StartZone Inspires and Empowers over 500 Secondary School Girls Today

The 2nd edition of the StartZone Girl Meets Tech programme has been scheduled to hold on the 5th of December, 2017, at The Zone Centre, Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos.

In relevance to the Hour of Code which takes place every year during the Computer Science Education Week, over 500 female secondary school girls across Lagos will be inspired to embrace tech and learn how to code.

StartZone, Nigeria’s biggest tech innovation hub, is poised to inspire and empower females to build a better life and a better future by embracing and leveraging technology.

According to a UN report, “Girls and ladies are subject to multiple forms of discrimination in all spheres of their lives, including education, and can become trapped in a vicious circle”. More than half of the world’s 58 million out-of-school children are girls, and around 60% of the world’s chronically hungry people are girls and women.

StartZone is passionate about empowering females and bridging gender inequality in technology and has series of programmes to support this cause. The Girl Meets Tech programme was initiated by StartZone in pursuit of girl and women empowerment and gender equality in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

At StartZone, we believe that with digital education, there is zero unemployment, thus we are deliberate about teaching hands-on tech skills that will economically empower girls and ladies to be capable of earning a living and be competitive anywhere they find themselves.

The first edition of the Girl Meets Tech Teens Programme was organised to commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child.

At the event, the students were encouraged to embrace and leverage technology as it will make them relevant in the nearest future.

The third edition promises to be bigger and has been designed to inspire and educate the over 500 secondary school girls expected. The event is themed “A whole new world of opportunities in technology”. The girls will be given pep talks by successful female experts who will also serve as a great source of inspiration to the students. A representative from the Lagos State Government will also be present to talk about the role of government in promoting tech education.

Imisi 3D, a Virtual Reality (VR) creation lab dedicated to growing a community of VR developers in Nigeria, creating solutions using VR, and providing educational and engagement experiences with VR will also be on ground to introduce the girls to Virtual Reality.

StartZone has also prepared different exciting packages for the girls. The conference is not going to be about education alone, it will also be fun for the participating girls.

The Girl Meets Tech Teen’s Conference is supported by P & G, Diamond Bank, UAC, Imisi 3D VR, and Grand Oak.

After the conference, selected schools will be adopted by sponsors, to partake in the maiden edition of the Girl Meets Tech Immersion programme using the Girl Meets Tech curriculum. This encompasses boot-camps and workshops, where girls are taught various programming languages – Scratch, css, html and python- over a 7-month period.

To learn more about StartZone, visit www.startzone.org