advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Intel She Will Connect empowers girls with holiday coding workshops

While most kids in the country were enjoying the winter holidays, five young girls were trying their hand at coding for the first time at a workshop hosted by Intel at the SABC African Education Week yesterday.

The event was held as part of a series of workshops under the Intel She Will Connect program. It seeks to empower women and girls in developing countries by getting them online and introducing them to programming and coding.

The girls, ranging from grades nine to 11, were chosen from Kensington Secondary School, Mahlasedi High School and College Focus School.

Intel again partnered with the Girls Invent Tomorrow to host the workshop, with Girl Rising SA ambassador and Raeketsetsa co-founder, Hlulani Baloyi, facilitating and guiding the girls through.

“Think about the skills you’ll learn today and how you’ll use them to solve challenges in your communities,” Intel corporate affairs director, Thabani Khupe, told the girls during a word of encouragement before things started off. “Women bring a different set skills from men that are very important. Never pay attention to the stereotypes about you that you may hear out in the world.”

Most of the girls had never heard about coding up until yesterday and only two said they have a computer at home, so the workshop was a completely new experience for them.

ST Edu Week  869

Baloyi used the CodeHS online program to conduct the workshop. The program requires users to solve day-to-day problems using coding skills with the help of Karel the dog.

“What I learned about coding on a computer is that you control the program and it will do what you command it. Setting up an email for the first time was also kind of tricky,” said 16-year-old Nozihlobo Ngwenya, from Mahlasedi High.

Thuli Sibeko, co-founder of Girls Invent Tomorrow said the aim of the workshop was to continue passing on knowledge to girls in under-resourced schools and communities and to get them to pay it forward by creating coding clubs at their schools with the help of Intel to introduce other girls to the technology.

“We want to help girls like this group here to not fear technology, but try new things and step out of their comfort zone” Sibeko said. “There’s so much they can learn from technology and we want them to grow from it.”

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

Subscribe to
our newsletters

[mailpoet_form id=”1″]