When was LinuxChix Africa launched?

It was formed in 2004 by African women and for African women. It is a chapter in Africa affiliated to LinuxChix worldwide. The aim of the African chapter is to help toward building the critical mass of Linux skills among African women, and to advocate for the use of Free and Open Source Software for the many community development challenges being faced by Africans, especially African women.

What sorts of challenges do you mean?

The challenges of Africa are well documented, with HIV/AIDS representing the most significant development challenge of our times. Community development can no longer be viewed in isolation but require multi-tiered, cross-sectoral, and well-coordinated approaches that are aligned to Information and Communications Technologies.

What role do you think ICTs can play in development?

Without ICTs, communities get left behind and are unable to take advantage of the social and economic benefits that come with technology. This integration of ICTs into social development programmes is often referred to as eDevelopment, eHealth and eLearning, and represent models of ICT intervention in development, health and education respectively. With the advent of FOSS, it has now become possible to make software available to people who would otherwise not afford it. With FOSS, countries will no longer have to prioritise between poverty and the digital divide.

And the role of women in this?

Furthermore, the ICT sector is still male dominated, more so the Open Source technical environment, so LinuxChix Africa will play a role as a catalyst that will demystify FOSS to the people who stand to benefit the most from it. Since women are the ones mostly affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS, it is relevant that they be properly tooled and positioned to make that difference in their lives.

How can women get involved?

They can contact me, Anna Badimo, a co-Founder of LinuxChix Africa. My e-mail is anna@cs.wits