Here comes my first attempt at blogging, I’ve never been the writing kind, nor the artistic kind, or the creative kind for that matter. But I’ve always enjoyed dabbing into new things, hence my journey with Hexa Connection. I’ll be sharing with you the HOW and the WHY. So get your cup of tea and enjoy.
Let’s start with the more interesting HOW, it all started with a Hexa event showing up all over my Facebook feed about a thing called Arduino day, so I did what any person would do and googled it to figure out what on earth an Arduino is. Turns out it’s a chip, used for all kind of robotics. That sounded super geeky to me, which I loved. I decided to go check it out and see what all the fuss is about.
When I arrived there were helicopter models, tiny robots, small trunks following instructions, all created by passionate people from all ages, that was my favorite part, the passion. They talked about their experiences, their journeys, I found it fascinating. And right there I was introduced to Hexa connection by a couple of its members, they told me about the projects they do, their goals of creating a technologically aware Libyan society. Good for them, I thought, trying to be a part of the change they want to see in the world and what not. At the time all I was doing with my life was teaching a bunch of adults the English Alphabet. So when a month later, the General Director of Hexa reached out to me, asking me if I was interested in working with them, I jumped at the opportunity.
WHY did I? Maybe because it was as close to Silicon Valley as it could get in Libya, or because I loved being surrounded by creative and innovative people, maybe I just wanted something to write in my almost blank CV, or I was trying to find myself and my passion.
I started as a translator, translating some documents here and there, I really enjoyed it. My favorite part was that It required me to check my emails frequently to see if I’ve received anything new, which at the time made me feel like I’m a big shot, before that all I got in my email were random articles from SEVENTEEN magazine about this month’s must have bag, or how to get that shiny hair, please don’t judge me.
Anyhow, as a result of the translation I got to know more about the organization, and the more I translated, the more interested I got. After a while I was given more responsibility, I guess all that translation paid off. I worked on a project called Libyan Women Entrepreneurship Development, I know that you might think with all that’s going on in the country, there are more important things to focus on than businesswomen. Nevertheless, there were young women with the passion of creating their own businesses, with the motive of surviving and providing for themselves and their families, what they lacked is the knowledge and steps to do so, and this is where we came in. The project gave the opportunity to 20 young females to learn all about entrepreneurship, marketing, E-commerce and management. The trainings were held over the course of three months, throughout which we saw their businesses bloom in front of our eyes, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
It’s been a little over a year since the start of it all, throughout this time, I met interesting people, made great friends, attended really cool meeting and most importantly I felt like I was part of something big and significant.
