Girls in ICT International Day 2012-2022

https://www.itu.int/net4/ITU-D/CDS/gq/GICT2022/display.asp?ProjectID=1374&Quest=61047

Girls in ICT Day is an international celebration event on the fourth day (Thursday) of the fourth week of the fourth month every year. In 2010 the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is in charge of UN ICT-s, adopted Resolution N 70, calling all the member countries to celebrate Girls in ICT day to inspire girls in developed and developing countries to pursue careers in IT and technological companies to hire more women to reap benefits female participation. 

In 2012, Women and Information Society NGO president Narine Abazian took the initiative to celebrate Girls in ICT in Armenia for the first time, which set the stage for future celebrations. This tradition exists and is becoming more and more valuable.

Girls in ICT celebration aims to create a global environment, which will favor girls and women’s empowerment to become active agents and leaders in ICT.

IT sector successful female leaders from local and international establishments are invited to Girls in ICT Day celebration events to share their knowledge, skills and experience with participants. 

 

Girls in ICT Day has been celebrated in Armenia since 2012 on Women and Information Society NGO initiation. Girls in ICT celebration open up good opportunities to encourage young girls to build up their career in IT. Every year Girls in ICT event bears different inspiring mottos; “Expand Horizons, change attitudes” “Celebrate success, inspire girls”, “Encourage coming generation”. In 2021, the celebration has “Connecting girls, creating brighter Futures”:

Annuals forums have been held in AUA in Armenia. Girls in ICT forums pursue the following goals; (a) expand horizons, changing attitudes; (b) changing practice and (c) increasing engagement of girls in ICT sector, to promote technology as an exciting career choice for girls and women in Armenia.  (https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Women-and-Girls/Girls-in-ICT-Portal/Pages/events/2012/CIS/Armenia-2012.aspx)

With the support of Cisco - WebEx, the worldwide leader company in networking., 2014 forum  was accessible to regions online for the first time connecting  representatives from educational establishments from Yerevan and regions among them were secondary schools, colleges and ICT institutions. Successful female leaders from UNDP, TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia, Armenian Virtual College, Gyumri Information Technologies Center, Idram LLC, Cisco Networking Academy, Regional Mobile Application Laboratory, American University of Armenia, Physmath School, Armenian-Indian Center for Excellence in ICT and other institutions shared their knowledge and experience, as well their ideas to success in ICT. A special video message to Armenian school-girls was sent by Kimberly A. Scott from Arizona State University. Professor Scott is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, founder and Executive Director of CompuGirls, and an awardee of STEM Access Champion of Change at the White House in 2014.

The forums have been initiated by “Women and Information Society” NGO with information support of International Telecommunication Union and The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia.

 The in-support partners have been:

· American University of Armenia,

· Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking,

 · USAID Enterprise Development & Market Competitiveness Project

· Enterprise Incubator Foundation, · Arm-Indian Center for Excellence,

· Regional Mobile Application Laboratory for ECA,

 · Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia,

· Rosterecom, (GNC-ALFA CJSC, Armenian telecommunication Operator)

· VivaCell, leading mobile operator in Armenia

· National Center of Educational Technologies of Armenia

· Idram, Internet Payment System Operator.

To make Girls in ICT Day  Celebration more attractive the following suggestions have been made;

• Each year to celebrate Girls in ICT Day
• Assisting to provide more reliable connection in rural areas of Armenia
• To organize trainings in Marzes, rural areas
• Meeting with famous ICT women
• The celebration and competition organize in Marzes
• Speakers' visits to schools
• To declare Ada Lovelace award among school-girls during yea

 Photo Gallery, video(s)

2012 

https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Women-and-Girls/Girls-in-ICT-Portal/Pages/events/2012/CIS/Armenia-2012.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUwzowfkbE&t=75s

2013

2014

 

 

In 2014 in the frame of Girls in ICT Day celebration in Armenia, Kimberly Scott sent her videomessage to the participants from Arizona State University. Under Professor Scott's supervison Compugirls program is  implemented in the USA for vulnerable group schoolgirls and their families as an extracurricula activity. He shared her experience with Compugirls and encouraged Arenian girls to pursue career in IT.  

