Teaching Girls to Code in Lebanon
Published on 12/07/2022
29 girls save kittens in a magical Internet Universe using code
Kittens and coding
Mira*, a 14-year-old girl from Hay al-Gharbeh, used a computer for the first time last week. But she didn’t just open Word… She set off on an adventure to save kittens in a magical Internet Universe using code.
Along her adventure, which took place at Beirut Digital District, and was a collaboration between CodeBrave, Erase All Kittens and Forward MENA, she learnt the foundations of HTML programming – the foundation upon which all websites function. It’s an important one…
“I learned a lot of new things today”
By the end of the day, Mira and her 29 classmates were able to code their own webpage using HTML and CSS displaying their favourite recipe – an incredible achievement for girls many of whom had never used a computer before! We were very impressed.
The 29 girls who participated attend an informal education centre in Hay al-Gharbeh called Tahaddi. The area is an extremely disadvantaged part of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
As part of the event, the girls also received a career guidance session by Nooreed, to explore the different types of jobs available and start thinking about which jobs they might be interested in pursuing.
When asked what could have been better, one girl said: “The day could have been longer!”
Teaching girls to code
“Now I understand what a computer language is”
Teaching girls to code in Lebanon is important because not only does it open up potential jobs in the technology field, but also builds creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills that are useful whatever their future holds. Digital literacy is essential for children in today’s world as it’s a basic part of 21st century education.
The start of a beautiful journey…
This event is only the first step on these girls’ coding journey! Next school year, 36 girls at Tahaddi will start their coding journey with CodeBrave. We’re excited to see what they’ll build with the skills of the future.