[Kibera slums]
[Renice Owino founder of Code With Kids]
[Owino walking with children]
[Coding lessons]
Renice Owino (interview): “Most kids programs in Nairobi go for approximately Ksh 5000 which is around $50. This is way out of the pocket for parents in Kibera. For us, Code With Kids, we bring the same program to the kids in Kibera at the affordable price of ksh 50 per session. Parents are able to pay for this Ksh 50 without feeling a strain and the kids are able to learn. We at Code With Kids are giving these young learners a free kick to their future.”
[Coding lessons]
Renice Owino (interview): “Currently we are seeing more girls coming for the program. This was a challenge when we started and it was really hard convincing these girls to come. But just seeing these young girls come to the program, be there in the forefront, code and just control the robots is just success for me.”
[Children operating robots]
Renice Owino (interview): “Sometimes we have to literally tell the kids that the time is up and they have to go home. If the kids were bored with the program they would just walk out and go but just seeing them extend their time and just continue learning, it shows that they really enjoy what they are learning.”
[Coding lessons]
Renice Owino (interview): “Our future plan is to start looking for internships for our learners. Even if it is one week internships where they can go during their school holidays, they can go to a tech firm and just learn. Just give them the feel of a real profession or we can just, another thing we are looking forward to doing is putting them with people who are in careers, who are already doing this in their career so that they can be their mentors, people they can look up to directly, people they can have calls with, people they can just talk with about their career path and how they can get there.”
[Coding lessons]
Nancy Anyango (interview): ” Now the world is moving faster and everything is connected to technology so it is important for me to do this so that I can be competent for my future.”
Hemedi Mbiu (interview): ” I like to play football but when I started doing coding it was very nice. I just said that I should leave football and come to coding because coding helps me in programming the Mbots and it is fun.”
[Anne Njine, an Education Specialist for Opportunity International EduFinance, working on her laptop]
Anne Njine (interview): ” It helps and equips the learners to become collaborators because whenever you are working on a project, you can’t work alone. It also helps them to have articulate skills where they are able to know what they want and what they are going for, but it also helps them to tap into their creativity and imagination, a skill that is rarely tapped into so when we talk about technology, it just helps them to bloom and just open up and become curious and explore. So that is the main reasons why STEM or technology is really important in education.”
[Coding lessons]
Anne Njine (interview): ” It has been said that in the next 15 years 75 percent of the jobs will be through technology and once we expose our children they are able to feel hopeful for the future because they are moving in the direction that the world of work is moving into so by the time they are ready for work, they will be equipped and ready to go into the world of work with the right key skills that are needed for employability.”
[Owino walking in Kibera slums]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.