Women of Rubies
In Inspiration By

Meet Ashaba Faridah, CEO of Bambino Life Foundation, Commercial Pilot and Philanthropist

Ashaba Faridah is a commercial pilot, CEO of Bambino Life Foundation, TEDx Speaker, International Speaker, UN Women Model, Director of STEM Queens Uganda and Chair of the Global Goodwill Ambassadors in Uganda.

She is the Founder and CEO  Bambino Life Foundation, an organization that focuses on promoting girl child education & empowerment, creating awareness about children living with disabilities and providing a sustainable environment to children living in orphanages.

Ashaba believes in breaking stereotypes. In September 2018, she became the Director of STEM Queens Uganda, an initiative that encourages young girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In the same year, she also became the Chairperson of Global Goodwill Ambassadors (GGA), Uganda Chapter to promote great opportunities for those in need.

In 2019, she was appointed as the international spokesperson for the Global Goodwill Ambassadors and a spokeswoman for the World Youth Summit Dubai Act 2019.

At the beginning of 2020, Ashaba Faridah was named among the Top 40 outstanding people in Uganda under 40 years of age by New vision, a national newspaper.

As a piece of advice to budding women in STEM, she said:

“To believe in themselves but above all to never forget who they are and where they come from. Once you know this, your path will be clear on where you want to go or in being whoever you want to be. It goes without saying that without God we are absolutely nothing, so put him first and everything will come by easily.”

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

Microsoft Partners With Black Girls Rock!® To Encourage Black Girls, Future Stem Leaders

Despite many career strides, encouraging Black girls to pursue STEM careers is still greatly needed. For example, in 2019, Edutopia published an article written by Carly Berwick about how stereotypes and cultural norms dampen girls’ interest in STEM. However, educators could counter the disparities with small changes to their practice. Additionally, Nicole Joseph, assistant professor of mathematics and science education at Vanderbilt University research, was quoted as stating that research has shown that Black girls view themselves as outsiders in mathematics, and teachers view them as outsiders, too.

But solutions are at work, to close the gender and race gap, with the help of companies and organizations, in addition to educators. Tech leader Microsoft, and Beverly Bond—who is founder and CEO of the award-winning women’s empowerment, lifestyle, and philanthropic brand BLACK GIRLS ROCK!® — just announced ‘a strategic partnership to build technology infrastructure and empower more Black girls to become leaders through access to culturally relevant programs, leadership development, and STEM skills.’ Black Girls Rock Inc. has been devoted to the healthy, positive identity development of young women and girls by providing programs that support critical thinking, leadership development, sisterhood, innovation, civic engagement and career exposure. Now, more goals can be achieved in some of these areas.

The press release stated that the goal of the alliance is to strengthen the transformative work of BLACK GIRLS ROCK!® with the technology and scale of the Microsoft’s ecosystem.

“It’s remarkable to be championed by a towering institution like Microsoft to propel the work we’ve been doing at BLACK GIRLS ROCK!® to educate, empower and inspire the next generation,” Beverly Bond said in the announcement. “This partnership gives BLACK GIRLS ROCK! the support necessary to expand our work to help more girls find their voices, define their truths, and forge the futures they envision.”

Marcie Nymark, director of Strategic Partnerships for Microsoft, added that Microsoft shares BLACK GIRLS ROCK’s commitment to empowering women and girls.

“We also recognize the challenges facing women, especially Black women, are complex – no one organization can solve them all. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Beverly and BLACK GIRLS ROCK! to bring together our efforts to educate and inspire the next generation of innovators,” Nymark also stated in the press release.

Resources, programs, and tech solutions will reportedly support three key initiatives, which include a BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Book Club launching this month, BLACK GIRLS ROCK 15-year Anniversary Fundraising Gala in June, and a BLACK GIRLS LEAD Leadership Conference in July.

Further details explained that the partnership will officially kick-off with the launch of the first BLACK GIRLS ROCK!® Book Club and workshop April 14, at 12pm EST/9am PST featuring Bond’s book BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth!, and facilitated by BLACK GIRLS ROCK alumna Kathie Duperval. The virtual event will be free and open to the public. Registration should be completed through Microsoft Store events.

