Ernestina Edem Appiah, a mother of two from Ghana is a founder of Ghana Code Club, an initiative teaching school kids how to code.

Who is Ernestina Edem Appiah?

A truly remarkable woman, who took an interest in IT and turned her life around to become a successful business owner and an entrepreneur. She saw opportunity to grow and seized it. Then she went out to help others.

It had all began for Ernestina when she worked for an IT firm in Accra in 2000 as a secretary. She had always dreamt leading a professional IT team, but didn’t have the money to study. She is a true autodidact: Ernestina taught herself on any given chance, while caring for her siblings and working. Picking on the internet anything she could learn from, she was soon practicing to design her own websites. In 2004 she felt confident enough with her new skills to resign as a secretary and work full time as a virtual assistant, with employees under her lead.

How did Ghana Code Club come to exist?

Having turned her own life around so drastically by merely acquiring a new skill Ernestina wanted to empower others.

Inspired by a blog she had read on how school kids learn to code in the UK, she began doing a similar thing through NGO, a previously dormant initiative, which had come to life already in 2007. It is a non-government supported organization.

What is the Ghana Code Club?

It is an after school club where kids aged 8-17, who have coding skills can improve their knowledge in IT.

With the help of volunteers, kids participate in a fun and developing activity preparing them for the future with what the curriculum doesn’t cover.

At the moment five schools are engaged in the project and most of Ghana’s schools will follow their example during 2016.

References:

http://www.africacodeweek.org/about/ambassadors?country=Ghana

http://pulse.com.gh/building/meet-ernestina-edem-appiah-the-ict-whisperer-id4372836.html