STEM Education in Africa: Changing the Equation

All of us at iNERDE are thankful that our friends, colleagues, students, and supporters are safe following the tragic events in Bamako last week. Our thoughts are with the people of Mali, and we join them in their period of national mourning. We believe educating and empowering the next generation of African youth is the way for a better tomorrow, and stand stronger than ever in our resolve to inspire children through STEM.

Let's work together for a bright future in Mali and in Africa.

Updates from the iNERDE Team

During our Q3 Summit in Boston this past September, we met to brainstorm and go over all the lessons we learned this summer, with the goal of improving ourselves and planning for an even greater 2016. Since then, we've been working hard on exciting new projects and partnerships, and we can't wait to share more news with you in the weeks and months to come.

We'll also be participating at the Salon de l'Enfance de Bamako (SEBA) in December, where we will speak at a special panel on STEM education.

Additions to the Team!

Aminatta will be working on Programs and Event Planning. She has extensive experience in data analysis and public health, and is excited to be doing work that matters to people with results she can directly experience.

Seydou first joined us this summer at our CV STEM in Mali, and is now our Liaison Officer in Bamako. He's our guy when it comes to finding new partners, meeting with supporters, and spreading the word about iNERDE.

Featured Blog Post

"I realized today what the thing is I miss the most from my time in Africa. When I wanted to show the kids something, I would tell them to come around me, close. They would crowd around me, in a compact group, eager to get as close as possible, to see everything. That is what I miss the most."

Michael reminisces about the warmth of the Malian people in his blog post, Très Serré. Read more on the Nerdy Blog: http://inerde.org/archives/2058

Support iNERDE

By donating to iNERDE you'll help ignite an educational revolution. Your support will allow us to share our passion for STEM and innovation with youth in Africa.
 
What are you waiting for?

Links:

• http://inerde.org

I am going to leave you guys with our COO's end of camp blog as a reflection of what we have been able to achieve at this year's summer camps across two countries in Africa. I think he does a pretty good job of summing up the entirity of the camp.

"It is with great joy and satisfaction that we’ve completed the second edition of our STEM summer camp in West Africa. This year, not only did we go from 30 to 150 students from 5 different schools, but also we were in the capitals of two West African countries: Bamako, Mali and Dakar, Senegal. I can’t help but feel pride in what we’ve achieved thus far, succeeding better than we had imagined possible in such a short time in our mission to empower and inspire African youth with opportunities, STEM skills, and confidence needed to reach their full potential.

It is often said in Africa that it takes a village to raise a child. At iNERDE, we believe that it takes a child to empower a village, a community, or a country, which is why our efforts in Africa are focused on children’s education, especially in STEM. Educating young African children, even if it is just a single child, has the long term impact of educating a whole village. I believe that Africa will be as tech savvy and advanced as the rest of the world if we can create awareness of STEM fields in children at an early age. Our dream at iNERDE is to see an Africa that shifts from being a consumer to a producer, and able to compete on the world stage when it comes to STEM.

During this year’s STEM summer camps, we witnessed how the community, starting with students’ parents, and expanding to include partner schools, local teachers, and volunteers were critical to the success of our program. Parents dropped and picked their children up every day, encouraging them to come to the camp. We saw children in tears because they were not able to enroll the camp this year, having completed the camp last year. We created classes mixing kids from advantaged backgrounds with kids from economically challenged environments and were delighted by the effort our local teachers and volunteers made to work with all the children to make the integration successful. We had come to inspire them but they inspired us and strengthened our belief in our partnership of shared values. We saw children abandon their social status to play, learn and work as a team. The financial support that the community volunteered was beyond anything we had anticipated. In Mali, about $2000 in donated food items was contributed from parents and members of the educational community – not wealthy people by any standard – that were used to make lunch for the children throughout the camp. In Senegal, when we found the cost of starting a program in a new country exceeded our projections and our budget, the teaching staff volunteered to take a reduction to an already modest salary because they believed so strongly in the importance of bringing iNERDE to their country. My point is one does not need to be as rich as Bill Gates to make a contribution or have a positive impact within his or her community. People of very modest means in Mali and Senegal contributed all they could. We could not have done what we did without their help." (- Rakib Ouro-Djobo iNERDE)

Thank you again for your support towards this years camp and we look forward to your continued support in all our future endeavors. Please feel free to reach out to me (cgogineni@inerde.org) or iNERDE if you have any questions or concerns.

Chinmaya G

Links:

• ORTM (Local TV) channel's coverage of the Mali camp in French
• Collections of blogs/reports/personal reflections from 2015 camp