Ms. Geek Rwanda Programme

Ms. Geek Rwanda was been held in 2015 for the first time as a way to celebrate International Girls in ICT day for the third time, and the brought together 70 girls who selected among 106 applicants. The 2016 Ms. Geek Rwanda competition was the second edition. After the campaign conducted in different schools to raise Ms. Geek awareness at least in 3 schools in each province and radios, social media platforms used to attract students to apply for Ms. Geek. Among 130 who met the selection criteria, the 5 best performers were selected and were taken through a 1-month training to polish their presentations and pitches for the final event. A panel of 6 judges participated in final event to select the Ms. Geek Rwanda 2016 winners on 30th April at Serena Hotel and brought together 600 guests and 315 students from 17 schools. Scoring was done digitally using STRIX software. The selection based on: novelty, presentation, utility and accessibility criteria. The 3 winning projects have been selected among the 5 best projects respectively: Ms. Geek 2016: Ivomerere System; Hello Job; Easy Parking; Fluid Alert System; Meet the Doctor App. The implementation of these projects falls in the framework of promoting cultural diversity since they call up on arts in their design and develop the culture of free expression and self-reliance, hence enhancing the girls’ capacity and mitigating other forms of misbehaviour that girls tend to be involved in when they are idle and not empowered. (Ms. Geek Report 2015 and 2016).