DJANGO GIRLS VISITS THE MOUNTAINOUS CITY OF KWAHU - ABETIFI

This blog post was written by Hope Adoli. Thank you, Hope :)

Django Girls Kwahu was one of the first coding boot camps that took place in the area referred to as the highest habitable point of Ghana; Kwahu - Abetifi.

Kwahu or Kwawu people are hardworking and famous business-oriented Kwa-speaking people that form a subset of the larger Akan ethnic group living in south – central Ghana, on the west shore of Lake Volta. Kwahu people speak a dialect of Akan language called Twi and live specifically in the mountainous Eastern Region of Ghana in the towns such as Abene, Abetifi, Pepease, Atibie, Nkwatia, Obo, Bepong, Tafo, Akwasiho, Obomeng, Twenedurase, Nteso, Mpraeso, Asakraka, Aduamoa, Pitiko, Sadan, Burukuwa, Nkantanane, Ahinasie and Donkorkrom. Read more here

The workshop took place at the Abetifi campus of Presbyterian University College, from the 14th to the 15th of September, 2018. The main aim of this session was to involve these determined young ladies who did not have any prior coding experience to gain insight into what Python programming coding entails and equip themselves with basic coding skills. The activities for the two-day workshop was scheduled as follows:

Day 1

This started at approximately 4:00pm on Friday, 14th of September, 2018. We had introductions to get familiar with the girls and allowed them to network with their new friends they made there. The participants were showed how to correctly install all the software needed for the workshop. The installed setups include:

• Git
• Python
• Sublime Text 3

These were made available for both 32-bit and 64-bit machines.

After installation, the participants then went on to set up their Virtual Environments. Also, the Django Web Framework was installed using the PIP command. After successfully installing the various software needed, we spent the subsequent 1 hour discussing how the internet works and went on to get ourselves introduced to the command prompt. At about 6pm, the workshop ended.

Day 2

Day 2 (workshop day) was full of activities. By 8 am, the majority of the participants were already present and had settled down for the day’s activities to commence. After having our breakfast, the organizing team gave a welcome note and made a few introductions, and the workshop started. Some of the major items on our schedule were Introduction to Python, going for a cupcake break 😊, building our first Django project, learning how to deploy using PythonAnywhere and GitHub, and learning the basics of HTML and CSS, and most importantly, have fun. During our lunch break, the Dean Of Students for the Presbyterian University College visited us and had a 5-minute chat with the participants.

The girls were taken through the tutorial by their respective coaches. The workshop ended at around 4 pm, with the participants being awarded certificates for participating. Here is what one of the participants had to say after the workshop: youtu.be/T_ndC8261r8

Training Outcomes and the Way Forward

More than half of the participants successfully hosted their personal blogs and the few who could not are yet to finish up.

Key Takeaways

• Programming requires discipline and consistency.
• Teamwork is a great thing because it enlightens understanding.
• With the right tools and environment, girls can code too.

Sponsors and Partners

The Django Girls Kwahu team is so grateful and honoured to have been sponsored and partnered by some institutions to make this workshop a success.

Our main Sponsor was the Python Software Foundation. We had sponsorship from the GitHub Community and GitLab Diversity Fund too.

The following organizations also helped us a lot. The 2018/2019 SRC of Presbyterian University College - Abetifi campus, Khophi Photography for our beautiful photos and Loudr Social for our designs and publications.

Their financial and other forms of support really helped us and we are grateful.

Photos from the event can be viewed here.

This blog post was put up by Abigail and Hope.

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