International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in April to stress the importance of girls in I.C.T. and encourage more girls and young women to pursue STEM education. This year, it takes place on April 27. Did you know that the first commercial computer was developed in 1951? I.C.T., the abbreviation for Information and Communications Technology, is an encompassing term for the technologies required to transmit, store, create, share, or exchange information.
About Lesotho: This year we recognizetwo women. The first being Maneo Mapharisa an entrepreneur on a mission to encourage young women and girls to take part in Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths related activities or STEM fields as there is a huge gender gap in those fields and that is not only in Lesotho but worldwide. She is the founder of Girls Coding Academy, a computer science graduate from National University of Lesotho. She is inspired to teach girls how to code because it is awesome! Additionally, providing girls with coding skills will help build foundations for life long skills they can apply in any field of study.
The second woman in ICT is Mamonaheng Nkentso Ledimo Koenane. She is the founder of Impact school in Lesotho, a world-class tech institution. Headquartered in Dublin Ireland, Impact School is a start-up tech school located in Maseru Lesotho. With the aim of producing a minimum of 5,500 Software Engineers by 2030. Impact school was born out of the idea that “we can do better than this”. It’s a story of love for country, filled with highs and lows. The journey of Mamonaheng Koenane arriving home from Europe and noticing the state of education in computer sciences. With 56 years of independence, Lesotho still sources most of its software engineering solutions from South Africa and other countries.