KOCHI: The fact that the gender gap exists is beyond debate. That’s why tech entrepreneurs Sreepriya Radhakrishnan and Enfa George focused on a no-gender gap when they formed their NGO Pehia Foundation. Initially, what they started was a WhatsApp group for girls who are interested in coding. But this was soon registered as an NGO.
Today, their hard work and dedication were recognised when Enfa and Sreepriya got invited to two high profile summits. While Enfa is back in the city after attending the Google WTM (Women Techmakers) Scholarship in Australia, Sreepriya is in San Francisco to attend the CMX Summit.
The Summit is one of the best community managers’ conferences hosted by CMX Hub powered by Bevy Labs. Google WTM, previously known as the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, aims to find women who are capable of becoming technology leaders. “I’m very excited. Most of the community geeks I’m following are coming to the conference this year. I’m thrilled to meet everyone in person. This will be a life-changing journey for me. Being a community manager, and a subscriber, I follow CMX on social media. That’s how I came to know about the scholarship offer. I applied and one day I got an e-mail saying that I had got selected,” says Sreepriya. The summit will take place from September 5-7.
According to Enfa, the WTM Scholarship was an enthralling experience. “I got to meet with a lot of people who built some amazing communities from scratch. It was a platform to interact with other scholars and speakers.” The retreat took place from August 27-31. “On one day, they focussed on how scholars could improve their technical skills. On another day, they gave tips and guidelines on how to build a community, maintain it and command the resources for this. A scholarship will start next year and they gave tips on how to take the technical career forward. “They also made us aware of the common mistakes that women make in technology, the hardships they face and the ways to overcome those. Anyone with an interest in technology can apply for the scholarship,” said Enfa.
Both Sreepriya and Enfa are sure that these two summits will help them individually and for the Pehia Foundation. “I believe anyone can create a community but how to make it sustainable or self-efficient is something we need to learn or take advice from people with experience and expertise. Since Pehia is into social business, we need investors who support us. Our objective is to empower and educate children, women and the transgender community, information and technology,” adds Sreepriya.
There are plans for Pehia to conduct three-day programmes for women and transgenders, which aim at entrepreneurship development. Also, a five-day machine learning programme for women is in the works. “Currently, we are conducting ‘Coderine’, an online tech competition,” says Enfa.