There are two qualities we admire most about our alumni community; their immense capacity for community building and their generosity. By giving to AkiraChix, they are contributing to the many efforts that make the campus a special place for the young women who join the codeHive program. It began with small steps, but every year, as their earning increases, so does their contribution. As we always keep an eye on our alumni, there have been countless impactful and inspiring moments, but we wanted to come back to this amazing success story The alumni community ( codeHiveX) raised $21,000 to purchase and install a backup generator. This significant boost means that students do not have to lose out on the day’s lessons and activities. We applaud this kind of thoughtfulness and sisterhood of the codeHive community. Juliet Gisemba, from the class of 2021 says ”Kindness is free b...

We are very excited to partner with Steele Foundation for Hope. Their commitment is aligned with our vision to see more young women in underserved communities across East Africa, unravel years of the odds stacked against them through education. Their $1m investment in the codeHive program validates our position as a trusted source for building the best female tech talent in Africa. We look forward to working with Steele \* \* Foundation as we seek to deliver on the $1M investment over the next 4 years.

Over a year later, on International Women’s Day on March 8th, 2023, Antara celebrated its partnership with AkiraChix, and its mission to transform the technology industry by empowering women in tech. The partnership had now entered its second year and Antara had welcomed a new cohort of 10 AkiraChix interns in January of 2023 who were already finding ways to be productive in a variety of areas. Since then, 60% of the ‘23 interns have already progressed to an Apprenticeship, the next step towards full-time employment as part of Antara’s career development program for its interns. The new apprentices are contributing in communications, data analysis, UX research, customer operations, care team logistics, and product development - a direct result of the skills they have developed since January.  What’s more, three of the interns who had joined Antara in 2022 had since been offered full time employment. Intwaza Belyse and Shadya Obuya have grown into Software Engineer roles in Antar...

When Wendy, 20, completed her primary school education in 2015 in a private school in Nairobi, she was super excited to go to a boarding high school across the country. But to her shock and dismay, her mother couldn’t afford her high school education at her school of choice. Her mother had closed a lucrative business in entertainment due to a change in her religious stance and opted to run a grocery store. The family income took a dip. “It was the worst feeling ever. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t live my dreams because my parents didn’t have money,” Wendy recalls. It took some convincing from her aunt for Wendy to understand the need to adapt to the new situation and attend a different high school within Nairobi. On completion of high school in 2018, Wendy toyed with the idea of a career as a doctor, but the thought of seeing blood repulsed her. Then she considered journalism but was told that it wasn’t a very lucrative career. She was soon drawn to graphic design. Her elder s...

It would be safe to say that Mercy Birungi would have laughed off the idea of becoming a Software Engineer at KEIphone Global, an organization that seeks to bridge the digital gender divide by providing women with access to digital tools. If you ask around, Mercy would not only have found the idea of working in tech and using her skills as a force for good incredible but also the idea of her defying the odds was laughable. For a long time, she felt crippled by the lack of opportunities to learn and gain the skills that would allow her to get her foot in the door. Her brain constantly buzzed with ideas and solutions to day-to-day problems that she would solve if given the chance. At the time, the only opportunities within her reach were voluntary opportunities in social work. Though helping others provided a wonderful sense of fulfilment, economic progress seemed out of reach and her dream of working in tech became fleeting. Like many young women and girls, Mercy shouldered the conse...