Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen reports on how the Kyrgyz Space Program, funded by Patreon crowdsourcing, is empowering women to send the first country’s satellite to space.

• Could this effort inspire other countries to develop more STEM programs geared toward women and girls?

• Read about the relationship between public philanthropy and women in STEM.

A dozen young women based in Kyrgyzstan’s capital city Bishkek are building the country’s first satellite and plan on launching it in 2019, with the help of crowdfunding, TED reports.

Together, young women ages 17 and 25 who are enrolled in the Kyrgyz Space Program are building a "CubeSeat," a microsatellite used to conduct scientific research in low Earth orbit that’s a cheaper and simpler rocket alternative with which they hope to send and receive signals. To do it, they’re using the coding, 3D printing, and engineering skills they’re learning in the program, and Patreon donations are helping them do it.

If they receive additional funding, they’re toying with the ideas of creating a second satellite to turn garbage from space into CubeSeat fuel and take photos of the Tibetan plateau, which has rarely been photographed by satellite.

Read the full article about teen girls leading Kyrgyzstan's satellite program by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.