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Women educated in open source

By Bontle Moeng, ITWeb trainee journalist
Johannesburg, 29 Aug 2005
LinuxChix Africa, a non-governmental organisation for women in open source, aims to promote awareness and use of free and open source software (FOSS) at a Software Freedom Day celebration on 10 September.

The event, to be held at Wits University, Senate House, East Campus between 9am and 4pm, will host activities including a play (Imagine a future without Linux), FOSS poetry reading and dancing. FOSS will be distributed at the event.

Anna Badimo, a computer science graduate student at Wits University and Dorcas Muthoni of the Kenya Education Network founded LinuxChix Africa in February. It has 60 members across the continent.

LinuxChix`s objective is to work in partnership with existing organisations to build capacity for women by organising skills training workshops in FOSS and Linux across the continent.

"We are expecting about 250 people to attend the software freedom day celebration. The event is important, as the percentage of women software developers on the continent and in the rest of the world is small," says Badimo.

"During the Software Freedom Day celebration, LinuxChix Africa will get an opportunity to publicise FOSS and get more women involved with organisations in the open source arena. We will also show business people how to modify, adapt and improve the software to suit their business needs.

"The event will be attended by government officials, business people, university and high school students," she says.

Similar LinuxChix Africa events have been planned for Kenya, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, says Badimo.

For more information, contact Anna Badimo at (011) 717-6197.

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