GoGirls ICT Initiative knows that empowering a girl takes more than a classroom. In South Sudan, they're building the whole ecosystem — and the results are already turning heads.
There's a version of digital education that stops at the school gate — skills taught, boxes ticked, and children left to figure out the rest on their own. GoGirls ICT Initiative is building something different. In South Sudan, where girls face some of the steepest barriers to education and opportunity on the continent, GoGirls is working from a foundational belief: that empowering a girl requires the whole community to lean in. Recently, that belief took shape in a room full of parents, teachers, mentors, and students at Juba Day Secondary School — and what happened there was quite significant.
The gathering was part of the Time To Shine ICT mentorship programme, bringing together stakeholders from three participating schools for a day of dialogue, demonstration, and shared commitment. Parents and guardians learned what their daughters would be studying, who would be guiding them, and why digital skills are no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity. Teachers added their voices. Mentors shared their experiences. And in that open, honest exchange, something shifted — clarity replaced uncertainty, and a sense of shared responsibility took hold.
The standout moment of the day came when the mentors took the floor to present apps they had built using MIT App Inventor. Each application was designed to address a real problem in their communities — a reminder that these young women aren't just learning to use technology. They're learning to think with it, to create with it, and to direct it toward the world around them. For the parents in the room watching their daughters present, it was a glimpse of something most hadn't seen before: their girls as innovators.
What GoGirls ICT Initiative understands — and what this gathering made tangible — is that meaningful education requires a strong ecosystem around the learner. A mentor who believes in a girl can change her trajectory. A parent who understands the programme becomes an ally at home. A teacher who is invested strengthens everything inside the classroom. The day concluded with certificates awarded to mentors who completed the Mentorship of Mentors segment, honoring the people who have chosen to pour into the next generation.
The Time To Shine ICT programme is implemented by Generation Connect fellow Grace Gaso in collaboration with GoGirls ICT Initiative, as part of the International Telecommunication Union's Generation Connect Young Leadership Programme, supported by Huawei. It is, at its core, a bet on girls — and on the communities willing to stand behind them.
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