Stories From Erbil

Awjalan Fatimi;

An Enthusiast Junior Ninja!

Meet Awjalan; A student in Basic IT class. and a member in the Programming Club. Awjalan means A strong mountain and this Guy prove to be strong with his big ideas and thoughts. He proved himself in his class and attended the Programming club sessions and never missed any session. 

Awjalan Finished High school with an Avg: 67.5 and his ambition is to study in a computer-related major. He said, "I knew how to use a computer but I enrolled in this course to  improve my skills with Ms. Sandra and Ms. Eman, and most importantly improve my English with Mr. Issa"

Awjalan, A Basic IT Student & Member in the Programming Club 

WorkWell’s first Programming Course: Ruby Basics

Workwell’s first Programming Course: Ruby Basics

Two Weeks Ago Erbil Campus of Workwell program witnessed the launch of the first of its type: A course for Ruby Programming.

The selection process done earlier for all the students graduated from the Basic IT course which qualified them to enroll in the Advanced IT course!

An Assessment was made for them and approximately half of the students were accepted in the Ruby Programming Course.

Ruby Ninjas

Hussain Ismaeil one of the Ruby Ninjas Tried his best in the assessment so that he get accepted in the Course, He said and I Quote “ I didn’t sleep for two days just to finish all the materials given by the instructors and I practiced on the Application”

Hussain is one of the best students in class. He watch the videos provided by Pragmatic Studio and then he tries to implement it on his own laptop. He said that it is amazing how can we implement the code and the result is right away on the output immediately.

Hussain Ismail Trying Ruby code lines on Mr. Rawand's Laptop

Ahmed is having fun while coding also, He said that coding challenges him to run the code without errors and try even after errors and bugs in the code.

Ahmed, Ruby Programming Class Student

Ibraheem, on the other hand, is surprised by this new world. He is writing code and take notes for each function and implementation...

Ibraheem, Ruby Programming class Student

Today, women make up only a fraction of the tech industry. But there’s change in the air. Initiatives such as Workwell are not only changing the lives of individuals but are also changing the very structure of society.

This programming class is seeking for Women Empowerment in the society and fill the gap in tech community also, Almost 50% of the class are women.

Ruby Class Superstars

Zeelan (Originally from Syria, Lives at Darashakran Camp, Erbil) was hesitating about programming course even after passing the assessment, and the Interview. She said that I was afraid of Failure. But then she made a risk as she said and enrolled in the Ruby programming class. Now she is one of the superstars in the class, she is now more than happy that she made this risk and change her path towards programming.

Zeelan, Ruby Programming Student

Lureen, is feeling impressed also by coding,” discovering each day new functions and implementing new lines of code is something worth trying and making an effort for it And most importantly being outside of my comfort zone!” as she said.

Lureen, Ruby Programming Class Student

A lot of impressions by students and a lot of stories are on the way..
We hope to see these students the leaders of their Tech Communities one day.. 

Ninjas and Masters, together

Don’t let others put boundaries for you!

“Don’t let others put boundaries for you!” said Rayan Abdullah, the Iraqi designer who tightened his grip on the designs in Germany. He updated the slogan of Germany after the Unification of Eastern and Western Germany, designed the logo for Volkswagen, moderated the Audi logo, and designed the Bugatti logo.

Volkswagen logo evolution

Prof. Abdullah was born in 1957 in Ras al-Kor district in Mosul city. Studied in its schools, and then left Iraq, heading to Germany in 1980 where he continued his higher education. There, in the capital, Berlin, he completed his studies in art education at the University of Fine Arts. He also studied design and received a master's degree in computer-based visual understanding. Professor Rayan Abdullah is the dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Leipzig and the dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the German University in Cairo.

Prof. Rayan Abdullah

 ____________________________

“Let your design speak for you”

Rayan Abdullah 

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Prof. Abdullah reiterates in his press interviews that one of his most important experiences was the modification of the German State emblem. He says that in order to understand the details of this slogan, he bought an annual zoo ticket to visit and study different kinds of eagles.

Prof. Abdullah also says at a TEDx conference in Baghdad in 2013 that the design of the logo of the Italian car Bugatti is his biggest project after the design of the unified emblem of Germany, which is considered the most expensive cars in the world.

