GirlCode appeals for laptop donations

Durban – As we celebrate the last week of Mandela Month, local NPO GirlCode has appealed for donation of laptops for its learners. The organisation intends to identify 67 young women who are in need of laptops, to resume their coding learning and practices.

“Most companies replace their laptops annually and we would like to appeal to these organisations, as well as individuals who have spare laptops at their disposal, to please donate the laptops to us for the purpose of reusing them and sharing coding skills with the youth,” Zandile Mkwanazi, said CEO of GirlCode.

Over the years, GirlCode has provided coding training to more than 62 000 girls and young women across the country through its GirlCoder club – an online coding bootcamp and hackathons. Many young girls have been given opportunities to develop their skills in software development and have had exposure to other careers in STEM through this initiative.

Mkwanazi said GirlCode aims to impact more than 10 million young people across Africa over the next 10 years, and to one day become an institution of choice for females who are interested in STEM and digital technology.

“Covid-19 restrictions have had an adverse impact on most of us in one way or the other, and for GirlCode it resulted in setbacks with facilitating our activities as they require physical gatherings. This also has shown us that by not going into communities to conduct our programmes, it becomes more difficult to get young people to participate. And, this is purely based on our learners not having their own tools and resources to practice our programmes,” adds Mkwanazi.