“The fastest way to change the society is to mobilize the women of the world” ~Charles Malik.
Once during my English class, I had a girl who told the class that her ambition was to be a “jurutera komputer” (computer engineer) like her father, and the boys of the class laughed at her because they didn’t believe in women working with computers, what more becoming an engineer. I don’t know if the girl lost her confidence and then decided to change her ambition, but I promised her that she will become a computer engineer one day if she ignored the negativities around her and kept believing in herself.
This incident made me realize that there is still a lot of work needed to be done to empower the girls in our schools in ways more than those required in the National syllabus. We have to evolve past the notion that girls belong in Biology while boys belong in Physics.
Project Description
Therefore, we in ARUS and Girls for Good decided that a good way to empower our girls in character and skills is through this Create and Code program, which is a 6 weeks programs tailored for girls from difficult backgrounds where gender equality is still a foreign idea. This program teaches design thinking, coding and basic programming to help young girls explore their talents in fields they are rarely exposed to.
- 30 program beneficiaries from 2 different schools
- A total of 36 hours of sessions in a span of 6 weeks for both schools
Expected Final Outcome for the Girls
- Higher level of confidence
- Improved interest in computer programming
- Enhanced design thinking and logical thinking skills
At the end of the program, students will produce a human-centered coding project (games/stories/animation/app layout) to solve a given issue around them, and present it to their peers.
Cost Breakdown
| Items | Units | Cost per Unit (RM) | Total Cost (RM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Student workbooks (modules, worksheets, trackers, assessments) | 15 workbooks | 45 | 675 |
| Teaching materials (lesson decks, teaching aids, flashcards, stationery) | 6 sessions | 50 | 300 |
| Facilitators' cost | 3 hours per session For 6 sessions 3 x 6 = 18 hours | 85 | 1530 |
| TOTAL: | 2505 |
We wish to run this program at 2 different schools to be able to evaluate its effectiveness. Therefore, for 2 schools we would need a total of RM 5010.