Uganda: The Gender-Tech Initiative
Empower women, young girls and human rights defenders with skills to thwart online censorship, promote research, and mitigate threats of digital attacks and online harassment in Uganda
Project description
The Gender-Tech Initiative Uganda is an organization that started in 2015. We drew our inspiration from Rita, a female journalist who had to leave the profession because of cyber harassment. Her situation was so bad that she even contemplated suicide. Rita's story suggested the value of an umbrella organization that could offer cyber safety awareness training. The Gender-Tech Initiative Uganda was formalized in 2016 and is currently registered as a Not for profit Organization in Uganda.
We are a holistic and gender-focused organization that aims to empower women, young girls and human rights defenders with skills to thwart online censorship, promote research, offer digital safety trainings and awareness to mitigate threats of digital attacks and protect them from online harassment.
The Gender-Tech Initiative Uganda envisions a society where female journalists, school girls and other human rights defenders can have a safe online space without fear of being trolled or bullied or harassed online.
Our core values are: Be Secure, Be committed, Be innovative, Be of integrity and loyalty.
The Gender-Tech Initiative-Uganda was established to:
- Empower Human rights Defenders and make sure they have an up-to-date know-how on how to recognize and mitigate a cyber-threat.
- Identify and eliminate cyber threats by strengthening the most vulnerable link in the chain.
To keep the Gender-Tech Initiative Uganda in line with its mission and objectives, we have been holding dialogues on digital safety with many journalists and university students to awaken the online safety skills in them now that almost everything has moved online. We do this with our partner organizations, institution and other actors whose activities are in-line with what we do.
Project outcome
Current needs:
- Curating and developing content for Blog post and Social media branding.
- Research
- Fundraising/Grant proposal writing.
- Website configuration.
- Other ideas that can help the organization grow.
Ongoing Projects:
- Monthly Digital security Dialogues with Students, journalists and partners.
- Monthly Tweet-chat on Digital safety.
Project details
| Length of commitment | About a semester (3-5 months) |
| Start time | Any time |
| Level of collaboration | Individual student project |
| Benefits | Academic Credit, Volunteer |
| Eligibility | All undergraduate students |
Core partners
- Ruth Atim, Executive Director, The Gender Initiative-Uganda
Project mentor
Mara Huber
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning; Director, Experiential Learning Network
Start the project
To apply for one of the limited spaces, send an interest email to ubeln@buffalo.edu with the following information and one of our staff will respond with more information via email :
- Share relevant background information about yourself and why you are interested in a global project.
- Review the list of current global partnerships, list the three you are most interested in working with and explain why for each.
- Explain what you hope to contribute to and gain from a global project.
Note that global partners rely on the contributions associated with ELN student projects and commit their limited time and resources to working with students. Accordingly, different projects will require varying amounts of time and strong commitment and follow through.
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
- Examine the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the history of the framework. Then select one SDG to focus on as you work through your project.
- Download and complete this PowerPoint template.