The name of my team is Team Mems, and here’s a quick summary of our experiences during the She Code Africa (SCA) Hackfest 2022 and how we came second.
My teammates and I were selected on October 7th, 2022, to participate in the She Code Africa (SCA) Hackfest. Given the number of applicants, we were thrilled to be chosen. We had an orientation meeting with our mentors on October 9, 2022, to discuss our assignments and how to begin the project.
Having taken careful notice of the requirements, we are to contribute to Open Source for Equality (OSEQ) for a period of 3 weeks by collaborating with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to learn about their primary goals and offering practical solutions to the difficulties they encounter.
Being new to the open-source world, we took time to learn what we needed to do and how to accomplish our objectives. Fortunately, we came across @Evolufy Africa, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) whose aim and objectives are to empower children and youths through quality education, training, and programs to improve their well-being and standard of living.
The next step we took was to comprehend the NGO’S challenges and obstacles, and we did this by putting the challenges first and upfront in all our decision-making. We contributed to the Audiopedia open-source platform by providing content on proper child upbringing and the best behaviours for children. Some of the core features of the web app include audio content, pictures, and language selections. Also, we have a GitHub repository where people can contribute.
In addition to reaching out to people locally who lack internet access, we want to organise workshops and programs, write books, and communicate with parents in our communities.
We had two significant problems throughout the project, and they are as follows:
- Finding an NGO whose goals and objectives matched what we intended to do took a lot of work. We contacted several organisations focusing on children, but the response rate was meagre. However, in the end, we discovered @Evolufy Africa, and we’re grateful to the organisation.
- We only had a small amount of time to work on the project, which affected our deliverables, but because of our regular interactions with our mentors, we could work around this.
Our learnings
- We were just four groups of incredible women who had no prior experience with open-source, and this project helped us understand how it works.
- Effective communication as a team helped us share our ideas without any form of conflict whatsoever.
Finally, the winners of the Hackfest were announced on November 12th, 2022, at the She Code Africa Summit, and my team came second. We value the chance to work on this project and the assistance SCA, OSEQ, and our mentors provided. And we want to express my gratitude to @Evolufy Africa for having us and allowing us to work with them.
