CodeHack Training for Young Girls in Kenya - Covid-19 Edition
According to the GSMA report in 2019 states that half the population in Sub Saharan Africa will subscribe to smartphone services by 2025. As a women-led technology non-profit organisation, we are committed to ensuring young women aged 17 – 28 years acquire skills in coding in both mobile and web development to enable them not only to consume technological mobile solutions but also to be part of creating the solutions.
UNESCO in partnership with UNDP and Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM) will support Pwani Teknowgalz to conduct a Codehack Training for Young Girls in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic. The training program aims at equipping 100 young women aged 17 to 28 years with employable digital technology skills in Mobile application development in Kenya to assist them to address pressing challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.This activity will be implemented under UNESCOs Youth Mobile Programme and aligned with SDGs on Gender Equality, Education, Health, Access to Information, and Zero Hunger.
Program Objectives
To train 100 young women aged 17- 28 years from five counties in Kenya that is Mombasa, Nairobi, Lamu, Kisumu, Nakuru and Kilifi with mobile development skills using MIT App Inventor and Flutter.
To spark innovation and creativity among the young women by having a competition among the individual women in the cohort that addresses challenges during covid – 19 pandemic align with sdg : Gender Equality, Education, Health and Zero hunger.
To award the best 3 innovative solutions per cohort that address challenges during covid – 19 pandemic align with SDG; Gender Equality, Education, Health and Zero hunger. We will work with judges from our network who are renown technologists in kenya to support in identifying these best innovative solutions
To equip 100 young women aged 17-28 years from five counties in Kenya (Lamu, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa and Nairobi)with entrepreneurship skills to assist them market and generate revenue from the skills learnt.
The best nine innovative fully functioning mobile applications developed by individual young women in the three cohorts will be hosted on play store and continuous two months mentorship lead Pwani Teknowgalz team and supported by judges who shall have participated in the selection of the innovative solutions this will go along way to support the best young women start businesses or startups.
CodeHack Covid-19 Edition Winners
Dianah comes from a humble rural community called Machini in Nakuru. Her keen interest in how technology can impact society and improve lives is what made her participate in the Pwani Teknowgalz Codehack Training Kenya COVID-19 Edition. After going through this rigorous training, she developed a mobile application to help her community solve poverty, hunger and malnutrition problems through food barter trade. She hopes this application will enable the community’s small holder farmers such as women, pastoralists, fishers and family farmers, get access to nutritional food with a possibility of
A 23-year-old third-year computer science student currently studying at Harbin Engineering University. She attended Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology for a year studying Mathematics and Computer Science before moving to her current educational institution. She is passionate and enthusiastic about creating beautiful and innovative solutions to problems facing society by leveraging the endless ways and opportunities available with the current technologies. She enjoys working and sharing ideas with people who share similar interests in technology.
A third year Physical Education student at Kenyatta University.Currently computer programming has become an interest of mine because of the classes at Codehack by Pwani Teknowgalz. I have a passion for digital marketing and agriculture that is why i created Agri Innovation Hub, a company that focuses on highlighting simple agricultural innovations created by youth to farmers using the power of social media.My future goals are to come up with sustainable digital solutions that will transform our country’s agricultural and climate sectors and also have a steady income so i can take care of my family.
I am one of the few lucky girls who got a chance to participate in the Codehack Covid-19 program. I am currently studying Computing at African Leadership College. As one of the finalists, I got to work on a project for the program where I was able to make a prototype of my app called ElimuHub using the knowledge I gained through the coding sessions taught in program. The app is designed to help tackle the SDG on Quality Education most especially for secondary school learners in Kenya
I am a recent graduate with a background in Architectural Engineering. As part of Codehack Training COVID-19 edition, I developed a mobile application called Elevate. On top of acquiring skills in mobile development and design thinking, I got the chance to be part of a cause that inspires and supports women. I am really grateful to have been part of such a positive platform and would encourage other ladies to challenge themselves through opportunities like these.’
Viola Konji is an Informatics and Computer Science student at Strathmore University. She is one of the winners of Pwani Teknowgalz’ Codehack Covid-19 Edition. She has a strong interest in technological innovation in Africa and would like to increase the number of women in the front line of technology. She is a co-founder of Make A Difference Foundation a charity organization with a goal of uplifting the community. She has strong passion in helping to achieve the SDGs Quality education, Good health, Zero hunger, No Poverty, and Gender Equality.
