Open Source Day for Women in Karachi is going to be held on 28 January, 2017. This is a combine effort of Code for Pakistan and Habib University.
Women all around the world are climbing ladders of success than why not women in Pakistan stand beside men? The population of Pakistan consists of 48% of women. Unfortunately the female workforce in Pakistan is less than 25%. Moreover, only 14% of the women are associated with tech field. Open Source Day aims to provide people with software that can be modifies and shared by people by a public source code.
The Open Source Day is designed for women who are linked with Computer Science background. This provides an opportunity for the women to start working on Open Source Projects with complete guidance from mentors of tech industry. This creates a platform for women, to interact with each other and share their skills.
Huda Baig is a Software Engineer and Code for Pakistan volunteer based in Seattle. About the project she thinks,
“Women work so hard to acquire an education. They are incredibly talented and competent but they hold themselves back at a very early stage in their lives which results in this huge gender gap in the workforce and a big waste of resources. They need to prioritize themselves and make use of their skills so they can empower themselves, their families, communities and the economy.”
She herself is the thinker of the amazing idea. She shared her inspiration saying,
“I attended my first open source day event at The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) Conference, a full day track specially designed to give women of all skill levels and backgrounds the chance to contribute to the open source software. During the code-a-thon, we worked on humanitarian projects as a team and got an opportunity to network and work with mentors from a variety of commercial and nonprofit organizations (Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Open Hatch).
This experience took me out of my comfort zone and helped me in taking charge of my career. I landed my next job in the open source software development! The exposure I gained from the OSD was a rewarding one and I wanted to share it with the amazing and talented women in Pakistan so that they can use this opportunity to learn, collaborate, contribute and connect and use their full potential to achieve their career aspirations. Code for Pakistan and Habib University provided me with a perfect opportunity to making this idea a reality!”
This non-profit organization aims to build a civic innovation ecosystem. The organization is trying to improve the quality of life of people living in different areas of Pakistan. With the use of advanced technology it aims to provide better service each time. It plans to enhance the delivery of its services through easily accessible mobile apps.
The workshop is to be conducted at Habib University Karachi. The program will be attended by well-known entrepreneurs, tech experts, influential investors and developers. So ladies, get ready for the Open Source Day