My Experience organizing Django girls Jos #1

This blog post was written by Katherine Amao. Thank you Katherine :) 

I first heard about Django Girls in February, 2017 and I thought to myself, Wow! It was like seeing the idea in my head in flesh and blood. However, I was a bit hesitant in applying to organize one here in Jos since I had not attended one myself before. A Django Girl Organizer, Mary Alenoghena, encouraged me to apply to organize the first Django girls in Jos. So, I applied. To my greatest surprise, I was accepted. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep that night. I kept seeing ladies all around Jos seated in a hall learning to code for the first time.

I started preparation immediately with my Co-Organizers, I read the manual back and front several times, it was very helpful. I communicated consistently with other Organizers, Mary Alenoghena, Tolu Alabi, Simi Olusola, and the Django Girls Slack Community so much that I felt like I had attended several Django Girls event already.

Getting Sponsors proved to be very difficult for us. For example, everywhere we applied to use as our venue, they kept us going round in circles. The joy of learning to code I hoped to see on the faces of the attendees just kept me joyful and hopeful. Finally, Python Software Foundation and Github gave us support. 3m’s Dynamic Services gave us their conference hall as Venue and we were good to go!

Publicity was another challenge for us, Django Girls was happening in Jos for the very first time and quite a lot of people had never heard of such an event before. We had Social media (Facebook and Twitter) platforms and posters but these didn’t prove effective for us until a local radio Station, JAYFM Jos, offered to support us. They ran the announcements for two weeks before the closing date of the registration. It was AWESOME! We had forty-four applications after the announcements and we kept receiving calls from individuals who were interested in the workshop even after the registration closed.

The installation day was GREAT! We started by receiving attendees and registering them by 10 am. By 11 am, we started the installation party. We had such exciting participants; they didn’t want us to close for the day even when it was time. Many wanted to stay on to continue coding. Our Coaches were amazing too! I thought it was great that day but the next day blew my mind.

Participants were on time, eager to start coding. We had a lightening talk from the ICT Coordinator Plateau State University, Mrs. Lydia Jonglapson. She, as a mother of two, a Programmer and Cyber Security expert was a great encouragement for the participants. She told the ladies that she was the only lady in her department and encouraged them to pursue careers in STEM fields. Her words were: “If I can do it, you can do it too”.

At the end of the workshop, some Coaches suggested making our next event, a three days’ workshop because there was so much to teach these ladies. The excitement on the faces of our participants at coding for the first time was balm to our exhausted Coaches and Organizers.

I can’t end this post without saying a very big “Thank You” to Django Girls, Python Software Foundation, Github, 3m’s Multi-dynamic Service, JayFM Jos, and Grant Elvis Galleria. We from Django Girls Jos Team love you and appreciate you.

Finally, I like to thank God for strengthening me with awesome people like Mr. Emmanuel Amao, and our awesome Coaches, I could not have done it alone, you guys ROCK!

If you would like to join us next time, as a participant, coach, or sponsor, follow us on https://www.facebook.com/djangogirlsjos/ or https://twitter.com/djangogirlsjos/ for updates.

Django Girls is a non-profit that teaches programming to women all around the world. Want to help us? Support us!