CODING SKILLS FOR FEMALE STUDENTS REACH MORE SCHOOLS IN DAR ES SALAM

Section of secondary school girls at National Library.

By Our Reporter

On its dedicated mission to empower girls and young women through technology in collaboration with Tanzania’s cellular network and mobile phone operator Tigo, a social enterprise Apps and Girls have celebrated in ICT Day by teaching over 240 secondary school girls in Dar es salaam region on Friday.

The training session took place at National Library at American Corner Hall attracted over 240 girls from different schools in Dar es salaam region.

For Apps and Girls, the Girls in ICT day is a chance to implement its long held mission of bridging the tech gender gap in Tanzania through encouraging and empowering girls and young women to consider studied and careers in the growing field of ICTs, hence creating a digital generation.

“Today we are celebrating ICT Day on girls, for us at Apps and Girls, we have decided to bring in about 240 secondary school girls from 16 schools in Dar to teach them computer coding skills for free as part of our movement in supporting girls and young women across Tanzania” said Apps and Girls Managing Director  Wheliam Caspar Oddo.

“Our plan is not just to train them for today; our aim is to continue training them in order to bride the gender gap technology in Tanzania, we believe that after introducing mobile apps development to these young girls who have never touched computers before, we are going to create new role models” he said.

Along with the global theme for the Girls in ICT Day which is expand horizons, change altitude: Apps and Girls has dubbed the day with a hash tag # Tech is Female which is its movement in partnership with Tigo to support girls and young women across the country to learn and develop new skills in technology.

“Our target is to reach over 50 schools in across in Tanzania” Oddo added

Among the trainers on the workshop involved young women under the Jovia Program at Apps and Girls who were helping girls during the learning process. With the growing pace to digital revolution, Apps and Girls believes that technology is the reality of the future and therefore it works to increase female participation in the ICT sector through breaking existing barriers that hinder girls and young women from venturing into ICT.

Tigo, on the other hand supports the organisation to fulfill its mission by sponsoring the provision of coding skills in Tigo e-schools across the country

“At Tigo, we spend a lot of our efforts, a lot of our investment, we want to bring in more ladies, and more young girls to next stage and step in education space” said Tigo Managing Director Simon Karikari recently.

The company is currently implementing various technology projects that aim at supporting over 3000 young girls across the country.

The program also is funded by Southern African Innovation Support (SAIS 2) where by a total of 35 young women from underprivileged background are taking advanced IT training together with entrepreneurship skills at Apps and Girls.