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Cerebral palsy couldn’t stop Farida Bedwei

May 4, 2015

st0504-02 Many people regard a disability as a horrible and unwanted thing. They also mistreat those with disabilities as some sort of aliens or a minority group that can be pushed aside.

However, being disabled does not stop one from achieving great things in life.

Farida Bedwei, a software engineer in Ghana, has cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination but does not interfere with the ability to learn. Bedwei is the co-founder and the chief technical officer of the software company and is one of the most powerful women of financial technology in all of Africa.

According to Bedwei, her greatest achievement is creating a cloud software platform that is used by 130 micro-finance companies worldwide. Bedwei demonstrates how she changed her life and hopes to influence others with her ideas.

Bedwei was homeschooled until 12. Her family saw her passion for computers so she skipped her senior year of high school and enrolled in a one-year computer course at the St. Michael Information Technology Center at the age of 15. From there, she discovered her passion and followed her aspirations to become a software engineer.

After graduating, she began to look for work and found her role at Soft, a premier software company in the region. 3 years later, Bedwei found another work site as a software architect at Rancard Solutions.

She stayed there for nine years, three of which were part-time during school. She received a diploma in not only Information Systems, but also e-technology. She reached for a degree after two diplomas because in Ghana, a degree is what stands out the most. She completed a one-year degree in England and returned to Ghana to start up the cloud software platform called gKudi.

Bedwei overcame her disability and achieved success in becoming an outstanding influence in Africa. She has supported groups to encourage girls to pursue IT careers, serving as a role model for children. She reassures those with disabled children that despite their shortcomings, their children can become successful with whatever special abilities they possess.

Bedwei has truly become an influence for people with disabilities and a guide to those who are lost.

Eugene Chon
Troy High School 10th Grade

One Comment

kelly

November 27, 2017 at 11:56 AM

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