 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Hello and welcome to Youth in Action. I am Yangweso Grenes. In today's program we have Bella Oyecho as software developer at Lake Hub Kisumu. Bella, Karim Boussana. Thank you Sarah. Tell us who you are and what it is that you do. So I am a software developer at Lake Hub. So for me the target area for my software development is web development and system development. So necessarily when we talk about system we are talking about the software that you see in supermarkets, in schools, in hospitals. So yes, that's what I do. And I can say I am a community person. I like to see my community grow so I participate in community activities that will ensure or will try to ensure that there is growth and there is change in the community. Interesting. There is an assumption that a little percentage of women are actual software developers in Kenya. Is there some truth to that? There is some truth but I can also say it's false. In that as of right now the spaces that I am in I can see a lot of female software developers but I can also say it is true that they are not there because we are still trying to encourage that the number is balanced. The male and female ratio is the same. So as much as we are still trying to encourage more female software developers or more female in tech, the number is still not yet at an equivalent. And why do you think that is? I think because tech has always been a male-dominant industry, most people don't know about the first line of code was written by a woman. So you see in tech we are the ones that are supposed to be dominating not the other way around. So the campaign of ensuring that there are more female developers I think we will get to a point where it is an equivalent ratio. And so what can you say has brought you this far as a female software developer? I think for one I can say it's being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people because personally I'd say well personally it is true that I wasn't going to do tech as a career. I was going to do engineering but then there was some a little change that pushed me towards the direction of tech and right now I'd say I'd never go back to it. My mom always say it's the same thing yet when you introduce yourself it's still engineering but these other side is software engineering but I find the passion in tech that I have I don't think necessary and have it as the same as if I did civil engineering. So I'd say it's the circumstances and the background works of God or if you believe in a supreme being. So the different shift in things that push me towards that direction and say are the contributing factors to what I'm doing today or what I'm passionate about today. And just to mention would your advice a young lady to join what you're doing? Yes, come the and join software engineering is the best thing you'll ever do. You don't necessarily in all careers you won't say you build something from scratch and in software we build things from scratch and you see your work. Not necessarily you can't touch them if you're doing coding but you can't see, you can't see the progress, you can't see that. I built this nav bar, I built this menu bar, I built so you see the fulfillment and the joy of actually finishing a project. Ah, nice. Interesting. So let's talk about Technovation Kenya. What is that and what does it do? Technovation actually is a project. It's a global project where girls are educated in software development. So it takes a period of three months and these three months we target high school girls. They build a project that is trying to solve a solution of a problem that is in their society. So let's say if you see a problem in health how can you get tech to fix that problem in health? Same to education and same. So for the Technovation we say we are trying to put our hands in each and every sector because we can't see that necessarily a target area we're doing is this. So whatever the innovation that you have and you can build it in tech is accepted. So the period of three months you get to be taught and not taught but guided by a mentor. So the purpose of the mentor is to help you with areas that you feel that you're having a problem with. So if you don't know how to build a business model, the mentor is supposed to help you with the business model. So per se it is global so it is not just in Kenya. So when you get to advance or when your project is selected after the three months you go to Silicon Valley and who is in tech doesn't want to go to Silicon Valley. Interesting. So what happens in these three months? Do you do trainings? Do you have maybe workshops that you go to or you attend or you facilitate or how does it happen? So as the students that are selected by the school you select five students. So it's only five students that are selected per school. So per team it has to be five. After selecting the five students you get to meet your mentor and you talk about the problem that are in your community and the ones that you like to solve. So for the one that you did the one that I helped or the one that I mentored this year we were targeting health. We are they not we necessarily because it's their project I'm just a helping hand. They are trying to ensure that the response time of in health. So like when there's accidents when there's when you go to a hospital the response time or the time that you get assistance is shorter than the one that you have currently. So we don't attend conferences it's just where you sit in class you brainstorm on your project you build the project you create a business plan you have we do pictures you get to pitch your idea so the pitch is recorded so the entire thing is submitted after the end of three months and it is judged. Okay and I'm curious to know are there partners or what kind of partners do you have at Technovation Kenya to help have these business plans and these different aspects of your project? So for Technovation Kenya the partners that are there is Safarkom and Lehub. So Lehub helps in scouting the schools and selecting or helping with selection of mentors and Safarkom has assist in