Django Girls Abuja

This blog post was written by Mayokun Adeoti. Thank you, Mayokun Adeoti :) 

In the Beginning.

Organizing Django Girls Abuja is one of the amazing growth experiences I have had in a very long time. On exploring through the Django Girls Foundation website on the ^1st of January 2018, I realized that there was no event slated to hold in Abuja – despite being the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, and events were slated in many other cities across Nigeria. “Could it be that no one has got the guts to do this, or people just ain’t interested?” I soliloquized, and then followed it up immediately with an application to Organize – Press. I instantly received a confirmation email that my application has been received.

Not knowing what to expect next, I went on with my life. A week later I received an email from Aisha Bello requesting for more info about me, which I supplied. On 22nd of January, my request to Organize Django Girls Abuja was approved. At this stage, I had absolutely no idea how it was going to become a reality, no ideas about funding organizations, sponsors, partners, coaches etc. I absolutely knew nothing, except the fact that I truly desire to contribute to public good, and especially in the tech space - since I’m a techie, and what better make an impact than women empowerment. Django Girls was right platform, and with this intense desire and strong faith, I just knew I could do it!

Exactly a month after I applied, 2^nd of February, 2018, I chatted with the Admin of Ventures Platform over facebook messenger and was warmly attended to. I requested to know how to go about hosting the workshop in their space and was directed to write a letter to the Manager. I wrote and printed the letter, and proceeded to the hub that same day. On meeting Nkechi Oti, the Manager, I couldn’t help but notice the look of surprise and bewilderment on her face, “Wow, you people are giving us a very long notice” she said. I felt like “yeah”, grinning from ear to ear. It was nice to be on time. The event was about 3 months away.

I later emailed Nkechi a copy of our request, asking specifically for use of their space as venue and “other venue logistics” for the event - for free. After a series of email exchanges, the use of the space was approved, in addition, we could also make use of their Projector and Public Address System. This was definitely a good start. Having secured a comfy venue for the event, I reinstalled a fresh operating system and went back to my normal life.

Earlier in January, I had somehow stumbled on the grants approval page of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) and discovered that they were very big and regular donors to Django Girls Events across the globe. I had registered as a member of the PSF also in January, and at this point decided to send a grant request. True to their (our-since I’m a member now) nature, I got a response, but it stated that my dreams were too huge.  The PSF prefers to support small workshops, “something between 30 to 60 participants”, the mail said. I immediately rewrote the grant request to fit this requirement and fired it back. Then followed a series of email exchanges and KABOOM – Enter Eng. Chuks.

The President of Python Nigeria would like to know what my romance with Python was. Obviously, I was an unknown in the Ecosystem. Also, how would I be getting coaches to come and mentor at the workshop? This questions jolted me out of my reverie, and even though I couldn’t claim to be a world-class python programmer yet, I knew to organize this workshop was very possible, after all I’m a past president of a Local JCI Chapter, and also a current Startup Grind Director, and the CEO of my own company. By the time we got off chatting that day, I believe Eng. Chuks was satisfied with my responses, cos I never heard from him again. He had completed his due diligence check. His guts and passion I celebrate. Our chat that day propelled me to join the Python Nigeria Slack Channel and mailing list, thereby becoming a member of the family.

Time flew quickly unbeknownst to myself and my Co-organizers, Agnes Ameh, Williams Onaji and Simi Olusola. Simi was the first ever organizer of Django Girls in Abuja, and Aisha Bello had connected us all together. We somehow thought April 28 was still some very distant future, it wasn’t until the 23^rd of March, almost a month to D-day that we sent out the first set of Local sponsorship requests. We listed some Technology Companies in Abuja City and some Government Agencies we thought should be excited about the forthcoming programme. We were able to make a single dispatch that day, though all the remaining letters were printed, signed and packaged. I proceeded to Ibadan to be Best-Man for a close friend getting married, and in my absence, Williams took up captain-ship. I returned to Abuja one week later.

Williams drove the length and breadth of Abuja, dispatching letters and filing the acknowledgement copies (we would need these for follow up someday). Being a seasoned administrator, he also ensured he got personal phone numbers of one or two persons in the organizations (we would need these too for follow up). He ensured to keep in touch with these contact persons, and then one by one, we began getting replies.

First to shoot us a mail was United Nations Women. Our funding request was coming a bit late, and due to budgetary restrictions, they won’t be able to give us any financial support, however, their mail read:

UN women recognizes and supports your work in the area of empowering women to organize workshops and making technology more approachable by women. As part of our support towards the workshop, UN Women will be able to provide your organization with Information, Educational and Communications materials such as pens and notepads through its “Promoting Women’s Engagement in Peace and Security Project.

That was some refreshing juice, at least stationery have now been taking care off, and that from UN Women. I proceeded to include their logo on the event website immediately, and shoot them a mail of appreciation, making a mental note to go pick up the materials someday before the event.

