IWD 2022: #BreakTheBias with the Flying Labs Network

Written by Sonja Betschart, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of WeRobotics

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is #BreakTheBias and we join our sisters and brothers around the world to celebrate women all week long.

IWD is an opportunity for us to take a break, participate in events that are organized by other organizations in our countries, all the while sharing our voices and stories. This year we do so with a video as well as an open discussion in the format of a Virtual Tea Party to kick-off the week, hosted by our colleague and sister Tinah Mutabazi who leads Uganda Flying Labs.

Luckily in the Flying Labs Network and at WeRobotics, we don’t only have one day in the year to raise awareness against bias, take action for equality and celebrate women’s and proximate leaders’ achievements. Together with the over two hundred local experts of the Flying Labs Network and our team at WeRobotics, we invest our hearts, minds, talents, experiences and souls into breaking biases every day of the year. Bias towards women. Bias towards local experts. Bias towards proximate leaders. And we are joined by a large ecosystem of partners, donors and allies who support us in our work.

While raising awareness is important, acknowledging bias and taking targeted action in practical ways and with a myriad of voices and activities is how we are breaking biases. We do so one story, one locally-led project, one experience at a time. We do so by coming together as a vibrant, diverse and inclusive network to share, learn collectively and build on each other's strengths, successes, failures, experiences and skills.

One of the most important and beautiful experiences I have made over the past half-decade is to see how far we have come together by valuing and celebrating our differences. I feel very blessed and am grateful to be surrounded and supported by so much diversity and so many bright, luminous and generous sisters and brothers on this journey (get a glimpse of it here). Reason why I personally will use IWD 2022 as a day to celebrate our collective journey as bias breakers! And to remind myself of our mantra: Alone we go fast, together we go far.

Brew your favorite cup of tea and join the virtual tea party later today to hear key learnings and career advancement tips from the incredible women of the Flying Labs Network, to share your story and discuss ways of continuing to #breakthebias together.