Pass-It-On Awards Program: Spring 2010 Systers Pass-It-On Award Winners
Dorothy T.
Project Title: 
Empowering unprivileged girls to meet the 21st Century challenges in Computer literacy
Project Description:
Dorothy is a mother of five from the town of Bamenda in the Republic of Cameroon, a coastal nation of central and western Africa. Dorothy has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Yaounde and is a jurist. Computer training is very expensive and computer studies are not part of the school curriculum in Cameroon. Furthermore, girls do not receive the same educational opportunities as boys, and consequently, they have few employment opportunities. Dorothy will use the award to fund the tuition for two orphan girls to attend computer courses for six months at a computer training facility and then provide them with a six-month internship at a documentation center owned by a not-for-profit organization. Both girls will be given a computer and printer as compensation for their six-month internship at the documentation center. These girls will pass it on by training at least one underprivileged girl in the future.
Felistus M.
Project Title: 
ICDL Training Fees and purchase of a laptop
Project Description:
Felistus is a young woman from Kawbe, Zambia in southern Africa. The second born of eight children, whose parents are deceased, she is the caregiver for her siblings. Despite these odds, Felistus completed secondary school and a course in basic computing. A resourceful woman, she has used her IT skills to obtain employment with Africonnect Zambia Limited, an Internet Service Provider. Felistus will use the award to fund tuition and the purchase of a laptop for her IT studies in a certificate program, the International Computer Driving Licence training program. She will pass on the knowledge acquired from this IT training program to teach basic computer courses in her former secondary school, an all-girls school, as well as other schools for girls in Kwabe, Zambia. Her IDCL certificate will also enable her to advance her employment and better provide for her family.
Gayatri B.
Project Title: 
Technical Center for underprivileged girls
Project Description:
Gayatri is the founder and Executive Director of FAT: Feminist Approach to Technology, a successful not-for-profit organization in New Dehli, India that is dedicated to empowering women through technology. FAT runs a tech center for underprivileged young women from fifteen to twenty-five years of age. The Techie Girls reporting module is a 3-months educational program that focuses on teaching young women computer and Internet skills by making each girl a community reporter on a particular subject. These girls will conduct video interviews with community members and take photos, which will form the content for the websites they construct. These IT skills will enable them to find good employment. Gayatri will use the award to finance the purchase of new computers for the tech center. It is anticipated that the tech center will continue to provide IT training to underprivileged young women.
Kriti S.
Project Title: 
Tuition and fees toward Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science
Project Description:
Kriti hails from Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. At present, she is a senior undergraduate student in computer science engineering at Arya College of Engineering and IT. Kriti is an exceptional young woman, having already won several prestigious awards in her academic discipline, including, The Google India Women in Engineering Award; the Rajiv Gandhi Science Talent research Fellowship, and a summer research fellowship from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bangalore. She will use her award to pay tuition and other fees for the final year of her undergraduate studies. Kriti has organized educational outreach programs in computing for school children and plans to pass it on by providing a variety of educational outreach programs for school girls and university students in Rajasthan.