At Girls Can Code! technology camps organized by volunteers in Peace Corps Zambia, girls learn basic computer skills, from typing to using a mouse. By the end of the camp, they are skilled in popular programming languages such as Python and Scratch.
In Zambia, 3,600 girls have learned to code through an innovative project designed by Peace Corps volunteers. The project, known as Girls Can Code!, teaches adolescent girls from rural and disadvantaged communities to code by harnessing the power of Raspberry Pi, a low-powered computer designed by a former Cambridge University professor. At Girls Can Code! technology camps organized throughout Zambia by Bevington and his fellow Peace Corps volunteers, girls first learn basic computer skills, from typing to using a mouse. By the end of the camp, they are skilled in popular programming languages such as Python and Scratch. The camps are facilitated in partnership with the Zambian non-profit, Hackers Guild, comprised of young, tech-savvy Zambians who love computers, technology, and programming.
“It is a male-dominated culture where girls and young women in rural Zambia find limited roles in society. For many of them, this is the first time in their life where someone believed in them,” said Peace Corps volunteer and Girls Can Code! founder Daniel Bevington, of Lyons, Colorado.
In addition to their two-year traditional deployments, Peace Corps also has deployments of 4 to 12 months, under its Peace Corps Response initiative, and often, there are ICT-related roles.