Oxford Girl Geek Dinner - Launching

I know, I posted about it ages ago;) And yes, we did have our first event, however we treated it as a pre-launch, basically initial meeting. But before I tell you more about the launch event, let me remind you the basics (taken from  central website):

The Girl Geek Dinners were founded on the 16th August 2005 as a result of one girl geek who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside.  After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.

So what did this geeky girl do to change the world of geeks and girl geeks everywhere… well she got in touch with a few well known bloggers, posted online about her idea of getting geeks to educate one another over dinner and then arranged the first girl geek dinner event with a little help from her friends. The first event had 35 people at it all from London and the surrounding area, shortly after people started to hear about the events and companies started sponsoring them to cover the food and drinks cost.

Then they started popping up in other UK cities as she trained others up in how to run the events, spreading the formula for them… so they then started popping up in Europe… and shortly after that over in Canada… Now they are starting to pop up in New Zealand and Australia. Who knows where will be next.

Our Mission Statement:

To break down old fashioned social stereotypes.




To identify routes around barriers to entry for anyone to get into technology.




To encourage and nurture those interested in technology.




To work with local schools, colleges and universities to encourage more women into the technology industry.




To support those currently in the industry and work together to figure out the issues and the solutions.




To include men, women and children in this journey…. and not exclude men from Girl Geek Dinner Events

Now, Girl Geek Dinners is a series of events currently active in many parts of UK, Europe and the globe, so I am really happy to see it kicking off in Oxford as well. On Tuesday, at 6PM we are meeting in Cowley Rd, at White October offices (thank you for sponsoring us, once again!) to discuss personal branding on-line, various tools for social media marketing and to network. Later on int he evening we will move to Cafe Tarifa for sponsored (by Oxford Innovation) drinks and further chat with live music in the background. I really hope this small but crucial for women in technology event will take off and turn into a regular occasion to share experiences, tips and business cards;)

Join us on Twitter! To attend our Tuesday event go to the event page here. Really hope to see you there (boys are more then welcome, you just need to find a girl who will join you;)).

ActionAidUK supporter evening in London

I am having a bit crazy days nowadays, so my posts might be slow. This one is related to event I attended last week! ActionAidUK has invited me to join their supporter evening on the 10th of March in celebrations of International Womens Day. After Get Lippy campaign I was much in the mood of the topic, I must say.

The event was really nice - and I think it is a good idea for a charity to connect with supporters this way!

After the introduction we have learned about the importance of women's rights (raising confidence, helping with care - family, house ho, looking at culture - the most significant barrier dur to the lack of rights, lack of understanding). ActionAidUK's experience is to put the women and girls first - not excluding men, but recognising that the poorest of the poor are women. The organisation is supporting women to achieve the change for themselves, their family, community and their country. Gaining confidence and support from organisations working with women rights is crucial - so ActionAidUK is also helping to build those women movements. We have learned about Asha Singh, 37, heroine, activist working with the organisation in India, lawyer by training, riding a bike to persuade people to value women as much as men. As she was talking to parents, boys and girls, she has become a role model for girls in the area.

Later we moved on to women issues in Afghanistan. We watched a video in which Nasima Rahmani, a local worker stated that when she goes to communities to talk to women "men think we are empowering women against them". Well, I guess it is a fact. ActionAid has also a paralegal programme - teaching women with strong leadership skills to help victims of violence. What I missed in the film though were...men. I would love to hear their voices, see their faces and learn their points of view as well as see how ActionAid works with men on the topic. (I also noticed that the event we attended was dominated by women - does it mean that mainly women supporters are interested in the topic of women rights? is it fair to say that is it only half of the story then?) What is the future according to ActionAidUK then? Women need to be educated, financially undefended and have their rights. To know "why is this happening to me?"

Next speaker, GB Adhikari, Country Director for ActionAid Afghanistan, working in that country since 2003 presented the achievements but also challenges of his work. He spoke about the National Solidarity Program - governmental program, ActionAid people are the people talking about the process. They elect the community people to be in charge of the community development process - and to ensure that 30% of this committee are women, so far 2,500 women were elected already. We were also discussing the marriage issue - forced marriage: approach: marriage> forced marriage> why does it happen seems to work the best. When asked if the war in Afghanistan affect their work, he responded: "Everything is possible to do, you just need to find a method, a way and the timeframe. Go to the community, talk to them, be with them, adopt their practices to become a part of the community, to be trusted." Sounds like a great advise for everyone, really. We also learned more about the communication channels within the country to handle risk situation and ensure safety of staff too. What I thought of the speaker? I made a note: "What an inspiring, dedicated person!" I was really impressed with the local approach to the training (240 national staff currently as a result of local training programme as opposed to brining lots of expats.)