Additionally, Microsoft Store will host each book club event which will be followed by an interactive virtual workshop designed for students and inspired by the book’s core themes and motifs. Microsoft will be the presenting sponsor of the BLACK GIRLS ROCK 15-year Anniversary Fundraising Gala. Musical performances will include Chaka Khan’s. It was also announced that the BLACK GIRLS LEAD conference, powered by Microsoft Teams, will bring together teen girls to participate in workshops, panel discussions, and lectures led by world-class educators, artists, business moguls, scientists, entertainers and other influencers.

Source: Blackenterprise.com

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

Linkedin Adds ‘Stay-At-Home Mom’ To List Of Career Titles As COVID-19 Continues To Impact Women

LinkedIn has added “stay-at-home mom” and other role titles to its public resume function in a move to better reflect high numbers of people – particularly women – who have left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Options added this week also include “stay-at-home dad” and “stay-at-home parent,” and the Microsoft-owned platform has also removed the requirement that resume entries be linked to a specific employer.

The move comes following a post on Medium’s ‘Better Marketing’ website that criticized LinkedIn’s lack of flexibility on its language as biased against women who have left the workforce.

Jobs data shows that the pandemic has hit women much harder than men.

As part of its larger profile redesign, the company on Tuesday also unveiled several other changes, including a dedicated, formal field for LinkedIn users to add their gender pronouns to their profiles. Such a pronoun entry has also been long requested by many LinkedIn users, who until now have found informal workarounds (like adding their pronouns to the end of their names).

“Pronouns are a core part of our identity, and how we want to present ourselves—and within the jobs marketplace, we believe that clarity about someone’s gender pronouns is very, very important,” Ayenew says.

He adds that making all of these changes to LinkedIn’s profiles “has taken more time than we would like” because of the degree of technology redesign it has required. “The profile is very, very core and foundational to our entire ecosystem—so we have to be very careful and deliberate about the changes we make,” he says. “We are finally getting to it—and we’re excited to be rolling it out.”

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

8 Months Pregnant Aminat Idrees Wins Taekwondo Gold Medal

Nigerian athlete, Aminat Idrees, just won the Taekwondo gold medal while eight months pregnant, Blavity reports.

Idrees participated in Taekwondo’s Mixed Poomsae category, a form of exercise that showcases the hand and leg techniques of the sport at The National Sports Festival in Edo, Nigeria, last week. After her electrifying performance, Idrees took home the gold medal, she was praised by festival organizers for being “inspiring.”

“It’s such a privilege for me. I just decided to give it a try after training a couple of times…It feels really good. Before I got pregnant, I have always enjoyed training, so it didn’t seem different with pregnancy,” Idrees told reporters.

The 26-year-old underwent a complete medical exam before she could participate and was cleared by doctors after training for months. She feels like her win is an opportunity to introduce others to the art of Taekwondo.

“A lot of people don’t understand what Taekwondo is actually about. I feel this is an avenue to educate people about this. Taekwondo has two branches: the combat sport and Poomsae…I participated in [the] Poomsae event,” Idrees said.

In addition to her gold medal, Idrees also took home a silver medal in the female team Poomsae category and an individual bronze medal. She lead as a top athlete at the festival and made history as the first athlete to win a gold medal for her hometown, Lagos state.

“I felt there wasn’t much risk attached to it, so I decided to give it a try. My doctor, as well as the organizing body of the games, certified me fit to participate in the non-contact sport,” said Idrees.

Congratulations Aminat!

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

21-Year-Old Sha’carri Richardson Makes History As The Sixth-Fastest Woman In The World

A 21-year-old athlete, Sha’Carri Richardson, just made history, becoming the sixth-fastest woman in the world, Blavity reports.

Richardson has been making a name for herself on the track, getting her start as a sprinter at Louisiana State University (LSU). In 2019, she earned two junior world records, breaking the college record for the 100-meter dash as a freshman, coming in at 10.99 seconds. Then the same day she broke the 200-meter dash record at 22.37 seconds. She would go on to win big at the NCAA Track and Field Championships, breaking Dawn Sowell’s 30-year-record, coming in at 10.75 seconds. Despite her victorious year, she fell short eight weeks later, placing eighth at the USATF Outdoor Championships and missing the chance to represent the U.S. at the World Championships. 