Am Claire Favour Adede, a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, studying Renewable Energy and Environmental Physics. My goals are to solve environmental problems facing Africa and the world at large by bridging the gap between technology and environment and to perform at an orchestra. I have made some achievements like learning how to develop an application with the help Pwani Tecknowgalz trainers as well as being among the hackathon finalists. I have also started leading an independent life as a university student by doing an online business
Beryl Esther Nekesa created Covid Care App, which is a Home-based care platform for COVID 19 patients. She is a student at the University of Nairobi pursuing Computer Science. Beryl joined Codehack due to curiosity about mobile app development. The experience bootstrapped her Mobile application development journey. She is now confident that she has a place to continue from
Meet Remarkable Hackathon Judges
Umikaltuma Ibrahim
Umikaltuma Ibrahim is a Geographic Information Systems Analyst who has worked in the field of humanitarian aid and development for close to a decade. Her work has involved the linkage of geospatial data with population, statistics, water, health and many more.
Along with her professional career, Umi is a TechWomen alumna and a STEM education enthusiast whose passion lies in getting more girls into STEM courses and careers. Umi was a Project Coordinator for Mombasa Girls in STEM – a project that aimed to increase high school girls’ interest in STEM through hands-on STEM skills training. She also serves as a trainer and mentor in her spare time.
Charity Wanjiku
Charity is an experienced architect and project manager with demonstrated history in the building, construction and energy industries. She is co-founder of Strauss Energy Ltd., an award-winning energy enterprise that seeks to alleviate energy poverty in Kenya and Africa at large, and director at Trioscape Space Planning Ltd., an architectural firm that seeks to offer quality-built environment spaces while leveraging technology. Not one to shy away from a good challenge, and to maintain a healthy balance in life, she enjoys the outdoors and a good hiking challenge or run are welcome. In 2018, Charity was listed in Forbes “Top 50 Women in Tech in the World” and awarded “African female tech entrepreneur” by the World Economic Forum in 2017.
Sandra Kambo
Sandra is a co-founder and project coordinator for TechWomen Kenya org. Professionally, she works a test engineer and has an educational background in software engineering. She’s also an event organizer and sometimes speaker, for testers in Nairobi and the Agile KE meetup locally. After her selection as an emerging leader for TechWomen in 2014, she gravitated toward actively contributing via mentorship to community projects focused on education and empowerment of young girls and women in Kenya with STEM skills and this has grown to become a large part of her happy place.
Petronila Ogolla
Leonida Soi is a computer science teacher and head of technical and applied science department at Moi Forces Academy Mombasa, also an Edtech Champion in Likoni Sub county under Ministry of Education. Microsoft Innovate Educator Expert, motivational speaker on STEM careers for girls, and a volunteer trainer with Africa Code Week. The founder of Scratch club for Schools which aims to promote coding with scratch and robotics for children in schools in Kenya, by sensitizing teachers to initiate and promote scratch coding and robotic clubs in their schools.
Janet Silantoi
Janet is passionate about technology and women empowerment. She received her Business Information Technology degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and is a Certified Information Security Incident Handler (E-CIH). She is recently completed an MSc In Cyber Security at Lancaster University courtesy of the Chevening scholarship (2019-2020).
Natasha Kilinga
Natasha Kalinga is the Business Development Lead & Community Manager at 21C Skills Africa, an e-learning platform launched by Innovation Partnerships (Liquid Telecom). She supports and manages students & different training groups on the learning platform which include innovation hubs, universities, and training programs across the continent.
Kevin Baraza
Kevin is a problem solver with a passion for African entrepreneurship, startup ecosystem, and innovation demonstrated by the seasoned contribution to the African entrepreneurship narrative by mentoring on various pan-African programs such as Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program and using my technical experience as an action-oriented ambassador of Tech for Social Good through constant volunteering
Petronila Ogolla
Petronila has more than 12 years of educational publishing, procurement and project management experience. She excels at producing competitive content and managing vibrant and energetic teams. In her role with DOT Kenya, Petronila coordinates the development and implementation of employee training and professional development programs. She advances learning at DOT Kenya through research, partnerships and advocacy initiatives.
Strategic Partners
