations, emerged winners. They developed a tech solution or portal that allowed staff to choose and take courses related to their career, and assess performance for the next level. The portal also had an in-built virtual assistant to orient and run new staff through the onboarding process.
The chairperson for the event, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana gave her closing remarks. She encouraged women to embrace technology and expand their knowledge base to remain relevant in today’s rapidly changing environment and contribute to their institutions and enhance their abilities to do more.
She applauded Mrs. Regina and the team for an insightful session and for what Soronko Academy is doing to change the tech narrative in the lives of women and girls.
In her remarks, she reiterated the story of Abiba, her 21-year-old house helper who participated in the Soronko Rotary Girls’ Coding Project. Abiba learned basic digital skills such as fundamentals of computers, email account setup and sending and receiving emails, website development, social media management, and other essential soft skills.
Abiba, after taking the six-week coding program, turned into a technologically savvy young lady, returned to Kumasi a few months later, and taught her mother the fundamentals of digital literacy. The skill sets helped her to utilize mobile money for her Kenkey business.
She also taught her older sister, a fashion designer, how to use social media to advertise her designs and clothes, and how to accept payments via mobile money.
Abiba now aspires to pursue her digital education and one day become a website developer.
We had a fun and insightful session at the Bank of Ghana, with the Bank of Ghana Ladies Association.
