Tech Needs Girls, the Planet Needs Them More

Children and women are affected by climate change the most; technology transfer will help solve the crisis.

Somewhere in July this year, I received an invitation from my friend Regina Agyare; it wasn’t for a birthday party or a graduation ceremony. Regina is a world class Ghanaian software developer and the CEO of Soronko Solutions, a software developing company in Ghana. Soronko had started a project called ‘Tech Needs Girls’, a movement that is inspiring, empowering and training girls in communities in technology.

My task according to the invitation was to visit one of her Tech Needs Girls hub in Maamobi, a community in Accra, to talk to the girls about the environment. I had heard about these girls, some of whom were from very difficult backgrounds, but have broken many social barriers and already started coding under the tutelage of the Soronko team. I wasn’t particularly flattered by the invitation; I was humbled. Regina was connecting the dots. Children and women are affected by climate change the most; technology transfer will help solve the crisis.

But where do I start the conversation with these girls about the environment? Do I just talk about sanitation and proper waste disposal and leave, or do I paint them the bigger picture- climate change? Should I break down Julia Butterfly Hill’s powerful message on Disposability Consciousness into the simplest terms? How do I even tell them about the climate crisis? More than half of these girls are barely 15yrs; how would they come to terms with the reality? Would they believe me at all? These were questions that vibrated within my head as I made my way to the learning and training hub that afternoon.

When a team member from Soronko picked me up half way in a cab and we exchanged plesantaries, I got an inspiring assurance, “the girls are going to be happy to see you, they are really amazing”. Surely they were, and by then I had decided in my head to tell the story as it is.

I will tell them about the climate reality, the reality they must know now, the reality about the future created for them by past and present generations driven by greed, profit and insatiable economic injustice. “We’ve knocked back the ‘good’ times - the greed times – and now we are lurching about like drunkards trying to pretend we just need a cup of coffee and then we will be fine to drive”.

Then again I should be careful not to paint a picture of gloom, panic and despair. Our Chairman, Al Gore, admonishes all Climate Reality Leaders to present a message of faith in our generation to solve the crisis and hope for the future. I now know where to start. I won’t only tell the girls about switching their bulbs off when not in use, harvesting rain water or even avoiding wastage of water when they brush their teeth. 

I will also tell them about the sun, the light it gifts and how technology can harness that light to give electricity in their homes. I will tell them that is what will save the planet and will safeguard their technology-driven future.  Tech needs girls but the planet also needs them.

I had an awesome hour with the girls. The sunrays from the windows washed across my face as I attempted to explain solar energy. And when I was asked a question by one of the girls during the Q&A section about where else our electricity in our homes come from, I knew we had made progress.
I left the hub with a short message for the girls, “tech needs girls, but the planet needs you more”.