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When the Mercy Hands for Humanitarian Aid and Mercy Hands Europe teams began implementing the first training for teacher on IT and Coding” program in 10 schools in the Shatt al-Arab district in November 2021, the 18 participating female teachers did not have the knowledge and tools to successfully conduct coding and computer science classes with their girl students. 

During the training period, we focused on teaching the participants how to use Scratch and Excel, but also the importance of using computers in their daily lives and in the lives of their girl students to improve their skills or find a good job in the future. Among the trained teachers was Ms. Alya Kamash: a computer teacher at Shatt al Arab Girls’ High School with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She distinguished herself by her productivity and diligence during the trainings, as well as her enthusiasm to raise the scientific and professional level of her students, despite the difficulties and challenges of Iraqi society such as the lack of resources in schools and the stigmatization of girls in the IT field. 

Ms. Kamash, receiving her certificate of completion of IT and coding training from the district Director of Education

After completing the training, and with the skills and tools obtained, Ms. Kamash felt very empowered and became very active in her school to implement cooperative learning techniques in the classroom, with the support of the school director and the education department authorities. Indeed, Mrs. Alya Kamash decided to change the way she taught her students in order to organize student work groups and innovative, self-directed, peer-to-peer teaching among students. She also put the IT and coding project activity on her school’s Facebook page in order to spread the word about these educational projects in the Shatt al Arab district, and to encourage others to participate. 

In addition, through the project, she also taught her own son to use the Scratch program at home, who is now very motivated to learn more about coding and computer science in the future!  But that’s not all! As further evidence of the life-changing impact of the project on the participants and its strong sustainability due to their motivation, Mrs. Kamash is preparing a computer science festival for which she has invited the Mercy Hands team, which will take place in March. We will, of course, keep you posted on the progress of this wonderful initiative! 

Mrs. Kamash and her son, learning to use the Scratch program

In a nutshell, the transformative and empowering impact of the project supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives on its beneficiaries is extremely well illustrated by the story of Ms. Kamash. Starting from nothing, thanks to the project she multiplied the initiatives by herself within her school and her own house, in order to make the project last in the future and allow a maximum of Iraqi children, especially girls, to study information and coding and improve their future prospects!