Location:	Juba, South Sudan
Mission:	To engage, educate, and empower.

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GoGirls ICT’s focus is on mentorship in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) related topics leveraging more on Open Source resources to create an Open Culture in South Sudan. Founded in 2015, the Organization was finally registered as an independent Non-Governmental Organization in 2019.

FOUNDING

Eva Yayi and Yine Yenki , co-founders of GoGirls ICT, were lecturing at the University of Jube college of Computer Science and IT when they became aware of the fact that female students were not performing well. They were often shy and didn’t participate much in class. They didn’t want to show an interest in technology. Eva and Yine were conscious the root problem were the learned gender roles in South Sudan and a culture that that doesn’t encourage girls and women to learn about technology and ICT.

They wanted to do something to change this. So Eva and Yine started mentoring female students at the university and organizing weekend workshops with enrolled and incoming students. These workshops served to teach technology skills, alongside skills they would need to succeed at university. It also provided a space to share ideas and experiences of being women in a tech field.

Eva observed that “most organizations in South Sudan haven’t explored information and communication technologies (ICT) and hacktivism for women. We felt this was a topic that could gain a lot of momentum. Also due to the conflict and people talking about feminism around the world, we thought this could be a great chance for girls, women, and communities to discuss women in technology. This is how we came up with the idea of GoGirls ICT.”

For Yine, “founding GoGirls ICT was a calling from God.”