As part of the BBC’s Young, Geeky and Black series looking at black coders, Bola Mosuro travelled to Ghana to meet women and girls being taught to code by a non-profit group, the Achievers Ghana, which aims to bring an education to girls living in slums.
This is a coding class, organised by the Achievers Ghana of Nima. About 80 girls attend in this classroom on the first floor of the local mosque.
Girls being taught HTML and how to make web pages. Achievers also aims to give these girls a voice which they’re expressing through websites and blogs.
Resources are hard to come by – so most of the class is taught on paper. Electricity is also a problem, as there are regular blackouts. There are a couple of laptops, which the girls crowd around to practice their skills.
The mostly Muslim girls come from far and wide to Achievers each day to get training in a number of courses, including coding.
This coding class was originally started with the help of local NGO Tech Needs Girls, founded by several successful female coders. As well as teaching coding, they’ve also brought mentors to meet the girls.
Amadu Mohammed used to work in a bank. Now he runs the Achievers Ghana. It was set up in 2011 by a young girl called Amina. At the age of 12 she was saved from being forced into a child marriage thanks to Amadu, who at the time was giving children in Nima extra lessons.
Nima is one of the largest and poorest districts in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It suffers from inadequate infrastructure and services.
Rasheeda’s grandmother wants her to be educated, but doesn’t have the money to send her to school, so she sees the Achievers club as a gift from God.
Achievers Ghana 