Season’s Greetings from the TechWomen Team at IIE

TechWomen Mentees Participate in Arab Women Summit

Guest post by Mouna Lyoubi

Mouna Lyoubi and Saida Bouhmidi at the Arab Women Summit in Rabat, Morocco

It was an honor to meet incredible and successful women giving from their time and discussing women’s issues in order to improve women’s situation in the world: education, professional careers, social and legal rights… What I appreciated even more was the involvement of men during this Summit who were sharing their opinions and ways to increase the presence of women by demonstrating their importance in our world’s evolution.

I met passionate women such as Mrs. Nezha Mouhafid who is a remarkable Moroccan woman thirsty for challenges and Mrs. Rachel Petero who is the founder and creator of GENVIVA which connects global organizations with genius female talent through fresh, new innovative LIFE WORKING solutions creating gender balance and equality in business and society overall.

Souvenirs Marocaines

Guest post by Heather Ramsey

TechWomen Delegation at the Women in Technology Conference at Technopark, Casablanca

Just about a week ago was our Morocco Delegation’s Farewell Celebration and Henna Party at the Association Solidarité Féminine (ASF), a social enterprise in Casablanca that provides unwed mothers with job skills, employment opportunities in its spa and restaurant, and childcare while they are working. It was a perfect ending to a week of visits to organizations dedicated to the social and economic advancement of underserved women, including one supporting widows, Mouassat in Mohammedia, and several handicraft cooperatives.

The Woman’s Fight

Guest Post by Jody Mahoney

I am travelling through Morocco with the TechWomen delegation. I’ve visited small villages where women are the predominant earners, struggling to find distribution channels for their work. We teach them ecommerce, packaging, marketing, competition. Unable to ask their own product questions—the village men are the voices we most often hear—these women genuinely want to move their products into broader distribution. We describe Etsy, PayPal, eBay, leave materials, links and business cards. But I keep thinking, why can’t they learn to develop iPhone or Droid apps? Teach them
Google’s app builder. The younger women are not afraid.

Turning Dreams into Reality

Guest Post by Fabiola Addamo

“Bonjour, my name is Fabiola, a Techwomen mentor and a Yahoo!” – this is how I have been introducing myself during the latest Techwomen visits at local Moroccan universities, schools and various women entrepreneurial associations. I have been Fabiola since birth, and a Yahoo! employee by choice for the last 4 yrs. In 2011 a persistent inner voice lead me to become a Techwomen mentor.