When we talked about  ActionAid's work in the UK Champion for International Violence against Women was mentioned, as well as Cross- Governmental Violence against Women and Girls Strategy and last year's report on women rights.

Patricia Lima, Head of PR at ActionAid talked about GetLippy campaign too.

I guess to summarise the evening (I have to disclose that I left before its end!) I would like to quote one of the presenters, who said:

"If we aren't equal everywhere, we aren't equal anywhere…"

Big hug to ActionAid and Louise for the invitation! I really liked the event!

 

 

Get Lippy - posting vs. acting.

Raising awareness is one thing, acting to drive the change is another. Last week I was posting about ActionAid UK's Get Lippy campaign sharing stories of various women, whose work I find inspiring. Today I am sending my message to all of them, hoping that you will join me:

Please keep up your great work! You are very brave and strong to stand up for the rights of all of us! Your dedication is inspiring for your communities, but also for all women watching your stories all around the globe!

I am really privileged to know you from your brave words and pictures!

Action Aid UK is also asking for contributions from us, women seemingly living in better, more privileged conditions. Do share your story - let's see how we all feel about being a woman.

Let's talk about anger!

This post is a response to ActionAid UK's call for bloggers to support their Get Lippy campaign.

Tonight we will talk about ANGER. Esther, as you can learn from the video I will embed below must have felt really angry learning that her house was burned down and the land was taken away. I do not own a house, but I have a mac for example, which is my source of income and I would be really pissed off it someone would suddenly decide to take it. Now, loosing a house and ALL possessions is something I can hardly imagine. OK, I was in a situation once when with one year old child I could pack only one back and head off, but I had a job - job completely unrelated to the house or the land. Hence why it is difficult for me to comprehend the scale of Esther's tragedy. Seven children...

Anger can be powerful in times when we are low and need to put up with unexpected events life is setting on our path. Anger is a natural reaction to danger and to attack. Most of the time though anger can destroy everything we have worked for - all gone, in once second. I myself was extremely angry this morning. I was so angry I demanded and cried - yes, I did. I might have been right somewhat, I might have had my reasons, but I still think it was an unacceptable feeling in all its limitless power. I felt overwhelmed. The reason why I write this is for you to understand that anger is toxic - once you become exposed to it it gets under your skins, it collects all your insecurities and worries and builds on those to strike again. Once planted anger can kill easily - with words, with gestures, with actions.

This is the reason why we need laws and protection...really from ourselves. We need to stop the injustice and the destruction caused by those who do not feel restricted and limited by objective rules of society. I am sad to see that in many countries still lack those rules. I am terrified to know that in the UK we still have the unspoken patterns to fight. But I have found my own way around it - I have found love and understanding in those who know me well, who are there for me when my own walls fall down and attempt to crash them. I strongly believe that this can be replicated on any scale by contradicting the wrong with lawful and the angry with the loved. So please, think about it and join the ActionAid UK's campaign - there is a lot you can do, with words, gestures and actions.

Let's talk about fear!

I posted already that I was asked to support ActionAid UK's Get Lippy campaign, so in the next few days you will see a series of posts on women issues - from my very personal point of view.

Today we will talk about FEAR.

I have spent the whole day working with people who dare to embrace the change that social media brings. Equally, at the back of my head I lived all the small and big mistakes I have made and reasons why a part of me is so disappointed with myself tonight. I look at my life and I start to understand the scale of the impact of my environment for many years which built my own limitations. I think we should all have a chance to develop, to work, to be proud of ourselves...yet, I cannot help but think of times when I used to be so scared for my own life that I was paralyzed. I lived 3 years of my life in fear for my own life, without even understanding it fully - hence why today I feel legitimate to stand up and speak up for all the women who feel the same - for many specific and even more undiscovered issues and mechanism surrounding them. Some changes are really easy - it's enough to walk out of the door, but some take time, courage and a little bit of risk, so I really hope to see more women like Najila sharing their stories  and calling for a change. There is nothing worst than the feeling of fear, fear in your own house.

Some words are difficult to come out to the open, we all know it - do not lie to yourself that you don't! But some words can conquer countries - in a way this is exactly what we face in the Middle East nowadays - courage of the spoken word.

So today I will ask you, every single reader of mine, to navigate over to ActionAid's website and at least read those stories to decide if you want to help - sometimes even a good word can change the path of a woman. You do not know. You might not care. But do you have anything to loose?