Q1 2023 Newsletter: Coding Courses, Laptop Donations & 2022 Financials
Welcome to the April 2023 update from ZOF – bridging digital skills to ambitious, low-income students in sub-Saharan Africa.
🔎In this newsletter
Highlights:
25 students start new Python coding course
6 students pass drone engineering course
Anoosh climbs Mount Toubkal to raise funds
Spotlight on Anoosh, Alon, and ABC Foundation
Financials & impact:
2023 Fundraising & Impact Goals
2022 Financials & Impact
Asks: follow us on Instagram & donate your used smartphones!
Students kick off their Python coding course this week. Photography: Ron Mazhindu, Miracle Missions Vimba
🚀 Highlights
💻 New python coding course for 25 students
Miracle Missions Vimba interviews students for an upcoming Python coding course. Photography: Ron Mazhindu, Miracle Missions Vimba
We are sponsoring our first Python coding course for 25 students between the ages of 15 and 18. This will begin this week for two weeks (30 hours of teaching).
These bright young adults live in high-density areas and would not otherwise be able to attend these courses nor afford laptops.
At the end of the course students will be able to build simple applications such as a quiz apps, calculator apps, and a basic CRM database. They will also understand advanced programming concepts.
We will pair these courses with support from career coach Joy Mahobele. Joy has a background in economics and project management, and she has re-trained as a career coach. Joy will help the students map out a career and job experience plan to execute in the coming year.
Students will also have access to remote programming mentors after the course to continue learning, enabled by Mentors Without Borders.
🤜 Key partners in making these courses a reality:
Ipsos and its subsidiary Intrasonics, who donated 30 used laptops enabling us to run coding courses in April, June and August this year for ~60 students
Miracle Missions Vimba, our implementation partner identifying and supporting talented students who will benefit the most from the courses that your donations make possible.
Systemiq LTD and Isabelle Leonard, who donated 7 more life-changing laptops this year in addition to the 11 last year (find out more about their pro-sustainability systems here).
💵 Total cost of the course
$7,500 for 25 students, or $300 per student, broken down as:
$240 per course (incl. transport & food)
$60 per coaching package per student
In addition, we spent $1000 (£810) on laptops, or $35 per laptop, mainly in shipping fees
🛩 6 Students pass intermediate drone engineering course
Six successful young students passed the course that your money made possible. We are awaiting feedback from the students, teachers and carers and will report back.
✨ Spotlight on
ABC Foundation sponsors coding courses for 3 years
In the USA, we entered a partnership with actor, director & producer O-T Fagbenle and his foundation ABC Foundation.
They are generously sponsoring an intensive Python coding class for 45 teenage girls over a period of three years (15 girls/year). Whist we have funded mostly female students over the years, this is the first dedicated female-centred coding class we will organise. Thanks to ABC Foundation for the inspiration and the funding!
Anoosh climbs Mount Toubkal to raise funds
Anoosh hikes Mount Toubkal in Morocco to raise funds for ZOF Africa
In October last year, Anoosh Arevshatian climbed Mount Toubkal in Morocco to raise funds for ZOF.
Anoosh, who is of Zimbabwean and Armenian descent, was keen to use her success within the IT ecosystem in London to support her fellow Zimbabweans.
“It was exhausting clambering up more than 4,000 metres to the highest point in the Atlas Mountains,” Anoosh told us. “The biggest challenge probably was the intense shift in temperature from the heat on day one to the rainfall and then subsequently a snowstorm that started just after we began our ascent to the summit.”
As you can see, she made it up and back down again, helping raise £733. Anoosh can testify to the talent, tenacity and hard-working nature of her young compatriots in Zimbabwe. “It was with that in mind that I wanted to help other young people in Zimbabwe live up to their potential,” she added.
Thank you, Anoosh, and thank you to everyone who supported her.
Alon Caspi, also a Zimbabwean, was the first volunteer to join Georgina in setting up ZOF Africa’s UK chapter. He is largely to thank for its setup, fighting tooth and nail to have us approved with various banking providers. Thanks to him, we can boost our UK donations by an additional 25% via GiftAid, and we can accept donations via several payment systems, including Lloyds, Benevity, Stripe, and Zettle. Thank you Alon!!
Alon Caspi, who has been instrumental in setting up ZOF Africa as a UK charity
📈 Financial Update
Fundraising target for 2023
$17,000 (£13,700) raised out of our $25,000 (£20,000) target. We are nearly 70% of the way there - only $7,000 (£5,600) to go!
Training targets for 2023:
Teach coding to a total of 80 students from low-income backgrounds (total cost: $24,800 or £19,800)
Pair up to 80 students with a career coach & mentor network (total cost: up to $12,000 or £9,600)
Pilot a scholarship programme for a 1-year coding & digital marketing bootcamp for 5 students (total cost: $5,000-$7,000 (£4,000-£5,600))
Scholarship for 6 intermediary and 6 advanced drone piloting & programming courses for low-income students (total cost: $3,000 or £2,400)
2022 Financials & Impact
87 courses funded, including in Robotics, Coding, Drone Engineering. Students were all 9-19 years old and from low-income backgrounds
Student interviews revealed that 100% enjoyed the robotics & coding courses and 70% felt there was a direct positive impact on school performance, citing benefits such as improved problem-solving, teamwork abilities, and IT skills applied at school. We are still conducting interviews for the other courses funded.
17 laptops donated by Systemiq Ltd. The bulk went to students (mostly at University) who report immense benefits for their studies. They cannot otherwise afford laptops whilst their more privileged classmates can, putting them at a significant disadvantage.
*ZOF volunteers made additional donations to cover expenses. In the US these added up to $1,607 and in the UK, £592. Neither figures are reflected in the above.
Student receives laptop donated by Systemiq Ltd
💬 Asks
Consider a recurring donation - this results in more stability and predictability for our programmes, and reduces fundraising costs substantially. You can do this by donating here, or if you would like to sponsor a specific project for a number of years email Georgina.
Donate your old smartphone: students who do not have smartphones are at a significant disadvantage to their peers, as they are not connected to the outside world. Email Georgina or Claudia if you can gift your spare!
Volunteer to help grow our social media profile. Most relevant skills include digital marketing, video editing, brand design. Email Georgina or Timon.