We would like to start off 2021 by saying a big Thank you for your tremendous support and commitment to the ATG vision. We thought we'd take a moment to review our activities for the past year, in case you missed any of it. You'll also be the first to see what's coming in 2021. Better days ahead!
2020 was quite the year as a result of the pandemic, lockdown and other ongoing situations in the country. Please continue to remain safe in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. You remain in our thoughts as we look forward to each of us coming out of this stronger.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to inspire and equip girls and young women with STEM skills and education virtually. We organised 9 virtual training sessions which included IamRemarkable workshops, web development training, Hour of Code and more, launched our first physical product while impacting over 154 girls and women. Most of these would not have been possible without your support and generosity through funds raised by Board Members, friends of the organisation and platforms like GlobalGiving and Benevity.
IamRemarkable
In light of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, we hosted only virtual programs to impact girls and women. In May, Afro-Tech Girls hosted our first IamRemarkable session, a Google initiative to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond, breaking modesty norms and glass ceilings.
We continued to hold monthly IamRemarkable sessions with different facilitators and guest speakers and had over 50 women in attendance. It was a highly interactive and engaging close session among a group of people, very insightful as we had different women share their experiences and learn from each other especially in their workplace.
Virtual Trainings
Airtable
Understanding the need for teams to coordinate better especially since the pandemic changed the ways teams collaborate and work, with most people working remotely, we organised a virtual team collaboration workshop facilitated by Morenike Adewale-Sadik. It was aimed at sharing ways to increase you and your team's productivity using a platform called Airtable.
Hour of Code
We also hosted an ‘Hour of Code’ session on the 30th May for girls in secondary school, designed to teach coding through a one-hour introduction to computer science and broaden participation in the field of computer science. It was a hands-on session facilitated by Adaora Asiegbu who introduced the participants to coding using scratch based programming.
Web development Training
On the 7th of July, we hosted a website development training for beginners with post-secondary / university students and young professionals.It ran over a 4-week period (2 classes per week). The workshop was structured to be hands-on , with the aim to introduce the basics of website design using HTML and CSS. Temitayo Obawole, a web developer and data scientist exposed the participants to HTML and CSS which they used in designing a website over the 4 weeks period which they presented at the end of the workshop.
Rising Female Training
We also partnered with The Rising Female, an organisation focused on women empowerment, to deliver a 6-week online STEM training for girls aged 16+ in August. The program covered training in 4 courses; web design, graphic design, digital collaboration and Excel basics with over 40 women in attendance.
The web design training introduced participants how to design a custom website from scratch using Wix, also provided information on how to set up and register their own domain name. Participants also learnt how to use Canva to design beautiful logos, social media posts and marketing campaigns to promote their business or hobby.
They also learnt how to collaborate with your teams effectively, no matter how large or small to ensure that no tasks get forgotten using airtable and use Excel and/or Google Sheets to clean data, perform simple operations and create clear and precise charts to communicate your data and results.
Data Analytics training
In December, we organised a 3 - day (Saturday only) virtual Data Analytics workshop in December training for post-secondary / university students and young professionals structured to expose and educate on technology tools available in data analytics to empower data with the skills for data driven decision making.
Ms. Njideka Okafor, a senior associate, Data Analytics, Big 4 consulting facilitated the hands-on workshop and introduced participants to predictive analysis and the application of power BI in data analytics with 18 women in attendance.
In person Training
STEM In Africa Conference
Afro-Tech Girls partnered with Fara Bakare to provide volunteers at the STEM In Africa (SIA) conference which was held on the 16th July, 2020. STEM In Africa conference is an event aimed at enlightening underserved children aged 6-14 years old about the joys of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through workshops and experiments. The volunteers helped facilitate the workshops and conduct experiments and also assist in coordinating the children at the conference.
Product Launch
Finally, we launched our first product in September, the STEM @ Home kit designed for teens and preteens (age 10+) to help learn and apply science and technology at home through experiential learning. Through the kits, the kids get the opportunity to learn how to make their own lip balm and build a robotic prosthetic arm. The product aims to help kids learn at home without any boundaries like power and internet access, especially with recent adaptation to hybrid/remote learning. it contains all materials required for the experiments, as well as a step-by-step guide making it ideal for children to do with minimal supervision. We also have instructional videos on our YouTube channel to help your child carry out experiments with ease.
A STEM @ Home kit costs N3500 and can be purchased directly on our website www.afrotechgirls.org/shop. We are working hard to make this product accessible to everyone so there's also an opportunity to donate a kit to a girl from a low income background. We're working with schools and other institutions in Lagos to identify girls who would benefit the most from this but may not be able to afford it and have so far donated 71 kits, thanks to the support from wonderful individuals in our network. If you would like to donate, please visit our website or donate to our project on GlobalGiving.
Thank You!
Thank you for believing in our organization and our goals. We will continue to keep you updated on our events and activities as they unfold and remain ever grateful to you!
You can also visit our website www.afrotechgirls.org, follow us on social media @afrotechgirls or contact us on info@afrotechgirls.org
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