Programming your future

The eastern plains have been greatly affected by violence for decades. Today, Villanueva still sees the effects of it. The future of the children from marginalized neighborhoods who are lucky is to work in the fields for the rest of their lives; those who are not join illegal groups or fall into drug addiction. On the other hand, girls are exposed to greater dangers, such as forced marriages, rape or prostitution.

Those who are fortunate enough to finish high school do not have enough opportunities to access university. In Colombia, only 1 in 4 of the poorest children access tertiary education. In my town, only 1 in 10 do.

‌Intensity of narco-paramilitary activity

Source: Informe sobre presencia de grupos armados. (n.d.). [online] Available at: http://www.indepaz.org.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/INFORME-DE-GRUPOS-2021.pdf.

Mapping the Recruitment of Minors in Colombia,

After the signing of the Peace Accords (2019).

Source: Sources: UN, OAS and Ombudsman's Office

Household income and university attendance

Source: CEDLAS and The World Bank

We are offering programming classes to underprivileged children completely free of charge. At the moment we are programming on computers that have been donated to our foundation. Using programs like Scratch, Reeborg and CodeCombt we make programming a game. Starting from writing logic instructions to Python and JavaScript. 

In addition to programming knowledge, they are also learning English and mathematics, the basics of computer science. Our goal is that in a few years, they will not only be able to program professional websites or applications but robots, starting with Arduino kits up to autonomous robots.

Youth between the ages of 5 and 18 living in underprivileged and violence-affected areas are our target population. Many of them have never had the opportunity to learn how to use technological devices such as computers or cell phones. Even so, the idea of learning to program motivates them to learn every day and have higher goals in life. 

Despite the limited opportunities that young people in my region have to attend college, programming offers them better educational and employment opportunities. In addition, we are also decreasing the numbers of poverty, prostitution, teenage pregnancies and drug addiction in our town and helping young people who have experienced them first hand.

The founding family of the foundation knows firsthand the violence and poverty, so they decided to help more people who are in a similar situation as they were. Because they have inspired me and other tutors of the foundation, who have also gone through similar problems, we now also want to change the lives of those in need.

I became part of the foundation when I received a scholarship from them to learn English. This scholarship was offered to low-income children in my village. After studying for about 2 years I became part of their team as a math and science tutor. I am an example of how quality education changed my life, and I want to be part of the change in my region.

Learning about education systems like those in Japan, we realized that programming is becoming a compulsory subject in schools. However, this is decades away from happening in Colombia. Unlike what we had thought at first, children and young people are amazed by the fact that they can program.

The classes normally take place in our facilities but once a week we go to the neighborhoods and villages where these children live to meet their families and the environment where they live. In this way, not only the children are learning but the whole community is committed and has been able to understand that education is the most powerful weapon to change the future.

In addition to raising funds, we hope to obtain legal, cultural and technical guidance and knowledge to be able to reach more people. Our goal is not only to help people in our town but our state and become a role model for other people who are also helping those in need in different regions of Colombia and the world.

Unlike traditional education in Colombia, where the use of any technological device is avoided at all costs. We are using technology, and specifically programming, as a way to engage children and youth in learning. While programming they learn English, math, science and even about the world around them.

We hope not only to help more and more children learn to program, but to mentor them and guide their path to higher education, breaking the cycle of poverty and violence we have lived in for decades.

In one year we hope that one of our beneficiaries will be able to access higher education at one of the best universities in Colombia through a scholarship. We will also be able to help at least 20 more children than are currently receiving our programming classes.

In five years, we will have been able to further advance the training of our beneficiaries so that we will have tangible products such as web pages, applications or robots focused on helping the environment and/or education. We will have reached more than 200 beneficiaries, and we will have at least 5 young people studying in universities in the United States or Europe and 10 in universities in Colombia. 

We are decreasing the number of out-of-school students, as well as drug addiction and prostitution figures. These children and young people spend more and more time learning than on the streets. In addition, we will increase the number of young people attending college regardless of their economic situation or background. 

We provide programming classes completely free of charge to children and young people from underprivileged neighborhoods in Villanueva, Casanare, Colombia. In addition, they also learn English and pure sciences, with which they have a global formation to be able to access higher education through scholarships. Our immediate output is to decrease the time the children spend on the streets exposed to dangers and increase the time they spend in our facilities programming to improve their future. Since they are not only learning programming but also English and pure sciences, our long-term outcome will be young people with better opportunities to access tertiary education and able to create websites, applications or even robots that help their community. Therefore, it will not only be us who help the underprivileged but all the children and young people who are now part of our project. Results show that the children who are part of our project now dream big and how by being able to access the university they will be able to obtain enough knowledge to improve the lives of their families and communities, breaking the cycle of poverty in which they have lived.

Existing platforms such as Scratch, Reeborg and CodeCombat are part of our learning curriculum. Through them, students are able to learn logic instructions and languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, HTML and others. In addition, once they have the necessary knowledge in programming, we will start creating hardware through Arduino Kits.  

My work team is entirely made up of women. Those of us who have grown up in underprivileged environments know firsthand the dangers faced by girls in such environments. Therefore, 60% of our beneficiaries are women. With this we not only want to increase female representation in programming but also to protect them from the dangers they are exposed to on a daily basis, such as rape, teenage pregnancy and forced marriages.

Our target population is children and youth between the ages of 5 and 18 who live in poor and violent environments. However, our programming classes have not only caught the attention of this audience but also of all children and youth in general. That is why we started selling our services to families who are financially able to pay for them. With this money we pay our teachers, support our facilities and obtain new equipment.

Our project has been sustained thanks to the fact that financially stable families pay for their children to also take part in the programming classes we offer. In addition, we are constantly applying to challenges like this one in order to gain more knowledge and enough funds to buy computers for every child our project benefits. 

We were a beneficiary of University Lutheran Chapel, we got enough money to buy 3 computers for our project. In addition, with the money received from those economically stable families, we have been able to acquire new and used computers little by little.