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So 1st, @RLadiesGlobal! Their primary focus is supporting minority gender R enthusiasts to achieve their programming potential, by building a collaborative global network of R leaders, mentors, learners, and developers to facilitate individual and collective progress worldwide.
At the moment there are 198 chapters in 56 countries which I love because this gave me the opportunity to meet amazing persons from different parts of the world!
Back in 2016 there were no active chapters in South America, #rladies was mostly based in the global north. I was living in Argentina at that time, doing a master in Clinical Research and I was in love with biostatistics, though I didn't know any woman in the field 
I also wanted to learn R but I was constantly discouraged by teachers who taught STATA. One day my dear friend from Bolivia asked me if I could host her friend who was traveling around South America, and I was happy to! So that's how I met the brilliant @MineDogucu!
@MineDogucu encouraged me to pursuit a graduate program in Statistics, and she was happy to teach me R during her stay! She gave me a lot of confidence because I stopped feeling lonely with respect to my motivations, and showed me that there were possibilities if I seek them.
So after a year or so I was enrolled in a Graduate program in Statistics at @InstitCalculo and that's were I met the amazing @_lacion_. She was my biostats teacher and she became one of my dearest friends since then, she always encourages me dream big!
Long story short, I got @MineDogucu and @_lacion_ in touch, and Mine (who was @RLadiesColombus organizer) encouraged Laura to start an #rladies chapter in Buenos Aires, and Lau pushed me to join her in this adventure. That's how @RLadiesBA was born 
Then Dani @d4tagirl joined the team from Uruguay (who then founded @RLadiesMVD) and Yani @yabellini founded @RLadiesSR. It was like a domino effect because very quickly LatAm was painted in #rladies purple! ( #88398a 
). For more check this blog post https://bit.ly/3asVCVT !
). For more check this blog post https://bit.ly/3asVCVT !
I made wonderful friendships through #rladies and I found a place where I can share my passion for statistics and programming with brilliant women who work in totally different disciplines. I also learned sooo much about R! #WomenInSTEM #WomenInScience
All the support helped me navigate the decision of doing a PhD and one year after we started @rladiesBA I moved to Rotterdam to begin this new journey. Luckely, before moving I got in touch with other women who were planning to start @RLadiesRdam!!
One of the best moments was last year, since @RLadiesRdam, @RLadiesDenBosch, @RLadiesUtrecht, @RLadiesAMS and @RladiesNijmegen joined forces to host @hadleywickham Advance R book club! https://github.com/rladiesnl/book_club
That meant that every 2 weeks we gathered to discuss a chapter, and we finished the book just before the end of the year! Within such a complicated year, it was something positive to look for as weeks and months went by.
Due to the pandemic all #rladies events have been virtualized, so there are events all the time and you can meet people from all over the world! You can check out the next events worldwide here: https://www.meetup.com/pro/rladies/
And check previous events on our youtube channel! PS: I was invited to talk at an #rladies event in Nairobi @RLadiesNairobi and I love to think I visited them (something that would not be possible otherwise) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDgj5-mFohWZ5irWSFMFcng
Last but not least, I've been supporting @RLadiesLaPaz since that is my home country! And together with @ruthy_root we had wonderful experiences mentoring undergrad students in their first steps in #datascience!
So it's been quite a journey, and I am so happy about this experience! #rladies allowed me to find peers who shared the same interests, similar fears and who are navigating similar situations professionally and personally!
I found friends who stand by me, who support me and who mentor me in different ways, and who are all in different parts of the world! And just as I was empowered by these women, I want to help other women who were in my situation, with the motivation to learn but who feel lonely.
As a final thought, although #rladies began with the mission to increase gender diversity in the #rstats community, as an amazing side effect it is increasing the visibility of the diverse voices from the global south as well!
I've personally seen that different chapters from different parts of the world have different motivations, different resources and different privileges, so one size does not fit all. We are all different, just as we learn from the @Gapminder dataset that we frequently use in R
This means that the more a CoP grows, new and different approaches need to be considered to protect this vast diversity and this can only happen if there is representation of all continents in the leadership positions. I truly can't wait to see this happening any time soon.
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