Fadwa Fuad, the Sudanese on her way to Becoming a Renowned Mobile Developer

Starting with Africa, the Women Techsters Initiative is changing lives and funding dreams, one woman at a time.

Amidst challenges common to many underserved African communities, like poor internet connection, lack of opportunities for entry-level employees, lack of remote opportunities without previous experience, and lack of facilities, our spotlight this week, Fadwa Fuad, has shown what being relentless means.

Fadwa is a Software Engineer that resides in Khartoum, Sudan. She is a graduate of Software Engineering from the Computer Science College. Fadwa decided to pursue tech while she was still in Secondary School when she took an interest in tech and, as a result, applied for and got an admission to Computer Science College.

She believes that technology is the future, and is passionate about becoming a Professional Mobile Developer and Freelancer. She also plans to have her own tech company in the future.

As a student, she tried her hands at various exciting projects. During her graduation, she and a team that she led worked on a project that turned out to be one of the most distinguished projects in the university. This project was also chosen to represent the university in the national software platform in 2018. In 2020, she was one of 300 out of 15,000 students selected to take Udacity’s Nanodegree in the Cloud-native program.

When the Coronavirus pandemic hit and forced everyone into lockdown, Fadwa decided to streamline her tech journey. She focused on Mobile Development as her Software Engineering track and took online courses to improve her knowledge.

However, it was not long before she started struggling. She got stuck on how to proceed and needed guidance or a community to help improve her skills and aid her learning. At this point, her friend from Kenya shared the Women Techsters Initiative opportunity with her.

When asked what the Women Techsters Fellowship meant to her and how it has impacted her life, Fadwa said, “This opportunity came at the point I needed it the most. I applied for the Women Techsters Fellowship because I aim to improve my mobile development skills and become a professional mobile developer… my experience was amazing and exceeded my expectations. The program contains everything I need to reach my goal and succeed in my career; from the classes, soft skills sessions, projects, and everything that helps you become better”.

Fadwa stated that the training has improved and increased her knowledge of mobile development and the soft skills training has helped her relationship and communication with people.

One of the highlights of the training for her was the Tech Girl drive because it was an excellent opportunity to work on her presentation and organization skills. It was also a fantastic opportunity to inspire young girls looking for role models in STEM to motivate them and prove that their dreams are valid.

She plans to maximize the knowledge gained during the training by continually improving herself in Mobile Development and taking online courses. She is also looking to take up internship opportunities that would present her with an avenue to apply her knowledge in real-world projects and improve the skills she acquired during the program.

Her advice to other young women hoping to transition into tech is, “Learning technology is not difficult and you can learn technology regardless of your previous experience and age. And even if you are not involved in the tech industry, you need to know the basics of technology because it has become a part of any industry.”