- Welcome to the training and Introductions: The facilitators gave a brief background of why the training was taking place. This included the thinking behind f3mhackathon and also sought to explain a little about Sabeen Mahmud and why we were dedicating this special day to her memory. This session also gave the participants an opportunity to get to know each other and the facilitators and to share their expectations of the training. Staying Safe Online ( a peek into Kenya’s women background on cybercrime and/or harassment: IAWRT Kenya) –This session sought to give a background on the situation of cyber crime in Kenya against women with a special focus on the qualitative research conducted by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television, (IAWRT-Kenya):Ending Violence: Women’s Rights and Safety Online. From the research the facilitator of this session shared a story of one of the case studies of the research where a certain lady had openly shared her passwords to various online accounts with her partner and father of her children but he had in turn used her passwords and posed as her when interacting with her friends , relatives and family including abusing them online. This was coupled with physical beatings. The sharing of this story was aimed at providing the context of why it is important for us to spend some time learning more on how to enhance our digital security online and start privacy advocacy campaign. Digital Security (Yvonne explain further on this session) Privacy Advocacy –For one to understand why privacy advocacy is crucial, the facilitator took the participants through a personal exercise of mapping one’s shadow on the internet. These shadows were captured through drawing and were posted on a white board by each participant. This exercise led to discussions on the traces we leave online and the possible challenges we are exposing to ourselves everytime we are online. The participants were then divided into various groups where they were expected to take up collaborative roles such as : You are a company that would like to sell crucial data on various people or organizations to the government. Using the data shadows on the white board identify which persons/organizations you think the government would be interested in and why they would be interested in them basing it on the data shared on the data shadows. Or You have just opened a new restaurant in town. Identify which people (from the data shadows) you would like to target and how they would be important to your restaurant. The participants were then expected to make a presentation to the plenary of their findings. These presentations led to further discussions on issues such as the use of free online platforms actually means that the individual is the product. That it is very easy for anyone with a specific motive or focus to collect data about you without your knowledge and hence that is why it is important to make use of the various digital security tools to protect your data where possible and to ensure that one does not leave their traces online. The members of the same group were further given a task to think about what they can do based on their various professions on what they can do towards informing others on how to protect their digital privacy and any initiatives they may think of that would be helpful towards championing for privacy advocacy. The participants also got to share their ideas in plenary. The facilitator further added some key points on other initiatives they can undertake towards achieving privacy advocacy.

Being city dwellers and internet savvy, the audience related well to the subject matter and how it affects their work both personally and professionally. The attendees fully participated and were engaging. It was a 50/50 involvement on the hands on given that a good number did not come with their laptops.-Yvonne “While I was taking my tea, one of the participants came up to me and said, “this workshop has been great. It is so relevant to the issues that we women are facing especially in our personal lives. There are so many cybercrimes being committed to us by the one’s we love. I hope you can find time to come to our association and train many more women on how to stay safe online. It is a critical topic that we need further information on.” Mary Kiio

Loved sharing my knowledge on digital security but above all, loved the attendees enthusiasm on the subject matter.All the invited guests showed up even the ihub space manager created time to be involved and participate in the training.-Yvonne “When the training came to an end, the participants were not willing to leave the training session. Their silence was pregnant with the desire to learn more. This filled me with lots of joy to know that we had been tackling a topic that people are hungry for information. It was a reflection that probably it was interesting and relevant to their day to day work.” Mary Kiio

Keep collaborating with other facilitators and institutions so as to encourage the adoption of digital security in various curriculum. Yvonne Training and conducting roundtable discussions in various parts of the country on how women can stay safe online and the initiatives that they can set up towards achieving this by government officials, civil society organizations and media. Mary Kiio

Many women in Kenya today are embracing the internet as a means of communication with their peers and colleagues on a social and professional basis. As they seek to share vital information about themselves so as to increase their networking skills, these women post information and pictures on various sites that are both of a personal and professional nature. Unfortunately, this same medium of expression (the internet) exposes the information these women share to public scrutiny and may have negative effect, when this information falls in the hands (or eyes) of a person who can misuse this information through manipulation, or lead to harassment among other internet crimes.

I'll start looking for more avenues and resources to keep the conversation going. Consistency is key and focus more on women in civil society.-Yvonne Applying some of the privacy advocacy tips such as tracking through what legislation is being discussed in parliament that would enhance digital security and start sharing tips on my blog about how to stay safe online by using various digital security tools that are contained in the security in a box in a creative way. Mary Kiio

I will stop downplaying my passion in tech training especially in digital security since more people lack the knowledge. _Yvonne Procrastinating in looking for new avenues such as schools-primary, high school and universities to share on how they can stay safe online and if possible start advocacy groups that will hopefully enlighten them even when the young people get into the job market. Mary Kiio