Charity's story: Blossoming into a future of possibilities
In her blog series, Alice, our Lead Africa, tells us all things Code Blossom from her point of view:
From exciting events happening in our community, to personal stories from her or our students. Stay tuned for this inspiring blog series - you won’t want to miss it!
In this post, our talented Blogger-in-Chief, Alice, tells us the inspiring story of Charity, one of our students from Malawi.
Charity’s story
Growing up in a family of four girls, as well as my extended family being mostly women, I feel has set me up perfectly for the work I do now. It’s no surprise then that women’s issues are something that is close to my heart, after all I grew up hearing and seeing how different generations of women in my family handled womanhood. By this I mean things like our pain, struggles, challenges and just moving through the world as a woman. All this birthed in me a desire to see women thrive and unapologetically share our stories.
That is why, in this blog, I want to tell Charity’s story because I feel that every woman can find a reflection of her own journey in it. When I started down this path of wanting to help fellow women navigate their tech journeys, I knew that there would be stories and situations along the way that would occasionally stop me dead in my tracks. That their impact and effect would awaken in me something that I did not know or that my soul needed the learning. A moment that would be as special as the tremendous achievements that we were celebrating as individuals but also as an organization.
Charity Spoko was among several young female IT students that I engaged with during a project I worked on. The project’s aim was to teach leadership skills to the youth across Africa. At the time she was a third-year student of Management in information systems at the University of Applied Sciences (MUBAS) in Blantyre, Malawi. Charity displayed a quiet sense of hard work and commitment which impressed me. So much so that when she applied for the software development program at Code Blossom, I knew that giving her a chance was worth it.
She faced several challenges in her first few months with us. The challenges mostly came from her juggling her school schedule, Code Blossom studies and motherhood. Being a mother and a student meant being away from her daughter a lot, which made all of this additionally challenging. Regardless, Charity steadily made progress in the curriculum and I was impressed in how she overcame each obstacle that was thrown at her (laptop failures, problems with internet access, etc).
Unfortunately, in August she had to make the tough choice to pause her learning with us as she wanted to focus on her final year exams and project. Promising though to come back after completing the required milestones. And she did so, later on in October, when she reached out to me, ready to resume her learning as she was only left with one module. I was excited and happy for her to accomplish her goal to become a Full-Stack developer.
Meanwhile, I am proud to say, Charity has landed an internship as a software developer for a remote organization. Prompting another celebratory dance routine from me, because I knew that this achievement had so many layers of meaning to it.
I am still trying to find the words to describe what this moment represents, not just for Charity herself, as a woman, but for her as a woman in tech in Malawi, and as a mother to her little girl. So here goes my attempt to break it down and, if I fail, my apologies in advance.
One of the greatest barriers for me, in my own journey as a developer, was navigating the very small software developer market in Malawi. In a country where economic empowerment is still work in progress for most women, Charity was able to expand the places she could find employment in as Malawi has few options. This is something most developers in Malawi face. And thus she was able to continue growing with the skills she has gained here at Code Blossom. If that is not a win for Code Blossom, I don’t know what else is. As a mother to a little girl, whom she describes as her motivation in her own education journey, she is modelling a world of possibilities. Something that often is in short supply in a third world country.
Charity shared a bit about her responsibilities as an intern which include refactoring existing code, as well as adding new functionality to existing projects, amongst others. She described to me how she was able to see the relevance and importance of being skilled in version control, due to the remote nature of her work now. But also mastering good team and collaboration skills has been vital for her to do her tasks well. All skills that she acquired whilst learning with us.
Charity’s story might be one story but it is so much more than the win of one woman. Most of all, this outcome is the result of all the hard work, study and practice that she has poured into this project.
And this is exactly the outcome we want to achieve, as we work towards our mission, to bring career transformation to many more women like Charity.
