The very first Rails Girls event was held in Kampala last weekend, organized by Outbox a local technology innovation hub supported by Google that provides support for people to turn their tech ideas into sustainable businesses. Under the initiative Girl Geek Kampala, Rails Girls seeks to create a community that promotes and celebrates women in the technology field by infusing entrepreneurship and programming skills into girls passionate about IT.
The free event brought together over 50 girls to learn and experience programming using Ruby on rails, a tool used to build web applications and software services.
The girls were taught how to install the Ruby on rails web application framework on their personal laptops on Friday, and later on Saturday, they were introduced to the basics of Ruby on rails and worked with close to 15 coaches from Thoughtworks, the sponsors, all day in order to get an understanding on how to use the platform.
Rails Girls is a non-profit international community of volunteers who organize weekend long events whose aim is to give tools and a community for women to understand technology and build their ideas. It’s intent is to open up technology and make it more approachable for girls and women.
The Girl Geek Kampala, Rails Girls event was sponsored by Thoughtworks Uganda.