In Conversation with Trevor: ‘Girls cannot be what they cannot see’

Zimbabwe needs more female role models to encourage young girls to take up stem subjects to address the problem of the low number of women taking up science-inclined jobs, says a leading information technology professional and gender advocate Girls In Stem Trust founder and executive directorVictoria Nxumalo (VN)told Alpha Media Holdings chairmanTrevor Ncube (TN)on the platform In Conversation with Trevor that girls cannot be what they cannot see Nxumalo is also founder and training director of Digital Learning Centre and technical innovation director for The Bulawayo Tech Hub Below are excerpts from the interview

TN: Victoria Vicky Nxumalo, welcome to In Conversation With Trevor VN:Thank you so much for having me Trevor, it is such an honour to be here TN: It is an honour to us because you have had to fly from Bulawayo to come and spend time with us, so we do not take that for granted Vicky, thank you VN:Siyabonga Trevor, thank you

TN: Fantastic So, Vicky, you are the founder and executive director of Girls In Stem Trust You are founder and training director of Digital Learning Centre You are the technical innovation director for The Bulawayo Tech Hub

That is huge, I mean there are lots of responsibilities there, how do you divide your time between these responsibilities that you have VN:Work-life balance Trevor, really important, and the journey of how all this happened really was not intentional, so there is always a story behind the story VN:Girls in Stem Trust has probably existed for about 15 years, for as long as I have been an information technology professional, but on paper it has existed for five years So, I found myself gravitating towards always wanting to put myself in spaces where technology is being discussed, and as time goes you begin to realise there are very few that look like you, and I mean women right?

Source: The Standard Zimbabwe