“As an athlete, you have to take your losses just as good as your wins. If you can’t do that, you’re not a good athlete, in my opinion,” Richardson told reporters at the time. 

Soon after, Richardson decided to transition from a college athlete to training professionally, landing a Nike running deal. 

“Training here with [coach] Dennis Mitchell has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I love that he’s a coach that’s going to make sure you’re the athlete you tell him you want to be, on and off the track. I’m glad I came. It’s a great environment for training. I knew that to get to the next level, I had to make myself uncomfortable, meaning push myself to a limit I hadn’t pushed myself to before,” Richardson said. 

This past weekend, that’s precisely what she did.

Richardson competed at the Miramar Invitational in Floriday, clocking in at 10.72 seconds during the 100-meter dash and making history as the sixth-fastest woman in the world. The only women in history faster than Richardson have been Florence Griffith Joyner, Carmelita Jeter, Marion Jones, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Elaine Thompson-Herah. Richardson told reporters this is only the beginning.

“I’m not done yet. There’s more work to be done; there’s ways to get faster, there’s ways to become better. So we’re going back to the drawing board,” she told the USA Track and Field (USATF).

USATF took to Twitter to share footage from Richardson’s victory, calling the moment “jaw-dropping.”

 

Richardson said her goal is to represent the USA at Tokyo’s summer Olympics with NBA Sports analyst Ato Boldon confirming that Richardson is “a heavy favorite” for the Tokyo title. Before she can make the team, she must finish in the top three at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, this summer. 

“I am who y’all think I am, and I am who I say I am. My season is going to be unbelievable. Something that I haven’t been expecting. Something the world hasn’t been expecting. Its’ time,” Richardson said.

And that’s on Mary had a little lamb!

Congratulations, Sha’Carri!

by
Keep Reading
In Inspiration By

Meet Dr. Thakgalo Thibela, South African’s Youngest Medical Doctor at Age 21

The 21-year-old South Africa’s youngest female Medical Doctor obtained her degree in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery on the 17th of December, 2020 from Witwatersrand University.

Thibela is a native of Violet Bank, a village in small town of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

She attended Farel Primary School where she was smart enough and skipped grade 7 straight to Lehlasedi High School where she also did not do Grade 9.

“I’ve always wanted to do medicine since my days in pre-school. This dream almost got shattered when my Grade 11 results came back and they were nowhere satisfactory and this pushed me to do my best in matric in order to get accepted to study medicine. I attended all the extra classes and studied throughout the night with my friends. This paid of though as I ended up with 7 out of 8 distinctions in matric,” said Dr Thibela.

At the tender age of 16, she got admitted to Wits University and continued to work hard in a cutthroat field of study and her efforts earned her a Golden Key International membership.

Dr Thakgalo Thibela is currently doing her internship at Helen Joseph Hospital and sharing her experience so far, she said:

“I made the choice to come to the Helen Joseph and while it has been challenging, I have enjoyed my time. There’s a lot of support and you never feel alone. I’m looking forward to the two years that I’ll be spending here.

Dr. Thakgalo Thibela

“Even on the most hectic of days when I contemplated my life choices I never thought of switching careers, I wouldn’t even know what to do even if I had to do something else.”

She has plans on becoming a neurosurgeon in the near future.

Dr. Thakgalo Thibela is a hope and inspiration to young women. Age is nothing but a number and shouldn’t be used to measure how far you can go in life.

“As a black female from a rural area, this a huge thing for me and for my people back home. It’s a reminder to all the young girls that we are capable of being whatever we want.”

by
Keep Reading
In Uncategorized By

Meet Inota Cheta – 27-year-old Zambian Entrepreneur

Inota Cheta is a 27-year-old Zambian born inspirational and trailblazing – Economist, Entrepreneur, Financial Literacy Trainer, Business Mentor and Speaker.

