Unlocking Women and Technology

10th March 2020

This Sport Relief, we’re shining a light on some of the amazing work that your support contributes to. 

Today we’re focusing on some of the brilliant organisations that are led by members of the African diaspora here in the UK whose work has been supported in recent years through our partnership with UK aid. 

The African diaspora are people of African origin who are living outside of the continent*.  Members of the diaspora make significant contributions to development in Africa, including through sending money home to their families and friends (known as ‘remittances’), trade and investment in businesses and job creation, and transferring skills and technology.   The Common Ground Initiative was set up to harness UK African communities’ ability to drive positive change in Africa by investing in brilliant organisations led by members of the African diaspora here in the UK.

Over the course of 10 years, Comic Relief and UK aid have supported more than 130 amazing small and diaspora led organisations through the Common Ground Initiative. With a focus on women’s rights and diaspora investment in African businesses, more than 1.4 million people have benefitted in a range of ways from the programme.

One of the organisations supported through the Common Ground Initiative is iSpace Foundation and its Unlocking Women and Technology (UWAT) initiative. This project gives women between the ages of 18 and 35 years an opportunity to learn how to code and start-up their own businesses, improving their IT skills and supporting them to build a career in technology.

Meet Lamide and hear her and other young women’s stories here:

Sport Relief

Sport Relief brings the nation together to raise money through the power of sport. With your help, we fight inequality wherever find it to create a better, fairer world – free from poverty.

Since 2018, you’ve helped us support an incredible 13 million people across the UK and around the world.

When you donate to Sport Relief, you’re supporting people living incredibly tough lives, in the UK and around the world. We work with local organisations who’ve proven that their approach to solving people’s problems work – and we invest in them as they grow.

Find out more here(opens in new window).

*The African Union defines its diaspora as “consisting of people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union."