Melissa Sariffodeen

Location: Canada

Melissa is the co-founder and CEO of Canada Learning Code, launched in 2011 as Ladies Learning Code to champion digital literacy education, especially for women and young people. They have helped over 600,000 people across the country in 10,500 educational events, and received $8 million in funding from the Canadian government to provide more education in schools. Melissa is a judge of Inspiring Fifty Canada, and was a 2017 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Social Change Award Winner.

You can follow her work here:

Twitter: @melsariffodeen
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melissasariffodeen
Medium: @melsariffodeen
Website: canadalearningcode.ca

Further reading

• Melissa Sariffodeen, Amandah Wood, Ways We Work
• The Kids Will Be Alright (video), TEDx Talks, 18 January 2017
• Inside Canada’s first coding truck, bringing digital literacy to communities across Ontario, Allyson Aritcheta, This Magazine, 20 November 2017
• Leading Ladies: How Melissa Sariffodeen of Ladies Learning Code is leveling the programming field for women, Women of Influence, 21 August 2018
• Melissa Sariffodeen: Blazing a digital literacy trail for girls and women, Nathaniel Neil Whelan, Ingenium, 21 May 2019

Women in Technology Uganda

Location: Uganda

Women in Technology Uganda has created innovation and incubation hubs to enable women to start their own businesses in tech, with 78% of their alumni employed. They have also partnered with a variety of organisations to provide coding clubs and workshops for girls.

You can follow their work here:

Twitter: @wituganda
Facebook: facebook.com/witug
Instagram: @witug
Website: witu.org

Further reading

• Interview of Barbara Birungi, Susan Schneegans and Nicole Webley, A World of Science, April 2013
• Teaching Ugandan Girls to Code to Keep Them in School, Grainne Harrington, The New Humanitarian, 4 May 2017
• Women In Technology Uganda Giving Hope to School Drop Outs, Digest Africa, 8 August 2017
• Preparing Youth for Employment with Women in Technology Uganda, Team4Tech, 9 September 2020

Mónica Feliú-Mójer

Location: Puerto Rico/ United States

Mónica is the Director of Communications and Science Outreach for CienciaPR and Associate Director of Diversity and Communication Training for iBiology, with a background in neurobiology, who works to make science more equitable and inclusive. She was the producer of a series of short films about scientists of colour who have succeeded in science despite their background, Background to Breakthrough, and during Covid-19, has been responsible for leading a network of experts that have produced 70 articles about the disease in the Spanish language.

Twitter: @moefeliu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/monicafeliumojer
ResearchGate: Mónica Feliú-Mójer
Website: monicafeliu.me

Further reading

• With a love of science and stories, Mónica Feliú-Mojer carved out a path with plenty of both, iBiology
• Meet the woman making science culturally relevant in the U.S., Jose Fermoso, HipGive, 9 December 2016
• Rethinking the Narrative of Diversity in Science, Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer, Nina Griffin and Elliot Kirschner, Scientific American, 7 May 2018
• Episode # 42: Science as an instrument of empowerment (podcast, original in Spanish), with Mónica Feliú-Mojer, Torres Gotay Entrevista, 29 January 2019
• Scientist Mónica Feliú-Mójer’s Career is Making Science More Equitable, Inclusive, Emileigh Clare, AAAS, 26 April 2019
• Puerto Ricans Are At Risk From The Coronavirus And A Lack Of Information (podcast), NPR, 7 April 2020

Girlhype

Location: South Africa

Girlhype run coding clubs and ‘technovation’ challenges to train and empower girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes a youth entrepreneurship programme that helps girls develop and code an app to solve a community issue and Mozilla Clubs via a UN Regional Coordinator.

You can follow their work here:

Twitter: @Girlhypecode
Facebook: facebook.com/Girlhypecode
Instagram: @girlhypecode
Website: girlhype.co.za

Further reading

• GirlHype – Empowering women and girls in South Africa, DW 28 October 2017
• Why Baratang Miya of GirlHype believes the future is female, Nazli Allie, MEST, 12 June 2018

Danila Carrijo da Silva Dias

Location: Brazil

Danila studies radon at the Brazilian Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN), is on the Executive Committee of Women in Nuclear Brasil and founded the Brazilian chapter of the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World in 2020. In 2015 she presented her research “Female Contribution in Nuclear Science: Experiences at the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN / LAPOC)” at the 23rd WiN Global Annual Conference: Women in Nuclear Meet Atoms for Peace. This year, she was one of the organisers for the Stand Up For Nuclear initiative.

You can follow her work here:

Twitter: @DanilaDias2
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danilacdias
Website: owsd.net/network/brazil

Further reading

• OWSD National Chapter established in Brazil, OWSD, 18 May 2020
• Brazil will have mobilization for young people to show the benefits of nuclear technology (original in Portugese), Davi de Souza, PetroNotícias, 17 August 2020
• ABC and OWSD sign agreement (original in Portugese), Academia Brasileira de Ciências (ABC) , 26 August 2020