Bridging the digital divide and ensuring girls stay in school and are exposed to ICTs will empower them to access information easily and take better care of their health, find opportunities for education, earn a living and advance their personal development.
In light of this, on 20th October, 2017 to 21st October, 2017 Asikana Network participated in the Africa Code Week by hosting 2 events were; Day one of the two day participation brought together over 80 girls aged 15-24 years old to acquire basic ICT skills with support from eSkills4Girls, an initiative aimed at tackling the existing gender digital divide particularly in low income and developing countries with a goal to globally increase the access of women and girls to the digital world.
Working in collaboration with local partners Lubuto Library and Chiparamba Break through Academy, Asikana brought the girls together at the University of Zambia, Department of Computer Science labs in a week that coincided with Africa Code Week workshops in 35 countries across Africa
Interestingly, some of the girls were using a computer for the very first time and were taken through the basics of computer hardware and software. The girls were also introduced to basic programming using Scratch and Sonic Pi by qualified and accredited trainers ranging from Computer Scientists to Computer Technicians and Web developers who are part of a global coding community.
Day two of participation in the Africa Code Week, kicked off in the morning with the first ever all female Hackathon, where over 30 females were brought together to build out ideas to create solutions using Technology.
The Hackathon had ladies from all walks of life developers, designers, tech enthusiasts name them all and worked to together to learn new skills, test and bring new ideas to life as well as met awesome ladies doing amazing things with technology.
The Hackathon under the theme “Social Impact” was concluded by having two winning teams thus Team QRC CrowdFunding a mobile enabled crowd funding platform for local organizations & initiatives and Team AfroFashion who will use tech to develop skills of tailors & designers.
The winning teams of the Hackathon will get 3 weeks FREE INCUBATION from BongoHive Innovation and Technology Hub. Through the incubation, the winning teams will learn how to refine and prototype their idea while getting a set of business fundamentals essential to a new enterprise.
