Reports show that women from marginalized areas experience more exclusion than other segments of the population and only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa. To bridge this gap, the UK-South Africa Tech Hub in partnership with Further and Coding Mamas have launched a programme to help these women.
Coding Moms provides mothers with the necessary skills to participate in the digital economy in a safe and welcoming environment for mothers and their children. “As Coding Mamas, we aim to create safe spaces and experiences that allow moms (and their kids) to prepare for the digital economy, by upskilling themselves, connecting with others and get access to the necessary resources,” said Elisja van Niekerk, Co-founder of CodingMamas.
The programme provides mothers and women from marginalised areas and those who may have suffered gender-based violence,with basic digital skills to participate in the digital economy, whilst simultaneously creating an enabling environment for their children and communities.
“By bringing vulnerable mothers from excluded communities into the digital economy through upskilling in key tech skills, we aim to create an empowering and enabling environment for them and their families,” Shirley Gilbey, Director of the UK-South Africa Tech Hub. The programme will provide training in foundational digital skills such as basic coding knowledge, app and web development, business and job-seeking skills to mothers in marginalised communities in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Further specializes in the capacity-building of community-based entrepreneurs. “Our vision is to provide an inclusive programme that not only provides a broad base of women with foundational digital, business and employability skills, but equally builds their self-belief and self-efficacy, and the ability to visualise a better future for themselves,” Lindsay Cilliers, Co-founder of Further.
The programme will also partner with local community organisations who are already working with women, with a focus on victims and survivors of gender-based violence. “Through our capacity-building work with grass-roots social entrepreneurs and young community leaders, we’ve seen the impact these programmes can have in broadening the horizons of what is possible. We’re excited to be working with Coding Mamas on this important initiative,” added Cilliers.
