MENACatalyst Partners with UK-based Code Club to Fast Track Coding Journey in Palestine

Ramallah, Palestine (February 2020)- MENACatalyst announces recent partnership with UK-based charity initiative ‘Code Club’. Code Club- part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation with a mission to bring digital making into the hands of people all over the world, offer kids around the globe, offers free and accessible coding classes to children between the ages of 9-13. Through its start-of-the-art curriculum, Code Club provides comprehensive and fully adaptable programming courses to the young and curious minds of tomorrow’s tech savvy generation. Through its fun and interactive games, future programmers learn the ins and outs of programming with Code Club’s easy-to-understand programming pedagogy. To date, Code Club boasts a network of roughly 13,000 children, from over 150 countries around the globe.

Through this strategic partnership, MENACatalyst aspires to build on the momentum of its first  coding journey in Palestine,  a pilot program it dubbed ‘Palestine Codes,’ in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and with the generous support of the German Development Agency (GIZ). 

Since its launch, Palestine Codes has spanned over 25 schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has reached over 300 students. The 3-month pilot program culminated in the largest programming competition for school children in the WBGS, focusing on tech solutions to children’s rights issues in Palestine. Further, the competition in Ramallah hosted students from all around the West Bank, where they were offered the chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. A simultaneous competition took place in Gaza City, whereby students were able to watch via video conference. In the end, two lucky students won a week-long trip to Germany, where they met with like-minded peers from around the world. Others were awarded brand new laptops, which were provided through the generous support of GIZ. 

In the months ahead, MENACatalyst plans to target additional schools and offer students the opportunity to learn to code after (school) hours. 

“It is our belief that the only way our children will be able to navigate tomorrow’s tech-centric world, is by offering them the opportunity to learn how to code, and by instilling innovative thinking in their mindsets from early on. It is also important we open their eyes to the world of tech at an early age in order to encourage STEM related studies at the university-level.” Ghassan Amayra, Founder of MENACatalyst.

We are really excited to be partnering with MENACatalyst to bring Code Club to children in Palestine. We believe that coding can be an equaliser for young people living in low-resource settings, giving them the skills, knowledge and confidence to change the world around them, and this is what we plan to do in Palestine” James Aslett, Code Club

Amid the rise of technology, we have been promised greater connectivity, which has led us to the transcendence of physical borders - an issue Palestinians know all too well. But, by teaching children to embrace innovation, and by instilling an entrepreneurial mindset from early on, we can encourage the leaders of tomorrow to embark on the pathway of entrepreneurship. Offering them access to increased opportunities and the chance to compete in tomorrow’s global markets.