African Tech Girl: Equipping children and teens with digital skills
African Tech Girl founder Stella Waithera poses for a picture during the interview on June 1, 2023.
Stella Waithera owes her success to Margaret Waithera who, through concerted effort and a morsel of encouragement here, a bite of threat there, ensured she registered for Moringa School – a multi-disciplinary learning accelerator committed to closing the skills gap in Africa’s job markets by delivering transformative tech-based learning to high-potential job seekers, and on graduation connecting them to local and international employers.
Now Stella is not only a graduate of Moringa, but she is a Digital Skills Instructor there too, to add to the feathers in her hat of being a software engineer and (and!) a philanthropist currently running African Tech Girl, an NGO where she equips children and teenagers with programming skills.
Though deceptively soft spoken, she possesses a mischievous twinkle in the eye, this celestial tech-sis whose entire persona is based on the expertly monetised interaction of technology and her own strange moreish quality. “My main objective is to empower African children with digital skills from as early as seven years old.”
It is foolish, then, to presume that all her success comes from a single source. Some will argue an element of luck catapulted her, but where the unsullied see luck, a winner sees preparation, a woman who settles for nothing less than her objective, an ordinary life ebbing into the extraordinary through some combination of happenstance and idiosyncratic force of will.
Perhaps then, it was no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic birthed her idea. Trapped at home, she, under the guidance of Margaret Waithera (herself a graduate of Moringa), applied for a MasterCard scholarship, and won. But there was only one problem. Okay two. One, the country had gone into lockdown, with a cessation of movement curfew enforced. Moringa quickly transitioned into remote learning. Problem solved. The other problem was a bit of a sticky wicket. “During this time, I was a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) pursuing Mathematics and Computer science. I was in a dilemma because the scholarship came during my school year. I wanted to take academic leave from college, but my mother was up in arms against the idea. Eventually, I did both, concurrently… To be honest, I learned more about programming in that Moringa class than I did in university. Within the first month I was programming and applying the knowledge in real life.”
It was while studying at home that Stella noticed a peculiarity. Kids were all home, doing kids things, making noise and playing with reckless abandon, the hallmarks of a life with no responsibilities, so to speak. Something ignited in her. “MasterCard would give you data bundles and lunch money, and allow you to have a laptop you could use for the six months.
African Tech Girl founder Stella Waithera poses for a picture during the interview on June 1, 2023.
Something in me urged me to give back. Seeing that I was gaining these skills at 26 years old, I wondered how beneficial it would have been to receive them earlier. That’s why I started to offer training to younger girls.”
Armed with an idea and a willing heart, she began enrolling children between the ages of seven to 17, and researched about programmes they could use to learn, including Scratch, Blocky, Stencyl and Minecraft. She narrowed down to Scratch because it was interactive and easy to use. “I was able to get kids from all over Africa, including Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and some parents were even requesting I take up a whole school. I couldn’t because I was still studying. I trained 50 kids from May up to September that year. One of the things that stood out for me was the conversations I was having with them throughout the program and how they interacted in a positive manner. Some of them are still my good friends and we communicate to date.”
Children’s book writer and author of popular fable Stuart Little, Mr E B White, is famously quoted as saying: “Luck is not something you mention in the presence of self-made men.” Or women. For Stella, the words could not be truer if they were lines of code from her computer. Her biggest achievement is seeing how technology is shaping, positively, the next generation. “Kids are ready to learn and they have the commitment to join platforms and build websites. Just understanding programming fundamentals has really been an overwhelming experience.”
The difference between tacky and tasteful is usually the difference between a little money and a lot. So, how much do her programmes cost? “As an NGO, a lot of the programmes are free, but there are others where I charge just to get resources to meet the needs of the organisation. However, no programme is charged above KSh9,000, which could either be for a class every weekend or the same class offered daily for two weeks during the holiday period.” At the moment, Africa Tech Girl has trained 300 children since inception. “I am targeting more this year because I have grounded myself in the business aspect of it. I am aiming for 1,000 kids by the end of year.”
At 29, the young entrepreneur speaks fondly of a lesson that has kept her going: that she owes it all to God. “I am very spontaneous but I have been raised in a business background. My late grandmother worked in the jua kali sector, as does my mother. I have seen how women handle business and how in a way it made them have this persona. But God has been at the forefront – from the idea, to the name, to everything. It was God’s voice. We are trying to nurture good skills and attributes at an age where kids are really influenced spiritually.” What’s that thing they say? Mtoto umleavyo ndivyo akuavyo (a child will grow up to be what you raised them to be).
In a world where it is easy to fall off the tracks, she wants to ensure that the good side of tech is illuminated. “The dream is to have a physical location in Kiambu where the main office will be, and were children can come over during school holidays and just experience tech. We want to affect kids in marginalised areas as well, for the African child to get opportunities as early as possible with the right skills.”
African Tech Girl founder Stella Waithera poses for a picture during the interview on June 1, 2023.
Of course, just like there is no sun without a moon, business, too, has its shadows. “For the longest time my programmes have been free, but now that I am charging. We are a small organisation, and when volunteers leave, they can leave you hanging. Also, I was running a programme that I thought was fail proof: I had a backup plan for every backup plan but it all came crumbling down.” That’s one of the things every entrepreneur eventually discovers. You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.
Things are looking up, however. Business is picking. And she recently set up a board of directors. How does she define success? “Doing something that gives you fulfilment, that thing that comes naturally, giving you joy you cannot explain, when you can open a door for someone else. That is success to me.”
It is no surprise that, if there was a billboard to describe Stella, it would say: “I am a go-getter. I am God-fearing.”
Has life turned out the way she expected? “Well, it really has. I made some silly mistakes in my early 20s, but it has now come full circle. God has restored my time. Who would’ve thought that I would be a business lady, teaching in the school I was taught?” Well, for starters Margaret Waithera did. And God. God did.
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This article was first published in The Weekly Review, Issue 40, June 4, 2023.
