Train 60 girls in computer coding in Afghanistan

"At the beginning of this year, I had lots of problem in English, I couldn’t even read a simple text but by joining this course I improved a lot. Now I can talk in English very easily. I even teach English to my siblings at home and I really feel proud of myself and the credit of my achievement goes to Womanity and my respectable trainer. Thank You.” Karima, English student

Karima is just one student who illustrates of the positive impact of your support for Womanity’s work in Afghanistan. Thanks to your generosity, Karima has benefited from improved, targeted tuition, which has helped her develop new skills to the extent that she is now sharing her knowledge with her family – thereby multiplying the impact of your gift even further.

Over the course of 2018, Womanity has directly touched the lives of 607 young women like Karima in Afghanistan – giving them core skills that will enable them to contribute to their community and support their families through improved employability.

Sadly the volatile security situation in Afghanistan means that some parents are reluctant to allow their daughters to travel to school or work. Womanity has engaged with students and their families in developing courses which meet the needs of aspiring young women.  We have found that this creates greater buy-in from parents for their daughters’ participation, which has in turn boosted enrolment and attendance.

With regard to teacher training, we have provided peer-to-peer support from senior trainers, covering topics such as methodology, time and classroom management, and conflict management. Our coding teachers also benefited from a course provided by a local graphic design agency on WordPress and Laravel framework to help keep their technical skills up-to-date.  

All of these factors have meant that Womanity has engaged more young women students in 2018 than in previous years – helping change more lives for the better.

At the end of the academic year, we carried out a survey amongst students so we could improve our courses for future cohorts. It was very gratifying that 99% stated that they felt respected by their teachers, and a similar ratio stated that they felt able to ask questions and get the answers that they needed. 

Below Harira and Mariam explain the benefits of the ICT classes that they participated in:

"During the ICT class I learned a lot of programs that were very useful. In this period of time, I made a lot of efforts and made a lot of progress. This course raised my self-confidence and changed my life. The programs I learned in this course can be used in school or in the work environment. My family encouraged me very much. My trainer’s teaching method was excellent and she gave us more tutorials to work well."Harira, ICT student

“I am very happy that I could finish the coding class. It is a huge success in my life. (…) I want to learn more about it until an advanced level since I want to study computer science in the future. I thank my dearest trainers who worked hard with us with true sincerity and Womanity for providing us such opportunity.” Mariam, coding student

On behalf of everyone at Womanity and the young women in Afghanistan, thank you for your wonderful support! Together we are giving young women opportunities to learn vocation skills that will enhance their status and enable them to contriubute to their families and communities. 

The Womanity Foundation is continuing the 3-year program Girls Can Code (GCC) in Afghanistan, more precisely in Kabul City. It is a vocational training taught in girl high schools. The most motivated students of each 4 impacted schools in 10^thgrade follow English classes, then enroll in basic computer literacy (ICT) classes in the following year (11^thgrade). Eventually, in 12^thgrade, students follow the Introduction to Coding and Web Development course. 

All trainers employed by Womanity for the GCC programme  have a university degree in the same domain of their training. They are all competent and skillful. However, they are also young professionals and eager to learn and develop even more their set of competences. In order to have more impactful training, some asked to receive in depth training in certain areas of their teaching. This is why Womanity organized some capacity building training.

The local office of Womanity Afghanistan contacted a Kabul-based graphic design company to give a course for our coding trainers about the LaRavel framework in August. Moreover, senior ICT trainers organized some workshops for their peers on different aspects of teaching such as methodology, time and classroom management, confidence in class, conflict management for ICT trainers. Lastly, the external technical monitor of English classes carried out workshops for English trainers about Classroom Management and Development of trainers' confidence.

All trainers (a total of 12 + 4 assistants) were very happy to receive such capacity-building opportunities. Womanity believes these courses/workshops will allow them to be even better prepared when teaching their classes.

Links:

• Celebrating Girls Can Code during the International Day of Girls