On March 8 every year, Rwanda joins the world to celebrate International Women’s Day. This is a day in which the global community comes together to recognize the achievements and role of women in the social economic development of every country. But it is also a day to raise a voice for the voiceless women out there, as well as acknowledging those who promote their empowerment. AOS Ltd, a Rwandan based ICT service provider and operator of the National Data Centre is one of the employers in the country that supports women empowerment in their daily work activities. Most of the female staff occupy senior and managerial positions in this company. For the past three years, 28-year-old Marie Ange Muhimpundu, its Senior Network & Security Engineer, has played a role in building a secure and dedicated network using concrete infrastructure to ensure data security for AOS clients is assured. She commends AOS gender parity efforts, saying: “AOS really considers gender equality during recruitments whenever an opportunity comes up, women are put at the front.” Muhimpundu added that “In the company, you will realize that women and girls are highly considered in every department that make up AOS and supported to achieve their goal through capacity building.” Joy Kankindi Ishimwe, Senior Associate Software Quality Assurance engineer at AOS Ltd. In addition, she says, the company facilitates employees through various training initiatives. She also shares the same insights with her colleague, Placidie Benamahirwe — a Senior Systems Administrator who says; “We have equal opportunities at the workplace irrespective of the gender”. Apart from being a gender equality champion, the local ICT service provider has a good reputation for pushing its employees to always learn more. This allows its employees to register a considerable shift in career development, according to Joy Kankindi Ishimwe, the Senior Associate Software Quality Assurance engineer. “I started working with AOS from scratch, this was an opportunity for me because I learnt from colleagues, and I appreciate the way that the company pushes us to learn,” All AOS employees are mandated to take at least three professional courses per year to upgrade in their career endeavors. Placidie Benamahirwe - Senior Systems Administrator. She considers this as a conducive environment for employees to upgrade their skills and this is very crucial in evolving ICT Sector. According to UNESCO, Global statistics indicate that only 30 per cent of female students selected Science, Technology and Mathematics related filed in higher education while 3 percent of female students are enrolled in ICT, 5 percent in mathematics and 8 percent in engineering courses. The statistics also reflect a low number of female employees in the sector.
