O poder da comunidade e como ela influencia em minha vida

This blog post was written by Émylle Andressa Borges. Thank you,  Émylle :)

On June 1, 2019, the 1st Django Girls of Feira de Santana, Bahia, took place. It was organized by me and four other amazing women, together we represent the ProgramAda community committee, a group that seeks to attract, retain and unite more girls and women in technology.

We set it up in exactly one month! Not ideal, I know … but it happens. We started organizing on May 1st, but well before that we were already talking, speculating and drawing the format of the event. I confess that I was afraid when I called the committee to organize, I told them that I was very afraid of everything going wrong because the time was too short and we would have to work hard and seriously. 

Even telling that, they agreed to get on that boat, and if it did, we would all swim together. They entered this dream with me and with the same goal: to make the Django Girls experience the best possible.

Right at the beginning of the work, a stalemate arose: “Can we fill all 30 vacancies?” and we were heartbroken to choose just 30. It was ProgramAda’s biggest event!

We sought sponsorship, a good lunch, breakfast and afternoon, sweeties, photographers, made shirts, badges, looked for people for monitoring, made a banner for photos, separated a playlist and decorated the place. All this and some other details in 1 month! We thought of providing a good time for the participants, we even made a personalized gift bag, with the name of each one. We knew who all were participating.

I made sure to read each sign-up form and as little as they told about their stories, it felt like we were connected in a mental network, and even without knowing each other personally, we were together and ready to help each other whenever needed, I felt infected by the energy they conveyed in the words and immersed in their expectations of the event. 

I had never had such an experience!

We had women of various ages and girls ages 9, 11 and 14 participating! And one of them was my sister. She had never been interested in what I do, but accompanied, along with my parents and my brother, all my work from start to finish, supported me and also helped in the details of the event! Just imagine … knowing that my energy managed to infect the people who live with me made me believe that they would also infect people outside.

Being the organizer of the DG was really very spectacular for me, very different from traditional technology events because we care about the experience of the participants, they feel welcomed and the best: we set the mood for it to be possible. It’s not just talking about diversity in technology, it’s acting without having to say why, because our actions already speak for themselves.

We could not have done it without the help of the wonderful Mayara Gonçalves, Aunt May, who had long wanted to bring the DG to our city and gave great support in the organization, and was a monitor. Grateful forever. In addition to it, we also had the support of GDG Feira de Santana group and local hackerspace Mandacaru. Not to mention, of course, the amazing people who were monitored. They did their best and put on the team shirt to make the event happen. They are amazing people! 

A big thanks also to the companies and organizations that supported our initiative, it is very gratifying to know that they have entrusted us with the responsibility of taking their name on this project, among so many people who do not even give words of encouragement.

It was not easy, reconciling activities and managing one’s own time are challenges. Fear of going wrong is a barrier. Finding people who believe in your idea and trust your work is a long step, but we have taken that first step. Making women’s voices echo from various corners is more than a mission, it’s a battle. I feel fulfilled and proud of the work of this team, I know it was worth all the effort. Thanks to all the people who built the 1st DG of Feira de Santana.

I write this text in October 2019, the month/year I was hired by a California company, the state that houses high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. Now I begin a new journey with python programming for deep learning and machine learning solutions. I got the opportunity on Django Girls, I had to do some tests to get in and I was approved. I am still in the 4th semester of my university course and I know it will be another great challenge to reconcile everything.

I’m very happy to be working on something I wanted. How is my heart? A thousand! This is the community and the good influences it brings me. I keep believing.

I end with an excerpt from a song that represents the moment:

It is not easy to get here
I had to persist, chase, battle […]

No fight, no achievement, that’s why we never stop fighting
It won’t be easy but this is no excuse, who runs achieves […]

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