Inota is the Co-Founder of She Entrepreneur – an organisation that seeks to support women in business. This is done through capacity building, exposure to business opportunities, creating visibility for women owned businesses and providing networking platforms.

Inota Cheta

Inota holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Zambia and a Masters degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Lusaka.

“I am passionate about imparting knowledge in females with regard to financial education and business. My approach is also to use practical lessons and activities. I believe with the right tools females can build and grow sustainable enterprises that can significantly contribute to economic growth and can reduce unemployment on the African continent.” she said.

Inota Cheta is a Mandela Washington Fellow, European Development Days Young Leader and also a member of AWEC 2020.

by
Keep Reading
In Uncategorized By

Meet Ancillar Mangena, 29-year-old, Zimbabwean Multi-Award Winning Journalist.

The 29-year-old, Zimbabwean born Ancillar Mangena is a multi-award winning Journalist, BBC World News Reporter, United Nations Refugee Agency Ambassador, Rallinca Media Founder, Speaker and Moderator.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Communication, Journalism and Related Programs and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Honours degree in Communication, Journalism and Related Programs from the University of Johannesburg.

Immediately after obtaining her Honors degree in 2014, she was hired by Caxton community newspaper where she worked for just over year before being head hunted by Chris Bishop, Forbes Africa Magazine’s Founding Editor.

Ancillar has won numerous awards which includes: CNN MultiChoice Young Journalist of the Year Award, Sanlam Excellence in Financial Journalism Young Journalist of the Year Award and interviewed the likes of Christo Wiese – founder of Shoprite and Seinhoff, Michiel Le Roux – founder of Capitec and the legendary South African entrepreneur late Richard Maponya.

She also created and edited the coveted Forbes Africa under 30 list for three years.

 

by
Keep Reading
In Inspiration By

Meet Vera Daves, The Trailblazing Angolan Minister of Finance

The 37-year-old Vera Esperança dos Santos Daves De Sousa, popularly known as Vera Daves,  is the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Finance in Angola assumed office on the 8th of October 2019.

Meet Minister Vera Daves, Angolan First Female Finance Minister.

Vera who first served as Secretary of State for Finance  is now now tasked with reviving an oil-based economy suffering its worst recession since the civil war ended in 2002.

Born in Luanda and has a degree in Economics from the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN), she also has several certificates in finance, management, and leadership and is the co-author of a book on Public Finance.

In 2011, she was the Head of Research for a Local Bank, and became a regular commentator on TV discussing finance and the economy.

Vera was appointed head of Luanda’s Capital Markets Commission in 2016 which she served excellently.

She is an Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors of African Development Bank (AfDB),  since 2019.

She is also serving as Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank respectively, since 2019.

And in 2020, Vera Daves was listed in the second publication of 100 Most Influential African Women by Avance Media.

by
Keep Reading
In Inspiration By

Meet Maud Chifamba – Zimbabwe’s Youngest Aspiring Chartered Accountant

At age 20, Maud Chifamba obtained a Masters degree in Accountancy & a Honours degree in Accounting (at age 18) from the University of Zimbabwe.

Maud Chifamba, MSc.

Maud lost her father when she was just 5 years old. Her mother was suffering from cancer and she could not take care of her and her younger brother. They fell under the care of their step-brother, in 2003.

In 2005, when she was in grade 3, during the mid-year exams, she was mistakenly given a grade 4 exam paper, on which she scored 100%. The same year, she requested a grade 5 test paper and passed with distinction. She went on to finish grade 7 at the age of 10.

In 2009, she did not have money for high school, she studied on her own (home schooled) and completed her Ordinary Level in just two years.

She was later identified by the Ministry of Education and awarded financial assistance for her A levels and she scored 12 points in 2011. She lost her mother the same year.

In 2012, at age 14, she was accepted to the University of Zimbabwe to study for an Accounting degree, after receiving a scholarship from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

Maud is currently an Audit Senior at Deloitte, at age 23.

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn

Maud has shown that where there is a will, there is a way.

by
Keep Reading

©2025. WomenofRubies. All Rights Reserved.