How DreamCode Africa Empowers Public Secondary School Students To shoot for the Stars
DreamCode Africa is a Nigerian-based nonprofit organization that inspires and enables public secondary school students to gain relevant life and tech skills through fun-based education. The goal of the organization is to empower these students to break the cycle of poverty in their communities, grow in their faith, and dream beyond their environment and circumstances. “ I noticed that quite a number of children in rural underserved communities felt like they lacked the license to dream big. So I founded DreamCode to help every child to find their voice, and discover who God designed them to be,” said Mercy Bello, the Founder and Executive Director of DreamCode Africa.
During her master's program in Organizational Leadership at Eastern University, Pennsylvania, USA, Mercy Bello founded DreamCode Africa. Having schooled in a public secondary school herself, she was well aware of the limitations and deficits in the Nigerian public secondary education sector. So she set out to invest and make an impact in the lives of many young children in Nigeria.
On finishing her master's program, she was led to come back to Nigeria and pursue the vision of DreamCode full time, forfeiting opportunities to gain employment at big firms and organizations in the US.
DreamCode’s mission is centered around investing in children, inspiring leaders, and impacting the community. They accomplish this mission through its STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics) based after-school program, mentorship sessions, and entrepreneurial and digital literacy programs. Its flagship teaching program took flight during the 2020 global lockdown caused by the COVID19 pandemic. The crisis was a great opportunity leveraged by Dream Code to cater to the educational needs of public secondary school students with online classes and the tutorial sessions it organized on Facebook. Through these online classes, students were able to grow and remain academically active at a time when there was little to no effective alternative to physical schooling.
Today, the NGO is headquartered in Ogun state in its specially designed hub called the DreamCode Learning Centre. In the words of Mrs. Bello “The learning centre is a safe space for the kids to collaborate and learn and explore their creativity. A place where students can get the support they need without the fear of being labeled by teachers who don’t really understand them.” Such labeling characterizes the state of public school education in Nigerian rural communities. The non-profit aims to empower the students to learn without limitations by providing the right resources for them ranging from gadgets to tutors and facilities.
In today’s world where education is now borderless, knowledge is limitless and ubiquitous, the current teaching style and curriculum of public secondary schools in Nigeria, cannot suffice to effectively prepare the next generation for the future. This gap is what DreamCode Africa aims to reduce through its many initiatives, programs, and projects. The non-profit also supports a number of students annually with training and funds to pay and prepare for their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (also known as WAEC).
One of Dream Code’s goals is to empower 10,000 students in the next 5 years. The bigger picture is having Dream code Learning Centers in every inner city in the country and in Africa that serves as collaborative learning spaces that equip children to be all they were born to be. Achieving these goals will go a long way in impacting Nigeria.
To learn more about DreamCode and its activities check out its website and social media
