ZimboPy

Summary Learning to code is one of the most effective ways to be successful in the modern economy. To that end, Marlene Mhangami and Ronald Maravanyika created the ZimboPy organization to teach women and girls in Zimbabwe how to program in Python. In this episode they are joined by Mike Place to discuss how ZimboPy got started, the projects that their students have worked on, and how the community can get involved. Preface mu- Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. – I would like to thank everyone who supports us on Patreon. Your contributions help to make the show sustainable. – When you’re ready to launch your next project you’ll need somewhere to deploy it. Check out Linode at podastinit.com/linode and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for running your awesome app. And now you can deliver your work to your users even faster with the newly upgraded 200 GBit network in all of their datacenters. – If you’re tired of cobbling together your deployment pipeline then it’s time to try out GoCD, the open source continuous delivery platform built by the people at ThoughtWorks who wrote the book about it. With GoCD you get complete visibility into the life-cycle of your software from one location. To download it now go to podcatinit.com/gocd. Professional support and enterprise plugins are available for added piece of mind. – Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email [email protected]) – To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, tell your friends and co-workers, and share it on social media. – Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Marlene Mhangami, Mike Place, and Ronald Maravanyika about ZimboPy, an organization that teaches women and girls in Zimbabwe how to program using Python Interview Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? Can you start by explaining what the mission of ZimboPy is and how it got started? Which languages did you consider using for your lessons and what was your reason for choosing Python? What subject matter do you cover in addition to pure programming concepts? What are some of the types of projects that the students have completed as part of their work with ZimboPy? What have been the most challenging aspects of running ZimboPy? How is ZimboPy supported and what are your plans to ensure future sustainability? Can you share some success stories for the women and girls that you have worked with? For anyone who is interested in replicating your work for other communities what advice do you have? Keep In Touch Mike cachedout on GitHub @cachedout on Twitter cachedout on Keybase Ronald Rmaravanyika on GitHub @Rmaravanyika on Twitter Marlene @marlene_zw on Twitter LinkedIn Picks Tobias Click Ronald Odoo formerly OpenERP Links ZimboPy Unilever Django Girls Thomas Hatch SaltStack Zimbabwe Mechatronics Raspberry Pi OpenCV ZimboPy Curriculum ZimboPy Storefront Oxfam Open Collective ZimboPy Mentorship Registration The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA