News

We're learning to code but not to build apps

Aminata Fofana is a very dynamic young woman whose enthusiasm and determination are contagious. She might just be 21 years old, but she’s already been a female and children rights’ activist for seven years.

Passionate about civic education, feminism, and digital technology, Aminata Fofana wants to establish collaborative computer training workshops in Guinea for women. Through these workshops, she wants to encourage and build women’s confidence.

Currently in her third year of MIAGE (Methods of Computer Science Applied to Business Management) at Abdel Gamal Nasser University in Conakry, she was elected vice-president of the Association of Public Universities in Guinea.

Due to her numerous activities, Aminata was unable to dedicate as much time as she would have liked to the competition. Nevertheless, she distinguished herself as one of the top women participants, both in terms of points earned in visual programming exercises and treasure hunts, as well as points gained by sharing the competition link with her peers. We sincerely thank her for her outstanding networking skills and for her valuable support to FATA.school. She worked hard at informing and encouraging other university students into participating in our coding competition in May.

Aminata is knowledgeable in programming languages such as C, C++, Java, and some Python. Initially, programming seemed obscure and "secret" to her, but she eventually acquired the fundamentals of algorithms and was able to make progress.

She strongly desires to further enhance her theoretical knowledge and put it into practice to contribute to Guinea's development. Initially interested in cybersecurity, she was directed towards MIAGE and intends to enrich her curriculum to achieve her goals. Having an international experience is one of her aspirations, as she aims to return even stronger than she already is and serve as a role model for women and young girls in Guinea.

When we informed her about the FATA.school initiative, she was captivated by our ambition to achieve gender parity among our learners. Our presence on three continents, with a team composed of individuals from various nationalities, was also an interesting feature of our project. We have no doubt that Aminata will be a perfect representative of FATA in the near future as she possesses all the qualities we dream of in a developer: tenacity, discipline, intellectual and social intelligence, leadership, and open-mindedness.

Thank you and congratulations, Aminata!

We regularly publish articles to inform our members and partners of the progress and impact of the FATA project. See all articles