Django Girls International is a non-profit that organizes free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. The idea behind the organization is to encourage everyone – but mostly women – who want to learn how to code.

The organization takes the name Django from the free and open source web application framework widely used for building websites, written in a coding language called Python. The Django web framework allows website developers and coders to develop websites faster and easier than in other ways.

Next month, Django Girls Harare is holding a free one-day workshop for beginner developers at Muzinda Hub, Vainona. If you are a woman, fluent in English and have a laptop, you can apply to take part. If you want to participate, don’t worry about having any technical knowledge as these workshops are designed for people who are new to computer programming.

“The goal of the event is to make it clearer and easier to understand computers, explain the magic behind the internet and inspire women to dig deeper into the amazing world of technology by showing how easy it is to build their ideas using modern tools,” said Hamphrey Butau, co-organiser and coach for Django Girls Harare.

The first ever Django Girls workshop was held in Berlin at EuroPython in 2014. It was the largest European conference for Python programmers. The event received more than 300 submissions from 33 different countries. The Django initiative has its roots in Poland where Django Girls co-founders and developers, Ola Sitarska and Ola Sendecka hail from. To date, Django Girls International has organized 112 free workshops attended by 3,473 women in 57 countries on all continents.

“Django Girls Harare wants to demystify the world of web applications and encourage women to learn about software development and programming. The organizers, who are female engineers themselves, believe that women need the skills and language to understand that world,” said Anna Makarudze, a coach with Django Girls Harare.

Django Girls Harare also has a python programming user group that meets in Harare on a monthly basis, catering for those attendees that feel they might need further help with the python programming language and Django web framework. The group holds its monthly meetings at Muzinda Hub which are open to everyone.

Django Girls Harare believes that Harare’s tech industry will continue to thrive as more women get involved in developing tech products.

Registration for Django Girls Harare workshop is open until the end of March. For more info, visit their website: www.djangogirls.org/harare/ or Facebook page: djangogirlsHARARE.

Image: A Django Girls workshop in Kampala, Uganda

Image Credit: Django Girls Harare