Introducing the 14 fellows (and mentors) of this year’s Paris women fellowship programme

© Techfugees, 2019

Here we are! After a tough selection among more than 40 applications, this year’s 14 women refugees and asylum seekers in France are now fully embarked into the #TF4Women fellowship programme, juggling between weekly training & mentoring sessions.

Supported by Techfugees and its partners, the fellows actively improve their skills in web development, data science, digital marketing and project management and learn how to find their way through the French labor market with one and only objective: get a job in a tech company at the end of the year.


📝 Learn more about this experience by reading Techfugees France’s Medium posts


14 talented and combative women 💪

© Techfugees, 2019

Each fellow came to the programme with diverse histories and experiences, but what unites them is the deep desire to bounce back and start a new professional project in the tech area. This year’s cohort of fellows is made by:

[Last update of the fellows’ projects on October 2019]

  • May is an Art Director with 15 years of experience collaborating with famous global companies before she had to flee Syria. She’s now looking for a new position, in a company or as a freelancer, and uses the programme to get her skills updated in UX-UI and digital design;
  • Rana is a Syrian engineer and lecturer in computer science now based in Angers. She masters in many coding languages among which C, C ++, Java, SQL, PL-SQL, HTML now updating her tech competencies to find a job as a software or web developer;
  • Dagmawit got her diploma in civil engineering in Ethiopia before joining France in 2017. Since then, she did the “Piscine” at the famous French coding school 42 in Summer 2019 and has started a licence in IT in the Créteil University. She’s looking for an internship in development in Summer 2020
  • Dechen is a young Tibetan lady. She has started learning how to code in France at Konexio and dreams to become a full-stack developer and one day maybe to build her own startup. She’s now looking for a 6-month internship in development starting in March 2020
  • After Syria and Lebanon, Nibal is now living in Bordeaux. She has two masters, in linguistics and economics, and likes learning new languages, including coding language. She would love to become a developer so she has joined Konexio as well and is looking for an internship between March and August 2020 ;
  • Ozlem taught physics in Turkey, loves computers and is improving her knowledge in coding. She would like to find a job as a junior developer in France which allows her to collect her passions and skills together; 
  • Fatima started to work as a midwife in Iran before going back to Afghanistan where she obtained a master in business administration and collaborated with NGOs. Now, she resumes her studies in clinic research and is looking for a Summer internship in data science/analyses in the health sector
  • Cherine is a Syrian civil engineer now living in Saint-Etienne. She had professional experiences as a humanitarian and as part of a construction company in France. She’s now studying hard to find a job as a data analyst.
  • Mojan came to Paris from Iran with her family 7 years ago. She had several experiences in management and quality control in chemistry and automobile sectors. Now, she develops her digital skillset to evolve as a project manager.  
  • Nahla got two masters: one in international business in Australia, the other in international relations and cybersecurity in Boston. Before joining Paris, she worked as a digital marketing expert in the Middle-East and published some pieces about the actual trends in tech (AI, VR,…). Waiting to get a new job in marketing and communication in France, she takes online courses to stay up to date with the new tech trends and skills; 
  • Mariam was an accountant in Syria and couldn’t let her passion for number go away so she would like to find again a similar job in France;  
  • Ines has a background in finance and insurance and got jobs in finance, managed back office in banks and telecoms in DR Congo before starting additional training in HR and digital marketing. Thanks to the fellowship programme, she’s now following courses in coding and wants to become back end then full-stack developer ;
  • Clémentine comes from Rwanda and is now living in Blois. She studied maths, biology, chemistry and public health. She turned toward IT with the launch of a club for women to discover tech jobs in Musanze. Now she dreams to learn how to code to get a job as a developer into the health sector in France; 
  • Germaine comes from Rwanda where she studied electronics and telecommunication. She has basic knowledge in coding and would like to become a community manager in the music industry. She’s a good singer herself!


Fellows & Mentors: the winning duos 👫

© Techfugees, 2019

Every two weeks, the #TF4Women fellows meet their mentors for a two-hour session of experience, knowledge, advice and contacts sharing with:

  • Hélène Sancerres, Valérie Sujobert, David Hedoire, Emmanuel Tamiatto and Jean-Sébastien Millière who are Change Management & CSR Director, Senior Manager Customer Experience, Senior System Engineer, Consulting Architect and Sales Specialist at Cisco France
  • Ramez Hanna (SRE team lead) and Timothee Rabouille (Senior Data Analyst) at Criteo
  • Meryem Mahfoud who’s Fabernovel’s Head of Development – Creative Solutions; 
  • Adeline Gayral who’s a Marketing and Growth specialist with several experiences on startups; 
  • Alice De Maximy, Founder and CEO of hkind, a startup which connects projects and actors within the health sector;
  • Inès Arthur who’s Talent acquisition & HR developer at Céline (part of the LVMH group); 


🙋‍♂️ Join the #TFMentors pool! Let us know more about you by filling in this form


This programme couldn’t work without their support 🤝

This programme couldn’t happen without the support of partners, especially sponsors. So thank you to Cisco France, the Engie Foundation, BNP Paribas, RTE, Criteo and Fabernovel for funding the fellows’ scholarships. 

The #TF4Women fellowship programme is also up and running thanks educational and community partners who provide Techfugees with free trainings, computers, venues, tickets for events or who welcome the group for a visit (like Google France) or helped to recruit the best talents by spreading the word of this programme within their communities a few months ago. 

And of course a final thank you to the volunteers of Techfugees’ local chapter in France for their weighty commitment in organising the weekly sessions across Parisian major tech places hand in hand with Techfugees’ HQ team: Marie-Aline, Emma, Charlotte, Marie, Delphine, Paul-Emmanuel and Joanna. 


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