How we taught women to code, built a CRM and helped an NGO, all at once, in 8 weeks.

You never actually feel geeky doing geeky stuff, but there I was explaining to three women what we were about to precariously embark upon, building a web application on Ruby on Rails and all that. We only had 8 weeks to do this, and they’d have to learn HTML/CSS, a sprinkle of JavaScript, along with Ruby, the language, and Rails, the framework.

I felt pretty geeky then.

Oh and we were to help a non-profit organization, HOME, to build an application to manage disputes migrant workers had with their employers. HOME dealt with both domestic and non-domestic workers, and their issues ranged from late or unpaid salary to downright physical abuse.

For all the help that HOME rendered to these migrant workers, they themselves struggled with technology.

So with that, we had a mission, and just so you know, I really love missions.

Like Charlie’s Angels, but better.

How it began

Not too long ago, Elisha and I came up with the idea of combining both teaching women to write software, and helping NGOs to build something useful. We’ve seen enough of workshops, courses, and learning materials, used by various groups such as Rails Girls and SG Geek Girls in an effort to bring technical skills to women, or more correctly women to technical skills?

They were all great opportunities to begin with, don’t get me wrong, but since they were aimed at beginners, there was no follow up to the more advanced members of this minority group. A lot of the time and effort was spent attracting women to these tech events, equipping them with the fundamentals, but only a handful would continue down this path.

Our discussion set the gears in motion for the TechLadies program, where we wanted women to walk away from the program with the sense of accomplishment having built software that was used by real people and organizations. Their work will be publicly documented and open-sourced, and would pave the way for a career in software engineering. Plans were drawn, coffees were had, and a program for 3 teams of 3 women each was hatched.

Geeky people, doing geeky things.

Meeting at HOME

I was to meet Jolovan at his office down in Lucky Plaza (which is the mall that domestic workers swarm to on weekends), and he was late, with apologies, but I didn’t mind at all as it gave me time to peek around.

His office was a freaking LAN shop.

It was at this point, I had to straddle between recoiling in horror thinking about how I had spent a chunk of my adolescence in these dank and stuffy establishments, and admiring how smart the whole idea was to run a LAN shop and serve migrant workers (who need cheap internet access) at the same time.

The team

The beginning is the end is the beginning