Technology And An Ancient City: The Story Of Django Girls Ilorin

This blog post was written by Adebisi Adewusi. Thank you, Adebisi:) 

In January, a friend on Facebook asked me to search for Django Girls on Google. I’m glad I did.

Hi, my name is Adebisi Adewusi and I organized Django Girls Ilorin. My partner in crime was Nike Adelodun.

As an unabashed feminist, I participate in anything that will improve the lives of women and girls. Therefore, when I found out Django Girls would introduce women to technology and programming, I was in. My eagerness to introduce women and girls in my community to the amazing world of technology made me check my e-mail every day for Lucie’s approval e-mail.

Approval in hand, I set out to find previous organizers of Django Girls events in Nigeria.  Although I had read the organizers manual, I wanted to have an idea of what I needed to do to make Django Girls Ilorin a success.

Consequently, I reached out to previous organizers via Twitter and to my surprise, they were thrilled to help. Stating how each person helped would take up a lot of blog space. However, in summary, Aisha, Ujas, and Simi were amazing. They were my virtual co-organizers. Thank you, ladies. (I must at this point state that the Django Girls Community in Nigeria is amazing!)

Once the proposal was ready, figuring how to get sponsors was a huge task. First, Ilorin is not a commercial city. Second, many people don’t quite understand the magic of technology yet. Third, I had a full-time job. So, escaping from work to speak with potential sponsors was almost impossible. 

To solve the problem of getting sponsors, I decided to take my search for sponsors online and literally became a stalker (lol). Using Twitter, Facebook and Linkedln, I reached out to technology companies and individuals that I felt would love to support us. While I didn’t get many responses, we did receive support from Python Software Foundation, GitHub, SEAP, Together With Google Developers and an anonymous donor.  I also made new friends in my stalking process :)

While I looked for funds, there was the issue of getting attendees. Being a conservative town, it was a bit difficult identifying people who would be interested. Again, we turned to social media. We got influencers to help us broadcast the event and got over 70 applications.

Getting coaches was not difficult as we reached out to previous Django Girls Coaches who gladly came through for us. We also had the youngest coach in Django Girls too! TJ!

I forgot to mention I nearly went crazy expecting my swag bag. I thought it would never arrive on time. But it did. YAY! (Note to new organizers always order early and save yourself the nerve wrecking wait).

Django Girls Ilorin was held on the 21st and 22nd of April 2017 at Queens Elizabeth Secondary School Ilorin. The location was quite special as it’s the first female secondary school in North-Central Nigeria. We had 27 amazing attendees who were totally thrilled to learn how to code. The food was awesome and surplus too!! (We had to have #nigerianjollof lol).

The feedback from the event made everything worthwhile. After the event, I curled up and had a good sleep.

If you’re new to Django Girls here are a few tips to help you get sponsors.

• Talk about your event constantly. We created a buzz on social media. That’s how we got a venue and media coverage.
• Don’t be scared to use social media. Pinning our sponsorship request on my personal Twitter handle caught the eye of one of our sponsors.
• Ask influencers in your circle for help.
• Don’t be discourage when you get a negative response from potential sponsors. You’ll eventually get a yes.

During the process of Django Girls Ilorin, I often wondered if I hadn’t taken more than I could handle. However, in the midst of making sure Django Girls Ilorin was a success, I learned to:

•        Never be afraid of asking
•        Believe
•        Get out of my comfort zone
•        The importance of community
•        Never take “NO” personal

These are important lessons that’ll stay with me forever. I also made friends with amazing young women doing great things despite the odds. Following the success of Django Girls Ilorin, I have found the courage to do more and go on to increase my advocacy for women and girls. I hope more Django Girls Events will continue to hold across the world and help women start careers in tech and stay in tech.

Watch a short video of our event here and take a look at our fun photos here.

P.S Going through my e-mail I found out I missed an e-mail from a potential sponsor. (lol). (Always check your email).

If you want help any way feel free to gives us a shout out @djangogirlsilo

Cupcakes and High fives.