5 girls under a tree.

You have got to start somewhere so where better to develop the roots of an outstanding organisation than under a tree!

It was from this source that the pioneering Sekenani Girls High School first emerged on the Masai Mara under the auspices of Educating The Children (ETC) and it has since grown into an award-winning institution housing 400 students. As well as being a place study it acts as a safe haven from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage, and hard labor. Many graduates have scooped prizes and moved onto further education and jobs that would have been quite beyond their reach otherwise.

ETC was the brainchild of Sonal Kadchha and she has repeated the formula behind Sekenani through the creation of Code Queen, which has evolved with a twin goal. It sought to capitalise on the movement surrounding the empowerment of young women in East Africa with the recognition that technological innovation and absorption in the region would underpin much of its future success. Code Queen is at the forefront of this trend and it is harnessing this latent talent.

Business in Africa does present certain complexities, especially concerning governance and infrastructure, but there is no question that the continent is rippling with opportunity.

Take a youthful and burgeoning population in particular, add a dash of improvisation, energy, and hard work and just taste its potential. Code Queen trains and guides a new generation of budding female developers, coders, software engineers et al who are now even more so in demand in our digital COVID world but it needs your input too. 

The challenge is to accelerate the process and, consequently, we are inviting 500 sponsors, whether corporate or private, to support each individual Code Queen for £500 per annum. It is a relatively modest sum and will give you access to the cream of coding talent across East Africa and beyond. Let 2021 begin with 500 girls in front of a screen, rather than under a tree, and see where it takes them!