​ImagiNation Afrika​

Dakar, Senegal, 2014, April 25​
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Event Dates: 11-12, 19, 25 April 2014

Sponsors: British Council, Jjiguene Tech Hub Senegal

For three days in April, the British Council Connecting Classrooms and ImagiNation Afrika gathered together 22 girls from various high schools in Dakar and its suburbs for "Coding Camp". The gathering was both an initiation into the world of ICT and a leadership training.  In part one of the camp, girls were trained in computer programming and leadership. They also developed their own mobile applications.  During the second part, which took place on 25 April, an exhibition of the applications developed by the girls took place and Jjiguene Tech Hub, a Dakar-based association of women coders, took visitors from local high schools through "One Hour of Code" (code.org).

The three-day workshop and the wrap-up event was organized around three themes:

Know your stuff

Girls were encouraged to understand the world and logic of online coding, including HTML, CSS and JQuery, through classes led by IRT.

Know Each Other

Through a Mentor Lunch and Speaker series, girls were invited to build a network of present and future tech leaders. Participating mentors and speakers included Jjiguene Tech, a technology hub in Senegal; Tidjane Deme, Head of Google, Francophone West Africa, Jokkolabs, a Dakar-based co-working space and tech hub; interns from Microsoft; and other technology entrepreneurs.  

Know Your Future

Highly interactive leadership training sessions helped participants change behaviours, change thinking and change perceptions.In honor of Girls in ICT Day, ImagiNation Afrika and the British Council had the closing ceremony for the ICT training workshops, "Coding Camp", held earlier this month in partnership with seven high schools in Dakar.