#InternationalWomensDay: Intel celebrates Kenyan women through mentorship

Intel Corporation is this year celebrating women in Kenya through mentorship and training in technology. The mentorship and training, are being championed by the Intel She Will Connect program, which aims to leverage collaborations with select women in various spheres of influence, to encourage women and girls to connect to the internet and use technology to better their lives.

The Intel She Will Connect program targets to connect more than 5 million women in Sub Saharan Africa to the internet by 2020. Since its inception late last year, more than 800,000 women and girls have already benefited from the program in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Last month, Intel through the program launched My Digital Journey, an online learning platform designed to empower women to meaningfully use the internet. The platform uses quests to guide learners on how to apply technology and internet in predetermined situations that are relevant to them.

Powering on the recruitment drive, Intel has this month kicked-off women-centric collaborations even as the world celebrates International Women’s Day slated for March 8, 2016.  Over the weekend, Intel together with Couture Africa, East Africa’s first multi-platform Fashion Magazine targeting women, hosted women influencers to inspire them into driving the technology conversation in their space and beyond.

The event, which has been dubbed Women’s Day Mixer, was used to encourage women to leverage their influence to connect women. During the event, hosted by Intel She Will Connect Kenya Ambassador Ms. Adelle Onyango, women were encouraged to play an active role in ‘connecting their unconnected sisters’ so as to empower them to benefit from the Internet and collaborate with their peers around the world.

The Intel She Will Connect program was mooted following the Women and the Web Report, which established that there are nearly 25% fewer women than men online in developing countries. This represents 200 million fewer women than men online in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the size of the gap is 43%— the largest across all the regions in the study.

Intel believes that connecting women will have a multiplier effect on the economic well-being of developing countries as it will harness the productive capacity that women hold, to power growth.