2016

2017

2018

2019

2021 

Girls in ICT International Day Online Celebration

22 April 2021, Armenia

Girls in ICT Day international celebration is an ITU (International Telecommunication Union) initiation, which is a global movement to encourage and empower young girls and women to integrate into IT and become, change agents. The international day is celebrated in the fourth month, fourth day and fourth day (Thursday) every year. 

Since 2012, Women and Information Society NGO has been the initiator of Girls in ICT celebration in Armenia. Every year high officials in IT from Armenia and abroad, role models, experts and guests have participation in the celebration. April 22, 2021 Girls in ICT Day was officially celebrated in Armenia in an online format. In 2021, the slogan was;

Connecting girls, creating brighter futures.

The event was organized by Women and Information Society NGO.

The Video message of Doreen Bogdan- Martin, Director, BDT, ITU officially opened the event.

Women and Information society NGO head Narine Abazyan made an opening speech. 

H. E. Kirsti Narinen, Ambassador of Finland to South Caucasus sent her inspirational message to the participants of the event wishing them vigor to become IT leaders and change makers. She made a historic review of coding in the US in the times of World War II, drew parallels between Finland and Armenia and added that human potential is the most important thing in small counties and used at maximum integrating all layers of society.  Honorable Ambassador mentioned that she is happy to say that UN Gender Equality and Integrity Coalition lead is Finland and Armenia is a partner country. It will help Armenia to reach technological advancement. At the end of her speech, Ambassador announced official opening of Women and Information Society NGO webpage opening. 

Victoria Poghosyan,  Deputy Minister of High -Tech Industry Ministry of the Republic of Armenia joined the event with her speech underlining the irreplacable role of women IT  in Armenia and encouraged young girls and women to participate in IT integration processes.

 Executive Director at UEICT (Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies)Eduard Musayelyan,  spoke about women’s involvement statistics in IT in different countries and indicated that it makes 40% in Armenia. 

50 semi-finalist teams of Technovation Girls, Armenia 2021 with 300 mentors and schoolgirls from all marzed of Armenia participated in the event too. With the help of organisers; Ani Manukyan, Ruzan Stepanyan and moderators; Narek Mamikonyan and Tamara Hovhannisyan the teams presented their ideas for mobile applications that developed in the frame of Technovation Girls, Armenia 2021. 

Technovation Girls, Armenia 2021 is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Girls in ICT Day celebrated was crowned with announcement of the winners based on the results of the "Best Video Report" and "Best Photo" contests, organized within the framework of the "Technovation Girls Armenia"2021 program.

2022

Girls in ICT International Day Online Celebration

28 April 2022, Armenia

Girls in ICT International Day celebration is an ITU (International Telecommunication Union) initiation, which is a global movement to encourage and empower young girls and women to integrate into ICT and become, change agents.

This international day is celebrated in the fourth month, fourth week and fourth day every year. 

Since 2012, Women and Information Society NGO has been the initiator of Girls in ICT celebration in Armenia. Every year high officials in ICT from Armenia and abroad, role models, experts and guests  participation in the celebration. April 28, 2022 Girls in ICT Day was officially celebrated in Armenia in an online format. 2022 theme/slogan was;

Access and Safety.

More than 400 schoolgirls and mentors, from different regions of Armenia, from  remote and border villages, took part in the celebration.

The event was organized by Women and Information Society NGO.

The Video message of Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, BDT, ITU officially opened the event.

Women and Information society NGO head Narine Abazian made an opening speech. 

Distinguished guests took part in the event: Razmik Panossian, the Director of the Department of Armenian Communities for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Eduard Musayelyan, Executive Director at Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies. The guests greeted and wished great success to the schoolgirls and mentors.

The guests and organizers stressed the importance of the theme of the day and the opportunity for the participation of schoolgirls from remote areas, as well as stressed the importance for the active participation of girls and women in building a strong and safe information society.

67 semi-finalist teams of schoolgirls with the help of organizers; Ani Manukyan, Ruzan Stepanyan and moderators; Narek Mamikonyan and Tamara Hovhannisyan, presented their ideas for mobile applications and Artificial Intelligence Prototypes, that they had developed in the frame of Technovation Girls, Armenia 2022. 

Technovation Girls, Armenia 2022 is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r-g3T-L8onayzWc6sHQLY69oGaj1onJg/view?usp=sharing

https://www.itu.int/net4/ITU-D/CDS/gq/GICT2022/display.asp?ProjectID=1374&Quest=61047