25 under 25 Awardee - Internet Society

On the 14^th of July, 2017, I was selected as a 25 under 25 awardee by the Internet Society to celebrate 25 young people who are under 25 years or 25 around the world who are taking action and using the Internet as a force for good. This was my first time going out of Africa and getting that visa I will say was a miracle. It was also my first time traveling alone but then I made it through though I struggled a bit as there were so many stops to get to Los Angeles. The award ceremony, which was held in California, Los Angeles, USA for four days (16th to 20th of September, 2017) gave me the privilege of meeting those who already have some years of experience with the Internet and meeting other exceptional young people doing amazing work with the Internet. I was able to network and learn a lot with a lot of people and the ceremony. I spoke and shared links of my initiative and success stories in the Gambia and how other people can get involved. With my networking skills, I envision a future where the unconnected get connected especially in my community ensuring that everyone becomes web literate through my tech club. I have no doubt that as I interact and learn from organizations like the Internet Society and individuals from different parts of the world I will be driven to achieve greater things. Once again I am grateful to the Internet Society for organizing such programs to recognize people like me that are doing amazing work with the Internet.

Appreciation 

It was overwhelming to be awarded a 25 under 25 awards by the Internet Society. I can't say much, I owe this to each and everyone who believes in me. I appreciate every single person who took time to nominate me for this prestigious award. To HackathonGirls, Banjul, Mozilla foundation, Django Girls, Banjul, The Internet Society Gambia Chapter, The American Corner, friends and my beloved family, you all contributed in making this possible for me. Can't thank you enough for your supports. I'm grateful.

Visit link for more details on the Recognition ceremony:

25 under 25 Recognition Ceremony

Young African Leaders Initiative Cohort 3 - Nigeria

On August 19^th 2017, I was selected for YALI ( Young African Leaders Initiative) RLC (Regional Centre), West Africa, a training program launched by the United States government as a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. I learnt and experienced that when one interacts, share ideas and solve problems together we only realize how strong and powerful we are as a people. In the intensively five weeks training, I saw a beautiful African future. I saw great hopes for Africa and my five weeks stay in Nigeria, Lagos, I interacted with people from nine countries in West Africa. We were placed into groups, where we worked and as a result, because of my team player skills, I was able to organize team members and we emerged first position during the creative night at YALI. Understanding how people work and appreciating efforts towards making communities, countries and the world at large a better place to live in is what keeps me going. My experience in the YALI program did not only help me interact with people but also gave me the confidence to express myself around people. I also engaged others, outside of my group by organizing a blog/website sessions, where I trained people on how to create a blog. Upon completion of the five weeks training, I was able to collect all photos that were taken by the Camera man (over 2000 pictures), and uploading them on a Google drive, which was a need by most people and requested, so this allowed me to engage and solve that issue with almost everyone else by sharing the link to the photos to a group that was created. This did not only help me get all the pictures but to be able to collaborate with people individually as I am in contact with most of them as a result. 

Country of the week - The Gambia

Juma Baldeh leads by example, encouraging women throughout The Gambia to pursue careers in the technology industry

Juma studied hard to become a successful product engineer, committing herself to her academic career and valuing the significance of an education . She founded HackathonGirls Club, Banjul, where she mentors and supports young women in her community to overcome stereotypes and eventually achieve desired employment.

Too often Juma witnesses young girls, who are skilled in math and science, lose hope as they prepare for interviews and professional positions. “The Gambia has women in technology fields, but on average there are far fewer females than males,” she notes.

Visit link to read more:https://yali.state.gov/country-of-the-week-the-gambia/

Mozilla Clubs Web Literacy Leaders training

Do you believe you have control over information that you share on the web?

Feedback from Attendees

This was a hard topic to discuss as most of the attendees were skeptical about this i.e most were somewhere in between because they were not sure of how secured the applications they have been using like WhatSapp, Messenger etc and browsers are. Meanwhile there was this one person who stood out to say she can have control over what information she shares on the web i.e she makes sure she reads the terms and conditions of any application or software before installing or using it. This got people thinking and it was a topic to be discussed on and eventually everyone came to a conclusion that one can have control of the information shared on the web by reading the terms and conditions of every software to be installed as most people don't and also to be careful when sharing informations on-line and also to be aware of how cookies and trackers can be used to monitor ones daily activities on the web.

My Feedback 

In general it was an interesting discussion as it got everyone participating and debating on the topic. Well I will say we should know more about on-line privacy and security and how essential it is as most people are not aware of all this therefore disadvantaged and are not aware of the dangers of the web. Almost everyone is using the web now and in the next million years to come, so one should be aware of how to use the web in an inclusive and engaging way. How we should treat kids' information differently than adults, how cookies and third parties trackers monitors one as he/she goes about his/her everyday task on the web, Why one should read the terms and conditions of softwares(containing what the application is all about and can do) or softwares before installing them and also why you should not share confidential informations over the web, and how companies and organizations track and collect your data on-line. Therefore learning how to safeguard your privacy on-line and developing an awareness to all of these listed about is something we should all take note of.

Join me today and take the opportunity to be part of the molding and shaping up of how one should have control over what information they share on the web.

Mozilla Clubs

Why is Web Literacy important to me?

Web literacy I will say is important to me because everyone needs to know how to interact on the web in an inclusive and engaging way despite the profession you are in.

“Our world changed in April 1993 when the Mosaic 1.0 browser was released to the general public. We need new forms of education. We need to reform our learning institutions, concepts, and modes of assessment for our age. Now, anyone with access to the World Wide Web can go far beyond the passive consumer model to contribute content on the Web. That Do-It-Yourself potential for connected, participatory, improvisational learning requires new skills, what many are calling new literacies.” – Davidson, 2012 

Almost everyone is using the web now and in the next million years to come. If people are shown how to use the web in an inclusive and engaging way, then people will use the web to unlock social and other opportunities for instance a teacher can reach out to her students remotely, a business owner can reach out to her customers easily and faster but without people being web literate they won't be able to understand what the web can do and therefore disadvantaged.

The thing is that when we know how to wield it, indisputably makes our lives better. Just as Maths, Science, and History is important so does Web literacy too.
Web literacy I have come to understand is all about how to read, write and participate on the web in an inclusive and engaging way.

READ: This is how we tour the web, how to use the Internet especially when using the browsers, the credibility and reliability of a website and how to easily search for contents on the web.


WRITE: How to use the web to build, basically like blogs, websites to express yourself, for instance build websites or blog to market a product or let people know what skills you have. Also how to write codes, and upload media on emails etc.

PARTICIPATE: This is all about how to connect and share what you have created with others to get people celebrate it and also help you out when needed. Get more people involved in your works.


How Clubs will contribute to the change I want to see in my community

First of all as we have a Mozilla club that teaches girls web literacy known as Mozilla Club of HackathonGirls, which is located in one part of my community. I believe having many more clubs in the Gambia will allow us to reach out to everyone in different areas in the country and also ease the access to having a club at your doorstep no matter where you are. So with these clubs and web literacy taught, this will make people to be aware of what they can use the web or do on the web, thereby creating an awareness and sensitizing my community regardless of age. 

Why people should join me? 

This is important because, its all about giving back to the community. Joining me is like putting heads together to build our community and making the world a better place to live in. Also I believe knowledge is to be shared and not kept.