bundles and transportation reimbursement yes. And is there a criteria to select the schools and the mentors? The criteria is present girls. Just present girls girls that are interested in tech and are ready to work that's it. And what about the mentors? The mentors so you see with Lehub having to select the mentors we want to ensure that the people that we are taking over there have the necessary skills and are committed so it's something that's it. What impact does mentoring these girls have on in the society? You see how people are only saying that the youth are the future the youth are the future literally the youth are the future and we as well if I now say that I'm not the youth but as elder youths we have but if you compare me and the girls that we mentor I'm slightly older slightly advanced in maybe like career-wise or something so it's up to us to ensure that the ones that are coming after us are equipped and ready for when they get to a point where we are right now. So it's a continuous cycle of the one that is older than me helps me get to where they are the one that is younger than me I help them get to where we are. So it's economic cycle eco-cycle sales sorry where we have to ensure that the people that are coming after us are ready and have the right resources be it career-wise be it physically be it mentally they are ready to be to a point where they'll need it they will be needed to be there. And are there any challenges that you encounter while undertaking such programs? Yes there are challenges because you'll find that necessarily when you pitch the idea of tech to someone who is a senior citizen they'll want to know if it's not the thing that they learnt in computer packages during that time will be like what are you going to do they don't necessarily see it as a good career let's say that. So when you have to explain they won't be they'll be like not really I don't see how you're going to make money. So that's a challenge where you don't necessarily get support from senior parents that's actually one of the problems we had when I was being a mentor at Lyons. So when you're telling your parents I'm going to stay behind I'm going to come home later than usual because I'm staying to be mentored in something being mentored in tech and necessarily you can't say the tech I'm trying to solve a problem they'll be like why don't you solve the problems you have at home right now. So you see that are one of the they are one of the challenges that you experience it and necessarily that the generation right now and maybe generation alpha to come will be tech savvy it means that the generation that came before us we have to explain certain things. So imagine right now you explaining to maybe your grandparent what bitcoin is how will you start. So yeah the understanding of necessarily what is tech and how tech can be a career is a challenge and a conversation that is different to have with someone who is a senior. And so how do you assist the community to adapt to the rampant changes in technology or the advancement of technology through your mentorship program. We get them involved we explain what it is what it entails the benefits and not necessarily the benefit of Lyons Silicon Valley but if the problem that these young girls are trying to solve actually work it's not just going to benefit these five girls it's going to benefit you it's going to benefit your neighbor it's going to benefit your friend from another county. So yeah okay and so at a local level we're speaking about the lake region you know yeah at a local level has this program produced much fruit and what fruits are those. So for tech innovation actually or one year I think it's like in 2018 yeah the winners actually came from Kenya came from small girls and they flew to Silicon Valley and the projects that they are doing actually has is really working because they were targeting FGM so we can say the project actually works the project give you the resources that you need to ensure that your project works and you're given the support and you're given the necessary skills and you get to network so yes it has produced much fruit. Okay and let's talk about FAMINICA you are part of the founding members of FAMINICA so what is the what is FAMINICA to begin with and what is the inspiration to start that. So FAMINICA is something that we call is targeting agriculture so that is agriculture and technology. So for these two being my passion this is like ah this is like my baby yeah because for FAMINICA what we are doing is we are trying to ensure that the resources that are in agriculture are maximized especially for those who offer agricultural services we are trying to ensure that they get jobs they get opportunity to practice and for farmers they get the services that it's not as easily acquired as it is right now through tech and so how do you ensure that these farmers have are connected to local labor forces and also agricultural consultants. Through the mobile application so necessarily that is the founding purpose of the application to connect person A that is the farmer and the consultant or the person offering the agricultural services. Now when we're talking about agricultural services we are not talking about Dr. Rewa Kuku we are talking about even the labor force we are talking about the person who has the tractor but doesn't necessarily have the farms so we are trying to connect these person A and person B the skills and the farmer themselves together. And do you have a working base to help select farmers or it's a general thing that you're going to do with all farmers. So being that agriculture is a passion for the three of us the three founding members we feel like we already have the farmers we have already selected the farmers that we want to do the better testing with yeah so the farmers that we have selected we are going to target three major areas that is poultry and that is maize and that is leafy vegetables. So personally we already have the farmers and we've tried to get the experts on board or the people that are going to offer the services but it's going to be a challenge because they feel