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It was a very interactive session titled 'Bringing More Girls and Women in ICT' on 5th March 2017 at EMK Center. The session was arranged to celebrate the International Women’s Day with country’s leading personnel, women and men. Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) had arranged this session with a vibrant participation from different backgrounds of students, entrepreneurs, would-be entrepreneurs and service holders.

The program was started at 5:30pm and continues for next 2 hours. The aim of the session was to encourage girls and women to increase their active involvement in ICT sectors. It was designed a regular motivational program under #missingdaughter initiative of the organization.

Sharmin Kabir, Research Associate & Program Officer of BdOSN started the seminar with an introductory presentation on #missingdaughter where she shared the reasons of taking such initiative, the events and activities taken, struggles and achievements so far with a plan designed for future. She said that ‘we have been learning every day throughout the last 1.5 year journey of #missingdaughter and shaping the program better for the future.’

Lafifa Jamal, Chairperson of Department of Robotics & Mechatronics Engineering,University of Dhaka-RMEDU moderated the session. She also is the vice-president of BdOSN. Her sharing came out with the struggles she has been experiencing to encourage the girls and women in ICT sector. 

There was a pool of panelists including; Farhana A Rahman, Vice-President of BASIS, Senior Vice-President of BASIS, Munir Hasan, General Secretary of BdOSN, Farhana Nazneen, CEO of Jereve Consultant, Nasima Akter Nisha, Director of Corporate Affairs and Achia Nila, Founder of Women in Digital.

Throughout their discussion, they share their personal, professional and moral stories to inspire the participants to be in the ICT.

The participants did enjoy the session. They also spontaneously were sharing their queries, questions and thoughts and asking for suggestion in different topic. The most interesting part was the young participants' eagerness to continue the session even the time crossed its point.

Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN); a non-profit organization is working relentlessly to promote science and technology among the girls in Bangladesh. BdOSN has been organizing seminars, workshops, programming contest, boot camp, code sprint etc. throughout the country to popularize the technology among girls and female and engage them in the field of ICT. This time, they have organized “BdOSN Career Talk-Career in ICT for Women in Bangladesh” at Rajshahi University Central Library in association with Rajshahi University Central Library on February27^th, 2017. A total number of 50 participants spontaneously participated in the seminar. One of the participants named Sadia Kabir Dina shared that 'this session had increased the level of her confidence significantly'. Another participant named Nusrat Jahan Nipa happily shared that 'the whole session was very inspiring. Attending this session motivated her to chase her own dream'.

The objective of the seminar was to inspire the girls in Rajshahi to choose ICT or related sector as their career. Professor ShafiqunnabeeSamadi, Director of Central Library, Rajshahi University inaugurated the event with his introductory speech.Professor Md.  Khademul Islam Molla, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Director of ICT Center, University of Rajshahi attended the seminar as the chief guest and keynote speaker. Among other speakers, Mr.  Zaved Parvez, Vice President, HR, RobiAxiata Limited& Founder President of Dreams for Tomorrow; Shaikh Jannatul Moushumy, Admin & HR Executive, raj IT Solutions Ltd and Mohammad Harun Or Rashid, Lecturer, Department of Humanities, RUET were present in the event.The whole program was coordinated and moderated by Kaniz Fatema, Head of Data & VAS, Rajshahi Circle, Grameenphone Limited and Coordinator, Girls in ICT of BdOSN.

The 3 days long programming camp in Asian University for Women has drawn its curtain successfully yesterday, on 25th Febryary. A total number of 32 female students participated in the camp from different university in Chittagong. The university arranged this program with the coordination of Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) and Chittagong Open Source Network (COSN).

The participants shared that the evnet was significant for them. They happily shared that they had got an insight of any programming camp from this arrangement and the topic discussed in these 3 days were very helpful for them. 

The organizers are satisfied with the vibrant participation of the women. They shared that #missingdaughter, the initiative of bringing more girls in ICT has been achieving its goal day by day. The initiative startedin the last year and has already got a huge appreciation from the people around. 

