Wishing you a blessed Holiday Season and New Beginnings for 2020 from all of us at DoTConnectAfrica,

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Peace and Joy wishes this Holiday Season, from DotConnectAfrica

Thank you for being there with us in 2019!

As 2020 looms around the corner, it is another reason and time to give thanks and celebrate what the year has made for us. We are grateful to you for accompanying us through 2019, we certainly trust and look forward to the next year, that give us more opportunities to interact and achieve more.

A Year full of Global Women on the Rise!

2019 seemed to be a powerful year not only for women-in-tech in Africa, but women all over the world in every sector of the economic and the political spheres, closing the gender gap and gender bias.  DCA Trust, its Ambassadors and beneficiaries have been making their mark and adapting their work so that other Women contribute to the statistics.  This positive yield comes from our own grassroots work, networking and global collaborations. Everywhere I have traveled, women are fighting to make their voices to be heard.

Just in the past month, I was able to attend two important events that showcased the power women in Silicon Valley and SanFrancisco Bay area. These women were sharing their insight of key lessons learned on their journey, and discussing what needs to be done to fix the broken rung and accelerate progress for all working women. I was amazed to find from the “women in the work place” panel that the annual McKinsey report in collaboration with Leanin.org disclosed statistics that African American or “Black” women are at the bottom on the C-suite or even senior roles on the Corporate ladder. Not such good news!

This year has been exceptional however for DCA Trust’s women’s program, namely Miss.Africa Digital,  which works with our women entrepreneurs and tech innovators. Our  pioneering women-in-tech seed fund program  has now outreached to 12 African nations.  We continuously seek to empower women and girls to obtain adequate  Science and Technology Engineering and Math –(STEM) skill sets  that will open opportunities for self-development and economic independence.

Last year’s winner of Miss.Africa seed fund Kumasi Hive, has been recently announced as a winner  at the Equals in Tech program run by the United Nations ITU.  Recall Miss.Africa Digital itself was a finalist 3 years ago. We are proud to carry our own winners in a cradle, serve as a role model and create a parley effect, to where larger communities benefit from the impact we created.  This is how we champion Women-in-Tech in Africa!.

In giving their testimony, Kumasi Hive appreciated Miss.Africa Digital for the support during this inspirational event of winning this award by saying:

“We couldn’t have come this far without your support through the Miss Africa Seed Fund 2018 hence we say congratulations to us ( DotConnectAfrica, Miss Africa Seed Fund, Kumasi Hive and all partners). This is a true reflection of an impact and we call this a ‘WIN’ for us all.” … Kumasi Hive

Catch a glimpse through this showcase video of our recent prestigious Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund winners. The 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund award is KampaBits of Uganda!!, BasaliTech, Lesotho and Ace Communications, from The Gambia are both winners in the Second category prize . Read more

In the last four years since starting our seed-fund program, we have now over 1500 participants , 12 winners and over 300 girls and women trained. We have learned that when it comes to things we ourselves can manage and control, DCA Trust has walked the talk, and will keep doing so.

Sharing our ideas:

Recently, I also got a chance to deliver a lecture at length on serious topics that are holding us today in the business environment globally. The topic of Business Ethics and how the Market does not have morality , at the 2019 Fall industry conference – an education seminar organized by the San Fransisco Chapter of ISACA – the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. ( you can read about my seminar here ).

Last month, I was also in Brussels, at a high level meeting organized by the Crans Montana International forum. The theme – Digital revolution and entrepreneurship for women and youth. I had an opportunity to meet and network with the most amazing African women from Africa and African Diaspora. Furthermore, I had the privilege of addressing them at the the meeting. I shared our amazing journey of pioneering the women-in-tech workspace in Africa and successfully growing it to a “seed-funding” program . Our result is that hundreds of women throughout the Continent have benefited. ( read my thoughts here )

As we head on towards 2020, the digital world matters more than ever in all of our lives. Not only do we believe technology disrupts the old norms to advance our ways of life but also that this disruptive power can bring harmful effects.  We need to be aware of and understand these effects . This is why we have our bi-weekly newsletter to help our readers understand the complexities of our tech-dominated world to make informed decisions and appropriate choices. We hope you continue to read our newsletters at  DCA Digest or subscribe here.

Life is a Theater, find yourself a role and play along:

On my way back to my US base in California, it was great to participate in the celebration of the beginning of the US holidays, marked by Thanks giving on November 28 th . That one of the top celebrated holidays of the year. For fun, I joined the movie crowd and saw two movies in a row that moved me.

As a champion of Women and girl’s causes, I was immediately attracted to watch the new generation of the fearless  Charlie’s Angles, an action/adventure movie which had the added bonus of being directed by a woman. In   their act to save the world, they took on the toughest jobs anywhere – even in the normally male dominated spy business.

The other movie was Queen and Slim, a romance genre, also directed by a Woman, a story that can be backed by real life event, where an unfortunate incident of self defense takes a couple into a pain staking journey in search of Justice. Let’s not spoil it with the ending, but reminded me of MLKs saying “the arc of the moral universe is too long, but it bends towards Justice”. Well, when one has watched a journey of injustice so close to the eye, be it in a cinema or real life, and find that justice was delayed or denied, you know in your gut that someone, somewhere along that long journey has subverted it’s course. For the trained eye, such tragedy can only happen due to moral injustice. In real life, until this is unveiled, the perpetrator goes unpunished.

This later reminds me of our .Africa court case, which for the past four years has been twirling in the corridors of a trial justice. The fight has now moved on to the court of the appellate justice. We will keep you updated as major things develop.

Where to during the Holidays?

Holidays are always an exciting period where everyone is thinking where and what to do. This year, I will be spending my Christmas and New Years in snowy Denver, Colorado, USA among family and friends.

I plan to take stock of what were the great things I have done, overcome, and also the best times I’ve had for the past 10 years. Then think of want I want for the the next 10 years, God willing . I plan to suggest to you and everyone around me to do the same . On Xmas day, we’ll exchange notes and provide support and courage to each other and to laugh out loud!. It is a great process to center oneself and allow others to comment on our journey in life.

If you find yourselves around where I am, as always give me a holler and I promise you a treat of Colorado’s best – a taste of craft distillery paired with Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Wishing you a blessed Holiday Season and New Beginnings for 2020 from all of us at DoTConnectAfrica.

Sophia Bekele Wishing you a blessed Holiday Season and New Beginnings for 2020 from all of us at DoTConnectAfrica

 

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