All About

Welcome To Coders Who Travel

History Of Coders Who Travel

I am so excited that you are engaging and showing interest in either participating in our events and/or donating to us. Coders Who Travel Inc. was established to provide financial and operational covering for experts in advance countries to travel to developing countries to inspire and advance the careers of computer and mathematical programmers. In late 2015, I launched the first West African network, Women Who Code-Accra, of the global nonprofit organization: Women Who Code Inc. Through that experience, I realized that there was no funding available as well as a supporting team that catered to the needs of Accra with the organization. While visiting an Attorney, he advised me to start my own organization that would focus on that gap. I chose to call the new organization Coders Who Travel Inc. because while Statistics Without Borders, the pro bono arm of the American Statistical Association helped me recruit four women - Samantha, Anna, Awa and Loren – who supported me in drafting my budget, developing introductory lectures, setting monitoring and evaluation metrics and planning program content, I eventually was the only who traveled to the women in Accra, Ghana. It cost me nearly 10,000 USD to launch the network in the sub-Saharan region. During the launch, I executed seven events: Hackathon, Seminar, Panel Discussions, Excel In Your Career Workshop, Lightning Talks, Networking Night and SAS Studio Demo. The initial event attendees were later promoted to become Co-Directors, Leads and Evangelists of the new network 6 months down the road. Two journalists covered the Women Who Code-Accra project in Huffington Post and British Broadcasting Corporation. While Women Who Code-Accra was focused on just women, the women begun bringing their friends who were men who needed the same programming skills. So, at Coders Who Travel Inc., we focus on 65% women and 35% men to accommodate for the insights that men are also in need of similar computing skills. In September 2019, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization via Giorgia Epicoco invited me to speak about both projects during the World Manufacturing Forum conference. The topic was: Policy Framework for Industrial Skills Development in Emerging Economies. Following the conference, WMF reached out and have interviewed me three times. I was interviewed by Class CNBC (38th minute) and Innovation Post afterwards. We, Board of Directors and Advisory Board, begun putting measures in place to host the 2020 Coders Who Travel Summit but it got canceled due to COVID-19. Recognizing the need for hosting virtual conferences, we recruited within our membership men and women to work on the Go Forth mobile app and web app. We also put together a grant application with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December 2020. While we did not win, this grant fostered or boosted our relationships with five universities in Ghana and America. We would be doing what we can in spite of the lack of funding from the NIH and that is one significant area where could use significant funding. Six individuals – Afia (me), Nah-Abiah, Angela, Akua, Joseph Lawrence and El-Hayil - worked together to release five courses with Coursera Inc. in mid-July 2021. I could go on and on. I am available for a meeting via Zoom/Microsoft teams if you need to talk more with me. Just email: [email protected] or call me on 703-200-4202. I am looking forward to our journey together! I would also love to meet you in-person at our planned conference in March 2023! In the meantime, stay blessed.