Django Girls Workshop and PyCon Namibia 2018 chat with Esther N. Shikomba
In our latest blog post, we caught up with a visionary and goal-driven young woman, Esther N. Shikomba who is a Founder & Director of a community-based youth organization Youth Empowerment Network of Namibia.
Esther recently attended the Django Girls Workshop and PyCon Namibia 2018 and chats to us about her experience at the event.
Tell us about Django Girls?
Django Girls Foundation is an initiative that aims to introduce women and girls who never coded before to the world of technology and increase the diversity of the tech industry. We achieve this by organising one-day workshops and inviting women to come and learn how to build the internet using HTML, CSS, Python, and Django. Django Girls is a volunteer-run organisation with volunteers all over the world.
How about PyCon, what is it?
A PyCon is a Python programming conference. Python is one of the most popular and important programming languages in the world.
PyCon Namibia is an annual event, held in Windhoek, and is Namibia’s most important international open-source software conference.
Where, when, and why Django Girls Workshop and PyCon Namibia 2018?
The Django Girls Workshop and PyCon Namibia 2018 were both held at NIPAM in Windhoek from 20th-22nd February.
The aim of the workshop and conference is to empower Women in Computing (WiC) using a powerful high-level programming language which is Python. This opportunity also provided me with the platform to meet and interact with PyCon scholars from Windhoek Technical High School who are members of Python Namibia (PyNam), a non-profit organization that brings together all Python professionals, entrepreneurs, scientists, academics, and students interested in computing across Namibia.
What was your overall experience?
I have learned a lot from different types of people from all walks of life. The conference had people from the UK, Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Ghana. It was indeed a programming learning platform.
So, what’s next?
I’m going to share and encourage more young women to become part of similar platforms and benefit from the opportunities that come with it. I also intend give back to my community by driving these opportunities to reach all the young people that I interact with.
Note: If you are interested in reading a report on the conference, you can get it here.
– by HN Aluvilu, Namibian Opportunities Team