The Africa Code Week, a project by SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, has been launched in the capital Kigali with the participation of United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Rwandan Ministry of Education as strategic partners.
CAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) – THOUSANDS of African youths have benefitted from a massive initiative aiming to drive digital literacy in the continent.
SAP has wrapped up the second edition of the Africa Code Week (ACW) in Cape Town, South Africa after a week marked by over 1 500 coding events taking place across 30 African countries. Some 6 000 teachers, parents and local volunteers also benefitted.
This year, with the participation of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO’s) YouthMobile initiative and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as strategic partners, the nine-day event aimed at introducing coding to 150 000 young Africans aged 8 to 24 through free coding workshops and online courses ranging from Scratch all the way to Web programming.
The award-winning digital literacy initiative officially kicked off on October 15 in Kigali, Rwanda, with officials from SAP, Rwanda Ministry of Education, UNESCO and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Orchestrated by SAP in partnership with the Cape Town Science Centre and the Galway Education Centre, ACW relies on a growing network of nonprofits, government bodies, educational organizations, NGOs and
corporations across the continent.`
For the second year in a row, Google Inc. supported Africa Code Week 2016 by empowering organizations across Africa with micro-grants so they could multiply computational thinking and coding activities all over Africa using Google CS First enrichment materials.
Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director or EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP and ACW Lead, says beyond coding as the 21st century language, they are imparting the right skills and attitudes and a culture of innovation and creativity among young Africans.
She says ACW sheds light on how public-private partnerships can be renewed in the digital age for greater scale and impact.
“If young Africans see that governments, nonprofits and the private sector are working as one voice to deliver on joint education priorities, trust is seeded and they feel encouraged to start owning and living their
dreams.”
SAP – Africa Code Week received a Communication for Future award in the category ‘Education of the Future’ from the World Communications Forum in Davos in March, as well as the Judges’ Choice Award in the Corporate Initiative Category from the MIT Inclusive Innovation Competition in September.
–Guardian
