My name is Akaliza Gara and I have been working since I was a teenager; from up-and-coming businesses to youth centres , university cafeterias to inner city office buildings. I have travelled and lived in over 13 countries spanning five continents. I have a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Technology and has a broad and ever-increasing portfolio of graphic design, website development and animation work.

I decided to start my business- ‘Shaking Sun’- as a platform to explore, develop and realise my several ambitious ideas and creations. "I especially want to promote ICT among girls and women because many think that it is a man’s world - and in all honesty it still is.

But if you look at the history of computing you will find that women played an integral role: to name a few examples, one of the first (if not THE first computer programs) was written by a young woman (Ada Lovelace) in the 1800s and Grace Hopper is credited for making popular the term computer 'bug' when she discovered an actual insect inside a computer she was fixing 1947.

In Rwanda, ICT knowledge is an extremely powerful tool and is increasingly essential to an individual’s professional success. I think everyone - both men and women - need to realise how this can impact their world forever.

As a young girl I dreamed of being an artist. I loved to create, I loved to study other artists - I was curious and imaginative. I also wanted to be a writer - I used to write poems, songs, short stories - even novels that never got finished! I dreamed of creating something that would last forever.

Today, I feel like I am at the edge of my dreams – it’s like everything is much closer and more real than I could have planned for so early on in my life. I feel excited about the future—and often think whether my child-self would be happy with how far I have come.

I hope that my parents feel proud of me and that they are seeing the 'fruits of their labour'! I don't know what their dreams for me were specifically—good grades at school? Financial success? Marriage?

Children? I think it would be something more along the line with; happy. I believe my parents really want me to be happy with my life and I am so thankful that they made that possible. Akaliza Gara is a young Rwandan entrprenuer who started her ICT business, ‘Shaking Sun’.

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