CodeMAKERS - PRogram your Future 

The challenges and problems that learners will face in their lives, individually and collectively, are huge. The skills that they will use to solve them don’t come from a book and can’t be copied from a chalkboard, they are skills that come from creatively solving problems, having confidence to take apart big ideas, and the moxie and tools to advocate for their ideas and make them happen.

Today with access to all the world’s information a keyboard away, young people must learn to think and learn how to learn. 

In high-resource schools, in South African and other countries, children start learning these skills from grade 1 and 2 and continue their entire school career. They build with their hands, experiment, troubleshoot, create, and present their ideas for feedback. It's fun, motivating, and empowering. They learn by doing, and by doing, own their learning.

CodeMakers is bringing hands-on learning tools to low-income communities by teaching computer coding fundamentals, showing learners the application of what they learn in the classroom, and inspiring them to pursue scarce skill careers. We’ve seen the limitations of teaching ideas in theory with no practical application. When we give learners in low-resource schools tools to create, they make amazing things, tell unique stories, and learn skills and confidence that will help them tackle the next problem they face.

Learners we work with might pursue careers in science and technology or not. They might become nurses, small-business owners, or social media marketers. However, the skills they learn, and the confidence they have built through our programme, will help them achieve excellence no matter what. 

Sponsors

The Sage Foundation has been generous with their support and time. Thank you! If you are interested in furthering CodeMakers goals and you wish to join them in supporting our work, please contact us.

 

WHere We Work

 

Durban is a vibrant coastal city on the east coast of South Africa. We draw millions of tourists to our beaches, have Africa's busiest port, manufacture cars, and export sugar worldwide.

CodeMakers works in the Umlazi School District. Anchored by the Umlazi Township in the South, the districts has 179 secondary and 278 primary schools. The district includes outstanding schools and highly motivated learners but many schools lack hands-on learning aides, and most learners do not use a computer in school until grade 10 with many never touching a computer in their education.  CodeMakers is bring the benefits of coding education and other hands-on STEAM learning to these learners. Visit our Programmes page for details.                             

Who we are

Board of directors:

  • Charles Kamau. A seasoned public private partnerships consultant in the fields of global health, governance, and innovation. He has worked for and with AUDA-NEPAD, AVMI, WHO, Wellcome, UNFPA, IMLU and the the Kenyan national and county governments. He has background training in nursing & public health with postgraduates in health research methodology, science communication and change & project management.  

  • Alfred Msomi, PhD. Professor of Mathematics, Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). Alfred has taught Engineering Mathematics at MUT for more than 15 years. He is a provincial leader of the Association for Mathematics Education in South Africa (AMESA), and is passionate about the professional development of maths teachers. His research interests include differential equations and e-Learning.

  • Georgina Rawle. Senior Education Consultant, Oxford Policy Management Ltd. Education intervention and evaluation specialist with many years experience working in numerous African and Asian countries.

  • Sue le Roux. HOD Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Assistance, The Aurum Institute. Former Assistant Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) South Africa.

  • Lungelo Njoko. A UCT graduate in accounting.  He currently works at Deloitte and is qualifying as a chartered accountant. He is pursuing a great passion of his, information technology and is currently studying towards a BSc in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science through UNISA. 

  • Justin Yarrow, PhD (Executive Director and Founder). A scientist by training, Justin pursued an interest in how innovations are developed and spread, and moved to South Africa to work with local health NGOs to improve antiretroviral rollout. He later worked with the National Department of Health on the nationwide roll-out of health programmes. Returning to a passion for science and education, he founded CodeMakers in 2015 to encourage a new generation of innovators. 

Advisors

This initiative would not be possible without a host of friends and colleagues who have provide their assistance and advice.  We are particularly thankful to the teachers, principals and learners we have worked with and the KZNSA Gallery. Thank you!