Adam Hunter, Author at 51��Africa News Center

De-Coding the Classroom

Adam Hunter — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 06:57:08 +0000

Teachers, along with their students, are shaping the future of education with Science on Stage’s European Code League. Meet this year’s inspiring 2021 winner.

In the 1940s, Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gyoergyi wrote: “The future will be like the schools are today.” In 2021, these words still ring true, even more so for the winners of the European Code League competition, Dr. Corina Toma and Mihaela Giurgea, along with their students from Tiberiu Popoviciu High School of Computer Science in Romania. Second and third place went to teams from Turkey and Greece.

Change Is the Only Constant, but Changemakers Are Ever Changing

The pandemic has been quite a revelation in this aspect, with unexpected and seemingly limitless opportunities presenting themselves and youth grabbing them with both hands.

According to a report by the World Economic Forum, around 65% of children who start primary school today will work in professions that do not even exist yet: their future lies in the hands of educators. To date, Science on Stage reaches about 100,000 teachers and teacher trainers in over 30 countries, providing a necessary network to exchange ideas and to scale them across Europe. And with 79% of participating teachers implementing the teaching ideas they’ve seen at Science on Stage festivals over the years, European Code League has proven that it’s possible for teachers and students to work together — even in the midst of a pandemic — to create inspiring, real-world science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects.

Organized by Science on Stage with the support of the 51��Corporate Social Responsibility (51��CSR) team in Middle Eastern Europe, the European Code League is a competition to which teacher-student teams with innovative coding project scan apply. It was launched in 2020 as a follow up to Science on Stage’s .

“Science on Stage gave me the opportunity to find new ways to motivate my students to learn physics using ICT,” says Dr. Toma, who became a teacher after 10 years working as a physicist. “Physics is everywhere and happens at any time. In the classroom, I am at home. I like to talk with my students and explain all kinds of topics.”

Science on Stage Europe is a network for STEM teachers focusing on the exchange of best practice teaching ideas. The ultimate goal is to improve STEM teaching by supporting educators in their professional development and growth.

“Teachers are often the ideas, the starting point. Students who finish high school do not know what their role in the world will be,” Dr Toma adds. “These projects show how important it is to code, and also to learn STEM subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.”

CaeliBox, the winning coding project, used sensors to measure different air parameters such as concentration of CO2, humidity, pressure, temperature, noise, and other noxious substances in the studennts’ town. The data was transferred to a server so the students could access and work with it at any time.

“My town in Romania used to be small but now it is very big. As a result, the air is polluted because we have so many cars. CaeliBox is a useful device for STEM education and our students were happy to combine coding with physics and technology,” explains Dr. Toma, who adds that she faced many challenges trying to complete the project, from broken sensors to realizing they needed more space and swapping out their Arduino Uno for an Arduino Mega.

For Dr. Toma, Science on Stage is far more than a networking opportunity for teachers, it’s a community of like-minded educators: “At first, I saw that the education in Romania is very different from other countries, but then I realized that as teachers we have the same goals and can make the same activities. Science on Stage is a community to challenge our ideas and to understand that we are in the same place. 51��can be very proud for supporting STEM teaching training in Europe.”

There is no one way to make the world a better place. By helping discover and promote innovative teaching concepts among Europe’s science teachers, Science on Stage and the European Code League enable more students to gain the digital skills they need for a challenging future and encourage them to consider a career in science, ICT or engineering to help the positively change the world.

In a world shaped increasingly by technology and digitalization, teachers make the difference and the youth of today have so many more opportunities to learn and be the change.

The 12th European Science on Stage festival takes place March 24-27, 2022, in Prague, Czech Republic. Stay tuned to see amazing youth in action, redefining how a career in science, ICT, or engineering can help make a positive change in the world.

This article first appeared on the 51��News Center.

51��is committed to helping the world run better and improve people’s lives, with youth playing a critical role. Join us in sharing good news by tagging your stories of inspirational youth or your actions inspiring youth with @SAP4Good on , , and .

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Meet SAP’s Batoul Husseini, Founder of Digital Skills for Today, Providing Refugees with The Gift of Code

Adam Hunter — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:10:43 +0000

“A refugee is someone who survived and who can create the future” – Amela Koluder

Did you know that more than half of the world’s 25.9 million refugees are under the age of 18? On World Refugee Day, June 20, 51��honours the courage, strength, social justice and tolerance of those who have been forced to flee their homes under the threat of persecution, conflict and violence by empowering youth with coding skills inside Refugee Communities across the MENA region.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), education and work in the Middle East and North Africa region will determine the livelihoods of over 300 million people and drive growth and development for generations to come. However, the current reality in the job market is economically unsustainable.

Batoul Husseini, the Director of Government Affairs Middle East North, Corporate Social Responsibility Lead MENA at SAP. She is both ambitious and innovative, a digital inclusion trailblazer. Based in MENA, she is responsible for the strategic development of SAP’s government relations activities, promoting technological transformation in the public sector and the positive role played by digital technologies in addressing economic and societal challenges around the world.

Batoul launched Refugee Code Week at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. Today it is known as Digital Skills for Today (DST), a corporate social responsibility (CSR) collaboration between SAP, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Injaz Al Arab, RBK, and Re:Coded. While providing digital skills and training for refugees and youths, DST also strives to train local nationals to meet the current market demand for skilled professionals in information and communications technology, the fastest growing sector of the economy.