Let me mention that all along, I had been fiddling with the event website, and updating it where and when necessary. It wasn’t much of an issue since I happen to somewhat of a web developer, though the system does have its own learning curve, I was able to quite be a master at it. A piece of cake!

Next soothing relief came from a company from which we had no prior contact person in the organization. Apart from the phone numbers Williams collected while dispatching the letters, we had some friends in some of these organizations whom we hoped would help put in a word for us with their management. But, we knew absolutely nobody in Phase3 Telecom.

Phase3 Telecom turned out to be the only Local Sponsor that made a financial donation. They decided they would be assisting us with money to cover the cost of Stationery, which was the same Item UN Women already asked us to come and pick. Well, it’s all good, “we’d find a way around the matter”, we thought.

We kept following up with other organizations to see what kind of support we could get, and I remember spending the whole day in the Visitor’s lounge of a prestigious Government Agency, waiting to see the Director General, all to no avail. We remained undaunted in our search for support, armed with the knowledge of the good we were up to. This knowledge gave us wings.

We received financial donations from Python Software Foundation, Github Foundation and Django Software Foundation (all foreign donors). This money helped to cover the budget for the Workshop in such a way that everyone had a ball.

All this while, the registrations page for the workshop was live and the registrations were trickling in. We used several mediums to get participants which included facebook ads, twitter and chatting friends up and encouraging them to tell their friends who may be interested. We hadn’t gotten enough signups by 10^th April when registration was initially supposed to end, so we extended it by another 10 days. By the 20^th of April we had a total of 76 registrations, and truthfully we accepted everybody! - reason being that some would somehow naturally not show up due to one reason or the other. We wanted to avoid a situation whereby we would screen some people out, and then maybe some who were accepted for the workshop would still not turn up.

Our reasoning turned out to be correct, cos we eventually had a class of 48 participants. 41 Women and 7 Men.

Call for Coaches.

Since I had been using the official email address abuja@djangogirls.org for all communications, I had access to the correspondences that took place between Simi and all partners, sponsors, coaches and participants during the First Edition. This made my life a lot easy, cos I was just copying and pasting. I would really want to applaud her for a job well done. My organizing and communication skills were somewhat sharpened by all the communications in the mailbox – I just had to gleam through the emails to know what to do, when to do and how to do – especially as Day-D approached. It was my own secret “organizers manual”. From it, I got the email addresses, and phone numbers of all the coaches from Edition 1, about 20 of them. I sent a group mail introducing myself and asked if they would like to coach again. Almost immediately Godfrey Umoru replied with a very big YES. “19 more to go”, I thought and patiently waited for their responses.

I had to follow every one of them on twitter, tweet at them, DM them, and then finally call some before 3 more coaches could be confirmed from the group. Now it’s time to go beast mode, and thus I made posts on the Python Nigeria facebook page, Silicon Africa Facebook page, and Python Nigeria Slack Workspace. This did the magic, as I began receiving emails, calls and chats from all over Nigeria, and even from Ghana. I accepted almost all, cos, after all, they are in high demand. The only challenge was that “we wouldn’t be able to fund your travel expenses”, but if you can make it to Abuja, we’ll take care of your accommodation and feeding all through your stay. How I wish we had a really massive War Chest, it would have been nice to have coaches from all over the world at the workshop. We eventually settled for those coaches from Abuja who signified interest, and two from Neighboring Minna and one from Jos - we may just be able to afford their travel expenses.

Workshop Day.

Two weeks to workshop day we had to take a number of BIG bold steps, like following up with Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. - NIGGCOMSAT to come to provide internet service for the participants on Workshop day, writing to the Nigerian Television Authority - NTA headquarters to come to cover the event, writing to some classy hotels around the city to give us a few rooms to accommodate coaches coming from outside Abuja. NIGCOMSAT and NTA approved our requests and graciously showed up at the event. NIGCOMSAT sent 5 technical staff, who were on ground to set up their satellite and 5 management staff on Workshop day. NTA sent 3 staff who shot videos of the Workshop, interviewed organizers, coaches, and participants.

I had earlier created a WhatsApp group and added all the coaches to it together with all the organizers, and we began to get to know one another. We reviewed the coaching manual and tutorial. We were able to form a family-like bond despite some having never met, this was a good thing. I had also emailed participants and requested they confirm attendance by sending their full names and a “YES” to my phone number. Only one person sent a “NO”, to indicate she wouldn’t be able to attend, the rest were positive. I then proceeded to create a WhatsApp group for participants and sent an invitation link to all who had sent in confirmations. Many joined the group and thence was born a very close-knit Django Girls Abuja family – 3 weeks after the workshop when the WhatsApp group was to be finally deprecated (closed), it all felt very emotional. We had grown to become very close friends who enjoyed one another’s company.

Still, on WhatsApp groups, we had 3 participants assigned to 1 coach where they received pre-workshop briefings. This really helped in getting the participants well-tuned for the training. We conducted a poll on Twitter to choose a class representative, and Funmilayo Ogunfowora emerged. By installation party day, it felt as though we had known one another for years, even though many were just meeting for the first time. The energy was extremely positive!