that agriculture hasn't been practiced using tech so it's it is a process that we've already accumulated some but you feel like we can still add the numbers and we're adding the numbers especially right now that we are looking forward to a better testing. And why these three parts poultry you said poultry and poultry leafy vegetables and maize yeah so why the specific ones look at western region in Kenya those are the sectors that necessarily we are doing we can't say we are going to do what is it cotton because in western Africa we're not doing cotton the project as of right now for the better testing we have to select the three sectors as a starting board let's see how it works but our major focus our end goal or the plan that we have when you see it in five ten years is that we have all the different sectors and we are accommodating all the different sectors but for right now for the purpose of the better testing we are trying to target three because our target area is western region. Okay and so what benefits do you feel that your project will help in the society and also with the food security problem in actually across Africa? So when we pitch our project our target areas is zero hunger no poverty we are trying to ensure that food security is there because if you look at the aspect of the project itself where we're connecting the farmer and this person that is going to offer the services there's going to be an increase in food production an increase in food production is actually the growth of a country because that especially in Kenya where that is one of the biggest sectors that we have is when we increase food security we are increasing the growth of our country because we'll increase exports we'll increase we'll have food so yeah from what i'm understanding you're you're taking on food security at a personal level yeah do you intend on working with the the government or different stakeholders on this yes actually one of our target stakeholders is the county government and the government at large when we are going to other counties and other areas and one of our actual other is the people who are in private sectors that are in agriculture and people that are passionate about agriculture itself because the farmer is the person who is passionate in agriculture so our stakeholders is anyone who has the passion and the resources to be in agriculture and participate in agriculture interesting and in agriculture there are certain natural phenomenas that affect you know farming food production etc like climate change yes how do you intend to work around such things like maybe floods especially in the western region yeah and food scarcity the serals or the seeds you know by encouraging something that is called climate smart agriculture by just encouraging all the farmers to participate in smart climate smart agriculture with that we are targeting all the phenomenas that they are the drought the farming the insect infestation so yeah wow seeing that you're an let me say an expert in finding solutions to problems as a young person you've been in the field for quite some time what can you tell another young person who's seeking to find different solutions to different problems yeah for one all your solution won't actually impact yeah so don't go there with one project and feel like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg it takes time especially when you are in a place of creativity and innovation the thing that you come up let's say it's this box when you are by the end of like maybe three months it won't be a box it will be a circle so don't necessarily go there with a fixed mind and be in places where it will encourage your creativity and innovation find places where you have somebody who will challenge you yeah so when someone asks you how does it work don't feel offended like you should know how this thing works just explain and explain and explain I was telling my students in Kisimo girls that when you're pitching a product or when you're pitching your project it's like you're flirting with these investors yeah you have to find a way how to sync with them yeah tell them let them see your point of view because necessarily if they don't see your point of view why would I waste my money on you so find places that are encouraging your innovation and your creativity places note that you're not comfortable with the more uncomfortable you are the better and I'm not talking about the uncomfortability of sasa they don't accept you as a person I'm talking of uncomfortability where you have to be a continuous working speed continuous working speed so yes wow so what is the vision behind Bella or each one where do we see you in the next maybe five years ten years in the next five years ten years let's go with five yeah uh I'd like for for me to not just only be in Kenya I want us to by five years I want us to be stretching out now to eastern Africa let's go to Uganda let's go to Tanzania yeah I'd want to be as of right now I can say I'm comfortable in software development but I'd like to have better by skills uh I'd like to have impacted all my community growth one way or the other yeah let's say I've mentored like 20 girls I've mentored a hundred and I have helped in building up their careers uh five years let's see I mean a good house and a good country typical youth mentality yeah I'd like to have expanded my networks yeah in my career networks I'd like to have expanded I'd like to have made good friends better friends I've expanded my friendship so yeah I seek to be your friend oh you have many friends so thank you so much Bella I appreciate your time coming and the information you've given is quite you know thought-provoking and I hope my audience you have heard that whatever you feel you need to innovate whatever problem you need to solve go ahead do it find yourself in positions where you're not comfortable comfort zone is the killer you know to success so go for it do it and uh as always success is just behind that door this has been youth in action I am Nyongwesa Grenis see you next time this is the way to do it this is the way to do it this is the way to do it