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  • Building a strong and inclusive tech society by teaching children how to code

    Nathan Damtew studied computer science at the University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When he started his education, he struggled to understand and learn how to work with programming. A big reason for this was that he had no introduction to coding before he started University. That’s when the idea came of introducing coding much earlier for children and youth, in order to prepare them for future education.

    Another thing that frustrated Nathan was that tech is not developed locally in Ethiopia, due to the lack of knowledge and opportunities. To become a sustainable tech society he strongly believes that the development needs to come from inside of Ethiopia. For that to happen there is a big need to implement programming as a part of the education system much earlier than today. 

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    In 2018 Nathan joined the Reach for Change accelerator with just this idea of teaching children how to code. He was then accepted into the incubator program. In both programs he has received tools, knowledge and seed funding to create a sustainable business model. Nathan started developing a game for children; Beblocky, to teach children about coding through play. He and his team have now created an e-learning platform called Yenetta Code where anyone can learn the basics of coding through both online and offline classes. Nathan's game Beblocky has already been spread worldwide and is being used by 13000 children and youth. His e-learning platform is used by 500 students, and has engaged over 1200 on different coding events. 

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    Nathan's vision is to spread his method to the whole African region and to implement coding as a part of the education system.