The month of February allowed for physical meetups of coders in Nakuru, Mombasa and Lamu spaces. The Pwani Teknowgalz team mobilized and conducted three days meetups of the coders. The meetup allowed for the coders to meet but also for our team to have a face to face with the coders.

Coders in Mombasa met physically for a cyber security session at the space in MEWA Library. The session focused a lot on the impact of cyber security on our health, economy, democracy and security. The coders explored the adverse impact of having our infrastructure not secured. With the pandemic came the need to go digital for the different industries but this opened up a lot of people to cyber security attacks. Joab, the facilitator painted a very picture for the community on why cyber security is critical now more than ever.

Most of the coders in Lamu had not participated in the virtual sessions because of a number of issues, mainly internet connectivity. The three days in Lamu were broken down into learning how to create digital assets like posters, social media graphics and animations. This was the first time the coders were able to design graphics online using canva.com. Canva allowed those with no prior graphics design experience to design a poster by the end of the session. The facilitator emphasized how this skill could easily enable the coders in Lamu make a living by designing different arrays (brochures, certificates or event posters) of graphics for their community. The community of coders were also introduced to blogging using wordpress.com. WordPress platform will allow the coders to tell stories, create personal portfolios and websites for businesses.

On the other hand, in Nakuru, the aspiring coders assembled at the American Corner Nakuru and were able to acquire skills in web and mobile development. In fact, the coders learned web development basics, created sample websites and obtained digital resources that they could leverage to learn more. Secondly, the coders learned mobile app development using Kodular, and installed sample apps they created on their phones. Additionally, they were able to explore other technologies to use when creating mobile app solutions. Ultimately, the coders joined the virtual cybersecurity session where one of the facilitators joined virtually through zoom.