W.TEC’s 2018 She Creates Empowers 85 Girls With ICT

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre – W.TEC in 2018 is proud to have empowered 85 girls aged 13 to 17 years in Lagos and Anambra States with world class technology skills during her annual technology camp series for girls, now newly rebranded as the ‘’She Creates Camp’’. W.TEC also impacted 13 children aged 5 to 9 years in her “Early Innovators Camp.”
The vision of W.TEC’s Founder/Executive Director Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, for the camp is for the camp to be held in several states across Nigeria, bringing W.TEC’s impactful technology fun learning experience to hundreds of girls across the country. Partnering with Google.org and Oracle Academy in 2018, W.TEC successfully built on her expansion efforts of She Creates from holding just one camp in Lagos to holding 3 separate summer camps for girls across Nigeria.
She Creates Camp: Lagos – Lekki
The first 2018 She Creates camp took place in Lekki  with a focus on Robotics and themed ‘’Her Robot, Her Security.” Fifteen girls designed and built robots to serve security purposes. They also participated in career talks, gender and leadership sessions, as well as numerous extra-curricular activities.
 
 
 
 
She Creates Camp: Lagos – Mainland
The second camp was the She Creates Lagos – Mainland camp. She Creates Lagos – Mainland is W.TEC’s flagship camp and was the 11^th edition and the biggest camp ‘till date with 54 girls enrolled. The camp was  a 2-week STEAM-focused (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) residential camp . The camp had girls come from the different parts of the country and they all bonded wonderfully to learn  Mobile Applications Development with Android-Studio,  Software Design, 3D Design and Printing,  Renewable Energy,  Data Analytics using Power-BI,  Web Design and Digital Music Production. The girls also participated in life skills sessions such as Self Defence, Arts and Crafts.
She Creates Camp: Awka – Anambra
She Creates Awka 2018 Camp is W.TEC’s first outing in Eastern Nigeria. Fourteen girls were empowered with technology and entrepreneurial skills in line with the theme of the camp tagged ‘’The Techpreneurs’, such as Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Developing a Business Plan, Building a Website, Digital Animation with Alice . This took place at Professor Kenneth Dike State Central elibrary in Awka. The camp was indeed a successful step in expanding the reach of the She Creates Camp, with the intent of further scaling up next year.                                                                                                                   
 
Early Innovators

The 2nd edition of  our Early Innovators Camp was a huge success. The camp which is meant to  harnesses the innate curiosity of children aged 5 to 10 years by introducing them to computing and science concepts through play and exploration for a 2-week camp achieved sparking and awakening the ICT talents of our participants. As a matter of fact, our participants who were taught how to design 2D animation games using Scratch programming and also Digital story telling using editing pictures wowed us with amazing projects, they produced during their classes which indeed indicated that our kids needs early exposure to technology to boost their imaginative and creative capacity.
 
Camp Testimonials

Our Girls did benefit a lot from participating in our camps; they were so excited to sharing their life changing camp experience with us which many are full were hearth warming and fulfilling for us at W.TEC, thus we wish to share some of the testimonies with you:
Miss Hauwa (She Creates Lekki) ‘’My second time in W.TEC’s camp was interesting, I got to perfect my programming skills better in camp with which I think will be helpful in doing a lot with programming in the future’’.
Miss Hazel (She Creates Lekki) ‘’I got to learn so much in camp from robotics to Drones, to social media safety to self-defence and many others,  my time in camp was so amazing and I hope to come back next year’’.
Miss Aishat (She Creates Lagos -Mainland) ‘’Our excursion to Asteaven Renewable Energy Institute made me realise how much we can help our planet through renewable energy’’.
Miss Chibizor (She Creates Lagos -Mainland) ‘’Apart from making new good friends in camp I got to learn more on programming and overall the camp gave more more future career choices as I got to have a better understanding of what computer science is all about’’.
Miss Okoli (She Creates Awka) The camp gave me the opportunity to learn how to use a laptop properly, this is an opportunity I think I wouldn’t have got so soon normally.
 
Partnerships
Our 2018 partners have indeed been supportive of our course in creating a generation of young Nigerian women in the tech space by this we appreciate Google.org, Oracle Academy, Laureates College, Swift Networks and Professor Kenneth Dike eLibrary and numerous other donors who supported our camps both with cash and in kind.
 
 
 
Camp Distinctions
At our camps we inspire and reward excellence of our participants whom through their passion for ICT clearly stand out from the others and are encouraged to pursue careers in the tech space.
At the She Creates Camp in Lekki, Miss Hauwa Mohammed emerged the best overall camp participant. Miss Chisom Ude emerged the best camper at the She Creates Lagos-Mainland, while Miss Zita Okoli topped the camp in Awka. All camp participants immediately beocme a part of W.TEC’s Alumnae Network, while distinguished participants are mentored towards a successful career in science and tech in  Nigeria.