Studio Samuel announces that its new computer lab for programming and coding curriculum with its flagship impact program Training for Tomorrow will reach 100 girls by the end of this year. Through the combined efforts of The White Feather Foundation and GO Campaign, Studio Samuel has the resources to reach three times the number of girls from January to December 2016.
Through the Training for Tomorrow program, Studio Samuel works to impact the turning point in a girl’s life and to open pathways for girls to realize their potential and become self-reliant. Training for Tomorrow reaches a community in Addis Ababa that too often loses girls to child labor, trafficking, child marriage and more. The current students range in age from 9-18. Computer programming and coding arms the girls with vital skills, including problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Training for Tomorrow is held after school and on weekends at Studio Samuel’s Training Center, which also provides the girls with a safe haven while they learn.
Studio Samuel again will participate in Africa Code Week in fall 2016, after being one of eight events in Ethiopia in 2015. Africa Code Week brought hundreds of coding workshops to 20,000 youth from various age groups across 17 countries in Africa in October of last year. Studio Samuel held a hackathon at its training center and used the MIT youth-inspired coding program Scratch, which has been incorporated into the Training for Tomorrow curriculum. As a sponsor of Africa Code Week, Google held a micro-grant competition for over 350 participants throughout Africa to aid in logistics surrounding the event, and Studio Samuel was one of 46 winners.
Of last year’s participation, Claire Gillissen Duval, Corporate Social Responsibility Director for SAP (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and part of the Global Steering Committee for Africa Code Week, stated: “Studio Samuel together with Camara Education played a pivotal role in the success of Africa Code Week in Ethiopia by enabling hundreds of young girls to embrace the literacy of the 21st century, empowering the next generation of female leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs along the way.”
