Our vision for the year ahead: Empowering girls through tech

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!

This week, read about our mission to empower girls through tech.

“New year, new you” or so the saying goes. Not wanting to be left out, I feel this can also be the same for any entities, such as organizations. So, as we begin a new year here at Code Blossom, we are most certainly resolved to be a new us. Whilst our vision to empower women in developing countries by offering them marketable tech skills remains the same, the tools and methods we use have received a new and improved look. One where we would like to increase our quality standards and form meaningful partnerships as we continue expanding into other African countries.

One area that is getting a revamp is our curriculum, in particular, the soft skills section of it. Having done our due diligence in areas that are in high demand, we added topics such as work ethics, professionalism, conflict resolution, and more to our list of topics to be covered within the duration of the program. Another improvement we made is to extend the length of the sessions, to be able to cover the topics in more depth. Using and referencing resources like books, blogs, or podcasts to get that deep insight to prepare for the sessions, we encourage our students to continue their development of these skills beyond our community sessions.

We call these monthly meetings, during which we teach soft skills, ‘Beyond Coding Sessions’. And appropriately, we start each year with a session titled ‘Goal Setting and Accountability’. Because we want our students to be properly equipped with tools and knowledge that enable them to attain their goals. And by helping our students reach their goals, we also attain ours, which is to make them successful.

This was something I had observed in my own journey: that reaching my own goals required a set of specific tools that I did not yet possess. But living in a third-world country that was already starved of educational resources did not help in my desire to reach another level. Unfortunately, this situation remains true for most of the countries our students are citizens of.

In this Beyond Coding session, led by our ‘Asia Lead’ Sana Fatima, one vital point she shared was the importance of identifying very specific goals. This way, one has a clear picture of what to focus on and pour your energy into. Upon completion of this task, you are then able to start implementing the steps needed to start the process of attaining these goals. Which in and of itself is a skill, one that seems to be in short supply, as the number of individuals with no place to utilize their skills keeps increasing, at least in my country, Malawi.

Next, she talked about how to find the best processes and methods to implement the required steps to achieve our goals. This calls for good habit-forming practices that utilize systems development to ensure a proper and accurate tracking of progress (or lack thereof).

One of the reasons I find that this can be such a powerful tool to introduce our participants to is that I feel this can be what makes a massive difference in employability.

And in turn, can enable them to have thriving careers that help them assume high positions, and have more influence in tackling inequality in offices and job opportunities. Thus making a more meaningful contribution to their local economies, among other things.

The final part of the session introduced the concept of vision boards as a way to make sure that the goals we set are visually imprinted in our minds. The thing is, sometimes our ideas of success are influenced by what we see around us; this could be culture, social beliefs, and economic status symbols. Vision boards helped me free myself from some of these things, because the images on the board give you the freedom to go beyond what is in plain sight. By visually imagining yourself where you want to be, there is nothing standing between you and your goal.

And just like that, maintaining our contribution to making a dent in the Sustainable Development Goal of ‘no poverty’ is secured. Because our students can now offer financial assistance and be able to provide for their families. This is how quality education enables them to have good employment opportunities.

The thing is, we can all have goals, but achieving them or not, no matter if that’s as an individual or as an organization, is another thing.

As we continue our vision of empowering women, we realized that it’s one thing to have the skills required to get employed. It is another to have the discipline to stay and thrive in that job, as we drive to give financial freedom to these women. We also want to enable these women to grab opportunities that have otherwise not been available to them, in that way creating a dent in the otherwise mostly male-dominated tech industry.

I hope you enjoyed one of the ways we want to reach ours - here is to a prosperous and great 2026 to all.