“The initiative took-off and during my visits to host coding workshops at different refugee camps I saw how little things can be everything, and beauty can be created from nothing. People used art to normalize the desert-like environment, they painted nature and water scenes on camp fences and discarded bottles were repurposed as flowerpots. Nothing was taken for granted,” she says.

DST addresses several critical regional challenges, including youth unemployment, inadequate workforce readiness, social injustice and a lack of digital skills training. Among other youth, it provides training as they rebuild their lives with tolerance, courage and perseverance.

“Especially in and around conflict zones, Middle East and North Africa, youth often face limited employment prospects and an inadequate or non-existent education system,” explains Batoul, “the initiative directly improves quality of life for beneficiaries by providing in-demand skills for the 21st-century job market. Furthermore, the initiative has valuable social outcomes, decreasing unemployment rates in marginalized populations, and providing long-term opportunities for digital innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The program is also about helping young people, including refugees, leapfrog their situation through intensive code training that leads to job placement. This is why 51��partnered with (RBK) and to turn literacy into expertise and expertise into employment.

“The initiative has introduced coding to over 40,500 young refugees and nationals across 14 countries since it was launched in 2016. More than 900 graduates have found gainful employment in Jordan, Turkey and Iraq,” adds Batoul. “Bringing about new skills and expertise in conflict-affected areas is essential to the development and reconstruction of those regions. We aim to reveal the many potential coding heroes that only lack the opportunity to improve their lives and build their own future. Our hands-on learning material and training session allow quick insertion into the workforce, this shaping an entire generation of tech-savvy professionals.”

Passionate about communications and language, she speaks Arabic, English and Dutch, Batoul has a Masters Degree in International Business and holds various qualifications in Economics, Business BA administration and Computer Information Systems.

Her work with refugees has only cemented her desire to utilize digital platforms to make a difference. In recognition of her goal to increase ICT awareness locally and across the globe, Batoul was named the World Summit Awards (WSA) Special Ambassador to Asia and she works closely with WSA to achieve its mission: promoting the world’s best e-content and innovative ICT applications, and ultimately, contributing to a true knowledge society.

“Today, I have a deep appreciation that everything I have is a privilege and I could lose it through no fault of my own. Growing up in Syria, I learned the importance of standing up for others and felt compelled to make a bigger impact. 51��provided me with this opportunity, and for this year I’m excited to announce our virtual volunteering opportunities for staff where they can provide expert skills and guidance to our NGO’s and partners on the ground.”

In closing, Batoul adds, “World Refugee Day is an incredibly significant day, together with our partners we can raise empathy, mobilise action, showcase solidarity and create inclusion for minority groups to ultimately improve people’s lives and make the world run better.”

For information about Digital Skills Today visit

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51��and Partners Embark on a Global Collective Program to Eradicate Gender Inequality

Adam Hunter — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 11:25:40 +0000

Gender Justice was the hot topic at Cape Town’s Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking this month where 51��and partners welcomed global NGO’s, thought leaders and government representatives for a three-day workshop in pursuit of bold social change.

Hosted by SAP, Care and The Sall Family Foundation, the three-day Design Thinking session called upon influencers and activists to address how organisations and individuals can collectively invest intellectual, social and financial resources to challenge unjust systems. The global summit also facilitated the launch of ‘’, an initiative developed by , led by community change-makers fighting for social justice and gender equality.

English Sall, co-founder of Embark commented, “The summit was a roaring success with high attendance and active participation of attendees from across the globe. Considering International Women’s Day is taking place this month, it is the perfect time to have announced Embark. The Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking provided the ultimate venue, drawing inspiration and creative ideas for our collective action in support of our gender justice initiative.”

Sall continues by saying that there is immense disruption and struggle across the globe with the rise of xenophobia and fascism coupled with shrinking civil society spaces. “Like never before, there is an urgent need for collective action to push for social and political change at all levels, and this is what inspired Embark.”

Research shows that reducing workplace inequalities over the next 20 years could add 6% to global GDP. However, there are still several obstacles to achieving true workplace equality within African organisations. President Ellen Sirleaf, women’s activist and supporter of Embark added, “I am honoured to partner with 51��and Embark as we seek to strengthen and resource women-led movements and leadership throughout the world.”

She continues “Active intervention of women in decision-making positions will help foster the overall quality of governance in terms of boosting accountability and transparency, reducing corruption, and protecting the interest of marginalized sections of society. But we can’t do this alone, we need all people to come together around the same vision of equality.”

SAP’s Global Gender Agenda

Achieving gender equality is vital to the culture and success of every company, from small start-ups to large corporates. “Empowering women in the workplace is a priority. It’s vital that we work together to deconstruct and replace the social norms and structures that fuel ongoing inequalities,” says Sunil Geness, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Government Relations at 51��Africa.

“As a purpose-driven company based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, SAP’s entire ecosystem connects companies, partners and customers around innovation and demonstrates a strong commitment to Sustainable Development Goal number 5: .”

Geness continues to say that there’s a growing recognition in the value of diversity and inclusion, and forward-thinking companies are reflecting on the diversity in their boardrooms and talent pools and working towards gender equality and equity. “With more than 90% of jobs to become tech related, it is crucial that we empower women and girls to become active collaborators, innovators and business leaders in the STEM fields and unlock technology’s potential to effect positive change across our continent.”

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