The installfest was held at IBI Center – a very cute training/events centre in Wuse 2, the heart of Abuja. The CEO had graciously permitted us the use of the space for free. Coach Kelechi Egbosi was the first to arrive from Jos, followed by Coach Efoseh Fachano, and then Coach Nnamdi Okoro also arrived from Minna, and then Coach Samuel Omole, Coach Mopah Shewuri, and finally, Coach Godfrey Umoru also came straight to the Venue from Kaduna State. 33 participants showed up on that day. It was a full house, and later that evening when we shared the pictures in the coaches WhatsApp group for some who couldn’t make it that day to see, someone said “Wow… All these for installation party???” It was an amazing day, and the coaches did an awesome job with the installations, though we had some a few glitches, and couldn’t get everybody’s system set up.

On workshop day, participants began arriving as early as 7am to Ventures Park. Everybody looking branded in their Django Girls T-shirts. They had been given the Tees a day before. Coaches, Organizers, etc, everyone was on point, and since NIGCOMSAT had arrived with their internet service, we immediately swung into completing all necessary installs and breakfast. By 9.00 am the Workshop proper was underway. Coaches Jennifer Kwentoh, Sammie Akpata and Sylvernus Akubo joined the team of coaches and were super awesome in guiding the participants. Participants followed the instructions of the coaches and many of them were able to successfully publish their website before the day was over. They were introduced to programming and web development in HTML, CSS, Python and Django.

There was a tea break at 11.30 am, and a sumptuous Lunch by 2.00pm. Participants were also excited to meet with some of the sponsors who made the event possible. We had a total of 10 guests from NIGCOMSAT, and the participants were addressed – with a further donation of some writing materials by the company. We had 2 guests from Phase 3 Telecom who also gave their goodwill messages to participants. Representatives from Ventures Park were also present to give goodwill messages to the participants. These companies spoke briefly about what they do, how they can be of service and invited participants to join their communities. It was all very colourful. We ensured to make these guests feel at ease and treated them all to a sumptuous lunch of peppery Jollof rice and soft drinks. Every organization present was also given a pack which contained every workshop item including swags and T-shirts. We made sure to take lots of photos with them all.

The staff of Ventures Park were really friendly, and helpful. They ran to meet our every need in such a way that you’d think we paid to use the space. Ifeanyi, Chioma, Joseph, etc - all truly nice people!

For the Photography, I was fortunate to have Ayuba Tuodolo, a good friend of mine show up with professional equipment, and take amazing photos.

Throughout the program, and even at the meetup which held almost a month later, Agnes Ameh ensured that everyone had more than enough food and drinks. She was exceptional in the catering department, and this reflected in feedback form filled online by attendees 4 days after the workshop. Many still had a craving for the delicious and ubiquitous chin-chin.

The workshop ended with everyone exchanging personal contacts and taking lots of pictures.

Two days later, Monday 30^th April 2018, we were on the Nigeria Television Authority - NTA Nationwide News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUW1ZMv1aHI&t

Three days later, Coach Samuel Omole wrote a blog post on the event on medium https://medium.com/@samuelomole/eat-sleep-code-54b510cdf9f4

One week later, we got invited to attend a meetup organized by Coach Jennifer Kwentoh for Women in Machine Learning and Data Science. It was attended by 7 Django Girls

Two weeks later, we got invited to attend a Girls In ICT event in Abuja, which was attended by 6 of the participants, and one of the Django Girls, Emerald Orji, addressed the Audience in a 5 mins speech talking about her experience at the workshop, and emerging trends in ICT.

On the 19^th of May, 2018, we had a meetup at IBI Center that was attended by 23 of the participants and 4 coaches. It was an epic reunion and another day of coding and fun. Django Girls Certificates were awarded to all the participants, coaches and organizers. Pictures were taken, and everyone went home happy, excited and empowered. Till we meet again.

Special thanks to our sponsors – NIGCOMSAT for providing internet connectivity and the donating Writing Pads, UN Women for Donating Writing pads and Pens, Ventures Park for giving us a Nice Comfy Venue for the workshop, IBI Foundation for also giving us a great venue for the installation party and meetup, Python Software Foundation, Github Foundation, Django Software Foundation and Phase3 Telecom for supporting us financially.

Big thanks to all the super awesome and dependable coaches – Samuel Omole, Egbosi Kelechi, Nnamdi Okoro, Efoseh Fachano, Godfrey Umoru, Mopah Shewuri, Sammie Akpata, Chris Ogwara, Sylvernus Akubo and Jennifer Kwentoh.

Super-duper thanks to my co-organizers for their courage, faith, resilience and sense of purpose – Agnes Ameh, Williams Onaji and Simi Olusola. You guys rock! We did it, and I hope we can do this together again.

To God be the Glory,

Check out all the pictures on www.facebook.com/djangogirlsabj. Also, follow us on www.twitter.com/djangogirlsabj and www.instagram.com/djangogirlsabj

Eat. Sleep. Code.

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