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5 Kenyan girls fly to Google HQ after inventing app to end FGM
Animated chatter spills out from a corner of tech giant
Google's Nairobi offices as five Kenyan schoolgirls
discuss their upcoming trip to California where they
hope to win $15,000 for I-cut, an app to end Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM). "We were very close, but after she was cut she never came back
to school," said Purity Achieng, describing a classmate who
underwent FGM. "She was among the smartest girls I knew."
The five Kenyan girls are Stacy Owino, Cynthia Otieno,
Purity Achieng, Macrine Atineo and Ivy Akinyi. Its simple interface has five buttons — help, rescue,
report, information on FGM, donate and feedback —
offering users different services.
The teenagers, aged 15 to 17, are the only Africans
selected to take part in this year's international
Technovation competition, where girls develop mobile
apps to end problems in their communities.
"FGM is a big problem affecting girls worldwide and it is a
problem we want to solve," Stacy Owino told the Reuters,
while snacking on chocolate on a break from boarding
school before flying to the United States on Aug. 6.
"This whole experience will change our lives. Whether
we win or not, our perspective of the world and the
possibilities it has will change for the better."
I-cut connects girls at risk of FGM with rescue centers and
gives legal and medical help to those who have been cut.
Kenya is one of the most technologically advanced
countries in Africa, known for its pioneering mobile
money transfer apps.
Technovation, which is sponsored by Google, Verizon
and the United Nations, aims to teach girls the skills
they need to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders.
"We just have to use this opportunity as a stepping
stone to the next level," said schoolgirl Ivy Akinyi who
plans to become a computer programmer.
The five girls from Kenya's western city of Kisumu
call themselves the "Restorers" because they want to
"restore hope to hopeless girls," said Synthia Otieno,
one of the team.
One in four Kenyan women and girls have undergone
FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of the
external genitalia, even though it is illegal in the East
African nation.
Although the girls' Luo community does not practice
FGM, they have friends who have been cut.
End Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM) Resource Handbook
Published
For a copy and more details,
contact Valentine Nkoyo
CEO Mojatu Foundation on
01157846668
01157846666 Ext 302
Mobile 07794372214
email: [email protected]
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