Member Article

Young women in Kingston invited to crack the code as iamtheCODE launches in Kingston Upon Thames with Unilever

Young women and girls from the Kingston community are being invited to take part in a pioneering global technology project to discover how coding skills could give them a head start in life.

iamtheCODE aims to inspire and empower girls from all backgrounds into careers in the ‘STEAMED’ sectors (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship and Design) and help address the shortage of these skills. The UK launch in Liverpool was a huge success and now the project is offering a limited number of free spaces for girls in Kingston aged 11 to 18 years to join the latest ‘Hackathon’ events on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th October 2018.

The brainchild of Senegalese-born British technologist Marième Jamme, iamtheCODE is direct action towards implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women. It aims to enable 1 million women and girl coders by 2030 and give them the digital skills they will need in the future to find decent and good work.

Mariéme said:

“At the end of the two days, amazing young girls will build innovative solutions related to the Sustainability Development Goals, get inspired, be included and have lots of fun.”

iamtheCODE is asking governments, businesses and philanthropic foundations to support girls to actively participate in the digital revolution so that they can hold the technology jobs of the future. It has been recognised by the United Nations and is supported by many prominent organisations including the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, the UN High Level Panel of Women Economic Empowerment, Microsoft, the Gates Foundation and UNICEF.

Unilever is playing a key role in the events in its capacity as a leader in consumer goods to bring together creative minds, mentors, and speakers. The Kingston Hackathon will act as a kickstarter for Unilever to further partner with local communities.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Richards .