Returning for the second year, SAP Africa Code Week’s AfriCAN Code Challenge announced their top 10 winners with Devansh and Darshika from Mauritius as the Pan-African winners of the competition.
“This year’s theme was about them telling us how they would save the world with their superpowers, and most of the 100+ submitted projects were about climate change” says Mr. Albert Nsengiyumva, ADEA Executive Secretary “Africa has the youngest population on the planet and we were impressed to see how the children have been able to use their creativity and come up with innovative solutions to addressing issues that they feel are relevant to their daily reality.”
The AfriCAN Code Challenge is a pan-African coding competition where youth aged 8 – 16 were tasked with coding a game using the Scratch programming language to address the theme that was determined by the Africa Code Week team. This competition was launched by SAP Africa Code Week and partners UNESCO, Irish Aid, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and Jokkolabs in September 2020, and since then has become an annual celebration of youth and innovation in Africa.
The rationale for chosing the superheroes universe was to allow children to unleash their creativity and express themselves freely on issues they feel are important to them. Davide Storti, Coordinator of the YouthMobile Initiative at UNESCO, says: “The post-pandemic education recovery starts with allowing our children to regain confidence and hope, and with us adults reopening spaces, although virtual, for them to access their fullest potential.”
To take part in the AfriCAN Code Challenge, youth were able to enter alone or in teams of up to five people, and entries featured a three-minute YouTube video showcasing how their game works and why it should be considered a winning entry. The unique initiative and entry mechanism called upon the children’s ability to design a project that would solve a community-issue, code it, and communicate it.
During the opening rounds of the challenge, participation reached across 40 countries and featured 102 project video clips, only the top three entries from 36 countries made it into the continental final, followed by 20 countries in the final judging stage.
Selected by a high-level jury comprising key Africa Code Week delegates and STEM education experts, the top three winners of the AfriCAN Code Challenge are:
- First place: Mauritius – Super Recyclers, by Devansh and Darshika
- Second place: Nigeria – The Carbon Man, by SUPER GAMERS
- Third place: Ethiopia – Kids Academy, by Natnael Kedir
Followed by:
- 4: Niger – Rayuwa
- 5: Sao Tome & Principe – Helper intrigue
- 6: Tunisia – Le toucher du bonheur
- 7: Capo Verde – Change the World with US
- 8: Morocco – Super hero
- 9: Seychelles – The Prodigies
- 10: Madagascar – Pensons civisme
This edition of the AfriCAN Code Challenge was quite unique, as for the first time, hearing-impaired students have participated in the competition proving once again that coding is the language of inclusivity and creativity. The team that has competed in the special category for differently-abled children is from Mozambique.
Irish Minister of State for overseas development aid and diaspora Colm Brophy T.D, who attended the Rwanda AfriCAN Code Challenge national awards ceremony says, “Africa Code Week unlocks the potential in young people who otherwise may not have considered building their digital skills”
Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and Co-founder of Africa Code Week at SAP adds, “The return of the AfriCAN Code Challenge was quite awaited by our incredible SAP volunteers who took part in the first line of jury. The presence of hearing-impaired students demonstrates the power of inclusivity that resides in digital literacy, in its capacity to build bridges and connect children of an entire continent, regardless of gender, age or ability.”
For more information about SAP Africa Code Week and the AfriCAN Code Challenge, visit www.africacodeweek.org
ENDS
About Africa Code Week
Since 2015, SAP Africa Code Week (ACW) has been creating free opportunities for young Africans to learn coding skills and for teachers to be trained on digital learning curricula. Strong partnerships with the public, private and civil society sectors across the continent are driving sustainable impact by building teaching capacity and supporting the adoption of coding into national curricula in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5 and 17. Key partners include UNESCO Youth Mobile, Irish Aid, the ADEA, Google and GIZ/BMZ.
In 2019 alone, the initiative saw 3.85M children participating in coding workshops and 39,000 teachers mobilized across 37 countries. In 2020, ACW increased the program’s reach to the entire continent to deepen impact and ensure no child was left behind. The online rollout took center stage across Africa with the launch of a smartphone App to facilitate accessible learning, the introduction of the AfriCAN Code Challenge – a competition themed, ‘How will your tech change the future of education’ engaging youth from 40 African countries, Virtual Train-the-Trainer (TTT) sessions for teachers and a second Women Empowerment Workshop engaging 70 teachers in a 8-week long online program. Join SAP and partners by visiting www.africacodeweek.org to find out more.
About SAP
SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP® system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
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