 Welcome to Facebook Live on Girls in ICT Day. Girls in ICT Day is an international day to inspire girls to learn more about information and communication technology's ICTs. We are here at the International Telecommunication Union headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to celebrate this special day with around 150 girls who are ready to discover more about science, technology, engineering and maths. This is one of just thousands of events taking place around the world. There are girls in Thailand and Tanzania and from the Caribbean to Canada. All learning digital skills and technical tools to use technology in their lives and in their future careers. So let's find out what it's all about. This is the Girls in ICT Fair. We have over 10 different workshops on fun and cool ways to innovate with technology. We have robotic programming and video games, Lego robots and virtual reality simulations and 3D printing. Let's see what's going on here. We're here at Discover ITU through Lego Mindstorms. Hi there. Could you introduce yourself and tell us about some of the technology we see here on display? Thank you. I'm Hanna Nathiri. I'm an engineer here in the ITU in the radio communications sector. We are here today to show the girls how to program these fantastic robots and how to have fun to program robots. We have software here in the PC and we transfer this to the robot. And then we do some demonstration. Do you want me to show you? Yeah, sure. Please. We make these robots dancing. Let's see how to do it. For example. Yeah. We're doing some steps there. And in general, they love this program. That's great. And can you tell us what inspired you to start a career in tech? I like this career because we have a lot of fun, of course, and we have a lot of creativity. And I really encourage girls to pursue a career in technology and what we want them also to experiment and to see that they have analysis, programming and also creativity when they are doing some workshop with us. That's really cool. And finally, what advice do you have for girls watching at home? How can they learn more? To learn, they should come to our workshop, for example, to our event here in ITU and join the movement Girls in ICT Day. And also, we organize some local workshops here in Geneva and they should experiment. It's important and I'm sure they will enjoy it and we will consider career in technology. Thank you very much. And now, let's see what's going on over here. Could you tell us what's going on here? Yeah, we are just trying virtual reality. So they are trying to make a job simulation. So they are in the office and actually they are just changing numbers for both benefits. And on this side, we have a 3D printing. And what's it printing right now? So it's printing kind of a carabinary like this. So yeah, that's something you can attach your key or some stuff like that. How does it work? Yeah, it works like it's a thermoplastic based and we are making some layers with different thermoplastic, melted thermoplastic. And layer by layer, we are building a part. This part is issued from a 3D model. Thank you very much. Now I would like to introduce you to one of the organizers of this event. Can you tell us a bit more about Girls in ICT Day events that are going on here in Geneva and around the world? Sure. Today's event here in Geneva is just one of thousands of events that's taking place all over the world. I was looking at the Twitter feed for hashtag Girls in ICT this morning. There were events starting in the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea yesterday. Countries in the Americas region in Ecuador and Peru and Argentina have all been tweeting about their events as well. So there are so many events going on and we know that there are four new countries who have joined this global campaign this year, which we're really happy about. That's incredible. And what's your hope for this event? My hope for this event, for all events around the world, is that events like this will inspire girls and give them the confidence that they need to take up ICT studies and careers. And I also just wanted to give a shout out to all of our organizers around the world and thank them very much for all of their efforts. And what is your message for girls who are watching this at home? Well I'm going to paraphrase. We just took two of the girls to the ITU council, which is our governing body, and they shared a little bit about their experience here today. And then many different delegates took the floor to make a comment or ask them a question. And I'm just going to paraphrase the board member from Afghanistan, who's I think the only woman of the board member there. And basically she said, you know, yes you can, yes you can, yes you can. And I think if you look around here we do see girls practicing and learning their digital skills. Thank you very much. Thanks. Now are you ready to meet some leading women in tech? Get your questions ready because we're going upstairs to the speed mentoring. Well we'll be asking your questions to mentors from ITU, CERN, UNITAR, UNOSTAT and more. Follow me. Here are some quick facts for you. In Europe only one in six ICT students are girls and that's just 16%. In Silicon Valley only 11% of managers are women. But there is some good news. Over 74% of girls express interest in STEM and computer science. ICT jobs are some of the most in demand in high paying jobs. And we know that mentoring and women role models help girls find their way into ICT. Let's meet some of them now. Thank you. Long walk. So it's a big room over here and they have got speed mentoring going on. And so we're going to be asking them some questions. So this is where the girls have a chance to ask questions to professional women in the field about their hopes and dreams and how to launch a career in ICT. Plus any other burning questions about the technology industry. So I would like to introduce, hi there. So could you please just tell us what have you been discussing today at Girls in ICT Day? We have been discussing or me personally how you can use satellite imagery and geographic information for humanitarian crisis. Thank you. Now let's turn to our live audience with some of their questions live. Can you tell us about your background and what inspired you to start a career in tech? Actually my background is in geography and in mapping. And I have always loved map as a young girl. I always liked when I got new maps, when I was a tourist somewhere. And then I just, well I like it. And I started to study geography and went on a mapping career in the university. And what's the coolest thing about working with satellites? It's that you can visit almost any place on earth like this in one second. And in a few minutes sometimes we analyze an image that we have just has been collected the same day. And what's the first step that girls can take to learn more about ICTs? The first step they can take. I think it's many ways they can explore this field. I think it's a lot of just speaking to people, visiting different programs and reach out to like try to make some kind of little internship when they get older. But just explore, you know. And what's the hardest part about your job? The hardest part about my job is that it can be very stressful because we're working with humanitarian crisis. But it's also very rewarding that you know that you're helping persons. And also that the satellite imagery can be in various zoom levels or resolutions. So I think making a good product rather fast. Now I have one more question for all of the girls here. What is one word that you use to describe your experience here at Girls in ICT Day? I think that it's very fun. They like encourage us to try new ideas. Exciting and new. Fantastic because we've learned many ways that we can girls can actually access ICT. And I think that's really cool. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. Just wondering what do you think is a big part of Girls in ICT Day? Why should girls be motivated to join technology? Thank you. So I was just mentioning before that the girls I was encouraging them to go to that path because unfortunately right now in most of the organizations there is no lack of gender balance in terms of females and males in these areas. And we need more balanced workforce because each gender contributes in some way. So most of the organizations are really seeking for females qualified candidates. We need them to help this kind of area to be better. So if this is something that they think that they are going to be happy doing it I really really encourage them to do it. And what have you guys learnt today? I think that girls are just as capable as boys in doing things and that they are also very intelligent in this sector and they should be allowed to express their knowledge in different subjects such as ICT. And could you guys describe maybe your experience today in one word? Yeah, the day was really good. I enjoyed it because I'm not really interested in ICT but after coming here I actually changed my mind because it's not that boring but it's good. I find it really empowering seeing so many different women working in different sectors. ICT is very empowering. I think even though ICT in school isn't that interesting but it is a bigger world outside. Thank you very much. So that's it for Facebook Live for Girls in ICT Day. To find out more about events going on around the world visit the website www.girlsinict.org and share your stories using the hashtag, hashtag Girls in ICT and join us year round as we turn Girls in ICT Day into Girls in ICT every day. This is Seraphine Ejectives from Walsh reporting for ITU.