The General Secretary of BdOSN Munir Hasan was present in the closing session and in the certificate giving celermony along with some other distinugushed guests. 

To popularize computer programming among the young students in Bangladesh and enhance their skills and prepare them for a competitive programming contest, Premier University, Chittagong has organized a 2 day-long ‘Programming Bootcamp’ on 23-25 February 2017. A total number of 36 students from 6 universities located in Chittagong are participating in the bootcamp.

The university is also going to organize a day-long workshop for the candidates interested to participate in the coming NCPC on 24^th February.

At the same time, Asian University of Woman has also started ‘Grace Hopper Girls Programming Contest’ on 23^rd of February on their premise. The programming contest will be continued till 25^th of February. 32 female students from different universities in Chittagong have taken part in it. 

The programs are being jointly initiated by Bangladesh Open Source Network and Chittagong Open Source Network (COSN).

Mr. Arafater Rahman, the coordinator of the programs shares, ‘The girls in Chittagong are comparatively lagging behind in computer programming competition. To enhance their skills in programming, we have been organizing this year long program under #missingdaugher.’

Sharmin Kabir, the Program officer of BdOSN says, ‘It is true that the number of female students studying CS related subjects are increasing in our country but their participation in the programming contest are not going with the same pace. To make these students interested in competition and improve their skill, we have taken #missingdaughter initiative in the last year and reaching more and more girls throughout the year long program like Grace Hopper Girls Programming Contest and so on around the country.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is so wide that anything we to is related to it. Even though ICT is most important part nowadays people are working less in it. The worst part comes when we talk about women in Information and Communication technology. There's is a limited number of working sectors in ICT.  Women are another half of a nation. So they need to work in ICT with men. Then the nation can be a digitalized country. Bangladesh Open Source Network organizes a segment called #missingdaugheter. #missingdaughter 's main motive is to make girls interested in ICT and computer programming. There are two programs under #missingdaughter.

1. Grace Hopper Girls Programming Camp.

2. Ada Lovelace Girls Programming Camp.

Bangladesh Open Souce Network is working on bringing the girls in ICT and computer programming so that the country can overcome in ICT.

Chakri Khujbo Na Chakri Debo is an entrepreneur helping platform. Those who want to be an entrepreneur can grab all the information before starting a business. They also can have information after starting the business. Basically, from this platform, anyone will have help becoming an entrepreneur. We also organize boishakhi uddokta hat every year. We also have a facebook group ( চাকরি খুঁজব না চাকরি দেব). We have a big community in the facebook for answering any question related to entrepreneurship. Anyone can join the group and ask any question and also any kind of help.

Link : https://www.facebook.com/groups/uddokta

Chakri Cai is a platform for those who are looking for jobs. It's a facebook group(চাকরি চাই) where the community members post job-related information like job secular, job information, job relation events etc. it's an open group for all. anyone can join and grab all the information shared in the group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/employmentbd/

Bangladesh Open Source Network took a new Initiative idea to make high school and college girls interested in computer programming and information and communication technology (ICT). Ada Lovelace Girls Programming Camp is a 2 day-long event for high school and college girls. Bangladesh Open Source Network is organizing Ada Lovelace girls programming camp continuously from 2016. This is a programming camping where student are taught basics of general knowledge about ICT, C programming and C++ programming language.

Basically, This Program is to motive high school girls to be a programmer and make them more interesting in ICT sector. They are prepared to participate in NHSPC and NGPC.

ICT is a career sector where anyone can do their work anytime. It doesn't require a specific timetable like other career sectors. That's why ICT is the perfect career sector for women. They can manage their family as well as work if they choose ICT as their career because not every ICT job is required to go to the office every working day.

Bangladesh Open Source Network is tremendously working for girls to make interest in ICT. If girls understand all the facilities of working on ICT they will have a choice in it. We are managing so many camps, boot camps, workshops for girls. Grace hopper Girls Programming Camp is one of the programs BdOSN organizes for girls. Basically, This is a program for College and university first-year and second-year students. Grace Hopper Girls Programming Camp is a 3-day long camp and it's being organized all over the Bangladesh from 2016.