Main stream media is unfair with Afghanistan, we also have many inspirational stories
- In Interviews
- 12:56 PM, May 06, 2016
- MyIndMakers
MyInd Interview with Fereshteh Forough
What is your background and what prompted you to start CTI?
I was born as an Afghan refugee in Iran during the Soviet invasion to Afghanistan. I finished my high school there and one year after the fall of Taliban my family and I moved to Herat, Afghanistan where I was able to get my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Later I got my Master’s in Computer Science from Technical University of Berlin in Germany. I was teaching as a professor in Computer Science faculty of Herat University for almost three year.
During my educational journey in Technology I have experienced many challenges as a student and teacher in technology field which led me to establish Code to Inspire on January 2015 as a social enterprise aims to hitch women's economic and social advancement on to Afghanistan's growing tech industry. Courses in coding, access to tech & professional resources, and job placement will enable CTI students to attain employment that is both financially rewarding and socially accessible. In areas where women's travel can be heavily restricted, the ability to work remotely is a key tool in the push for equality. Access to the wealth of the global tech economy enables CTI students to add unique value to their households and their communities, and to challenge the traditional gender roles in Afghanistan with the best argument out there, results.
2. As a refugee, you must have faced many insurmountable hurdles in your own life. Can you talk a little bit about your own personal struggles?
I grew up in a family of eight kids. Living life in a place where they treated you as an unwanted guest was not a pleasant experience, especially if you wanted to access the very first right of a human being which is “education”.
I don’t remember how many times the schools rejected my siblings and I to enroll and sit in the classroom, but I clearly remember how many times my father knocked each office’s door to get the right official document for us to be eligible to attend school and how my mother started to learn stitching to buy notebooks and pencils which enabled me to finish my high school in Iran.
3. How does CTI operate? Can everyone who feels inspired with your vision, participate as sponsors or supporters?
Yes, we definitely welcome any support either financial or volunteer consultations.
CTI is an after-school program. We opened the first coding school for girls in Afghanistan at Herat city on November 2015 where we are currently educating 50 female students aged 15-25 form high school to computer science educational background.
CTI offers different curriculum for students such as coding with HTML, CSS, Java Script and mobile application development using Unity and Java Script frameworks.
Our program is free of charge for female students where we provide a very safe and secure place to come and enjoy learning in a comfortable educational environment.
4. Using Bitcoin instead of western union or PayPal to pay your students was a master stroke. Are there still challenges beyond that?
Yes, there are still some challenges in Afghanistan if you want to get paid by any cryptocurrency. First of all it is a very new concept and challenging to convince people to embrace it as a currency.
Right now there is no exchange support for converting bitcoin to Afghani as at the end of the day people who are getting paid in bitcoin want to be able to cash it out when they want.
Considering spending your bitcoin online by purchasing goods using online shops that accept bitcoin is also challenging. Majority of houses don’t have shipping address so you can’t have what you want to purchase online at your door.
Right now we are at the educational stage of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology to our students and hopefully we will take this to the next level of implementation.
5. CTI is a nonprofit but are there plans to branch out into other opportunities? At some point, CTI may want to go into recruitment and actual software development for companies around the globe?
Yes, this is definitely a long term plan for CTI to be able to do software development and coding works for organizations or companies around the world and outsource projects.
Living in today’s world, the only thing you need is a computer with Internet connection. You can do many works online without the fear of geographical boundaries limitations or women’s mobility issue in countries like Afghanistan that is very limited due to safety and security reason and cultural stereotypes.
6. There could be many countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and in India that may be interested in providing employment opportunities for Afghans (men and women). Are these being explored?
As we just opened our coding school on November so we are still in the educational phase with our female students. This is definitely under our radar to find out possible online freelance works, internships and employments for our students.
7. Where do you see CTI in the next 5 years?
We would like to expand our coding school to other cities in Afghanistan like Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and the other cities to establish a strong network of women in Technology. Every year we will enroll 50 new female students in our coding school to increase the number of women in tech, raise more awareness and decrease the gender gap. Last but not least one of our major mission at CTI is to find future job employment for our students after two year of graduation from our coding school.
8. What keeps you motivated and where do you need support?
Living life as a refugee taught me many lessons. I learned to use the most out of the least and don’t wait for opportunities, but create them. It has been my passion since many years ago to give back to my community by doing something meaningful and I found it by empowering women with education and technology. Unfortunately main stream media is unfair with Afghanistan. You always hear bad news such as bombing, violence and extremists, whereas we also have many good and inspirational stories of people who are bringing positive changes to the community even in a small way.
I would like to ask your readers to be my ambassador and story teller, Share this story with other people and give a good story about Afghanistan and its people.
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