Barbara Mutabazi

I grew up in a very underserved community where many of my friends dropped out of school before university. I was lucky to go to university because I got a government scholarship, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go. After graduating with a computer-related degree, there were no jobs in my country, so rather than sit at home and do nothing, I decided to pass on the skills I had gotten at school. I started teaching basic computer skills to about 7 girls, all dropouts, in my mother's front yard. A key defining moment for my career was when one of the young women I had taught got a job competing against other women and men who had degrees, but none of them had computer skills. Her having these skills was the selling point to this organization that needed someone who could speak English and was good at a computer. I was so fulfilled that without spending any money, just by using my skill, I could help someone change the trajectory of their life. She had no hope before that, and with time she actually went back to school and upgraded. That was the moment I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. I got qualified for a job at one of the big fours, and I remember holding my offer letter and not being happy. My mom asked me what was wrong, and I said I love what I'm doing and I don't want to leave it. The job was going to be really taxing and I wouldn't have any time to continue with the trainings, so I made the ultimate decision not to take the job offer and continue to just train the girls. I did get a tech-related job later on at a software development consultancy, and my boss asked me if I had all the connections and money in the world and he met me 10 or 20 years down the road and I'm really successful, what would I tell him I'm doing. Without too much thought, I said I would be running an organization that is helping more women get into technology, entrepreneurship, and just to flourish and become independent financially. When he hired me, it was on condition that I would go ahead and start that organization, and that's exactly what I did. In the beginning, I would do my trainings in the office on Saturdays and in the evenings until we got our own office. From then, I haven't looked back. It has always been the impact that I see in the young women that have gone on to become software engineers, not even just in Uganda, but a bunch of the girls we have taught have now gone on to Ireland, to Germany and all that. That has really been the pushing force for me - how can we use technology to empower more women across Uganda and East Africa.