Also, prof. Abdullah published many books about design and Arabic calligraphy including Pictograms Icons and Signs, Corporate Design and Art calligraphique arabe and more.

TEDx Baghdad

AlGhad AlArbi interview

DW- interview - Samah altaweel

How a self taught programmer is trying to spread peace by coding

An interview with Brit Hemming| Erbil, Kurdistan

Her name is Brit. She is a front-end developer, educator, the founder of Programmers 4 Peace, and the creator and voice behind the popular travel and lifestyle blog Stay Curious Darling. She is passionate about women’s development and empowerment issues. A couple of cool projects she’s worked on in the past include helping to plan the trip, develop the curriculum and going on tour with The Code Mobile,  running coding summer camps with Girls Learning Code and spending a week in Gaza teaching workshops for women with Gaza Sky Geeks. She learned how to code at HackerYou in Toronto and has since made it her mission to fuse together her passions for international development and for programming. When she’s not traveling around the world teaching she’s hanging out with her rescued Bali Dog Ada (named after Ada Lovelace) or searching for a cool new cafe to fuel her coffee addiction.

Brit, working in the office at Re:Coded's co-working space

running kids coding camps in kurdistan

she carried her passion and love for programming all the way to Iraq to deliver her message of empowering women. Brit is currently working with Re:Coded for helping with the development of workshops and bootcamp curriculum. Running train the trainers sessions, helping to kick off the first web-development bootcamp in Erbil, Iraq and working to create a freelancers bootcamp curriculum.

I've been lucky enough to meet Britt in Erbil and made this lovely interview with her at Re:Coded co-working space:

- what have you studied britt? And Is your major related to programming.

(Brit) - I studied international development. I learned to code at a bootcamp called hackerYou in Toronto 3 years ago.

- tell me more about your initiative programmers4peace, what is it all about?

(Brit)- I started Programmers 4 Peace a year and a half ago when I started teaching programming workshops, and bootcamps all around the world. At Programmers 4 Peace, we believe that one of the major barriers to peace is economic instability and by teaching youth the skills they need to be competitive in today’s job market we are helping to remove that barrier.

- what's your opinion in the academic field in general? Do you like to work in the academic field?

(Brit)- I wouldn’t say I work in academia even though I teach people how to code. When I think of academia I think of stuffiness and bureaucracy. I think our education system is very broken. It doesn’t teach people problem-solving or how to think for themselves. I think bootcamps and other nontraditional forms of education are starting to address this. I love teaching because I love sharing my knowledge and I am constantly learning and growing. I never imagined that teaching would be something I would be good at, but I have surprised myself.

- Considering your freelancing and traveling around the world.. How do you manage your financial situation.. How do you choose accommodation, like a good place with good price.. Tell me more about your adventures.

(Brit)- Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive. I think this is a common misconception. I’ve structured my life so that I have very little expenses and often I am saving money when I’m traveling. I don’t buy souvenirs or go shopping a lot, I don’t have car payments, I don’t waste money on getting my nails done all of the time. I spend my money on travel and experiences. Plane tickets are my biggest expense but I minimize this cost by searching for flight deals and keeping a flexible schedule so that I can take advantage of deals. I also tend to travel slowly and stay in one place for a long period of time. I stay in hostels, or airbnbs mostly so my accomodation costs are not that high and I have access to a kitchen so that I don’t have to eat out all of the time.

- What's your advice for the junior developers, and for the ones that wants to learn how to code ?

(Brit)-My advice would be when you put your mind to something, follow through and do it. If you want to study software development then don’t let anything stop you. Apply for a bootcamp, learn online, start a study group, go to meetups. There are so many ways to learn things - find what's right for you and take advantage of it. Don’t give up. It’s not supposed to be easy.

-stay curious darling.. ! What's the story behind this name for your blog?

(Brit)-I’ve always been extremely curious about the world. I’ve always wanted to visit far away places and travel and explore. My blog is my attempt to share my travel and my lifestyle with the world. I want to inspire other people to live a life that makes sense for them, even if it’s not what society expects them to do.

-What's your favorite book, or novel.. I read alot.you can say  I'm a voracious reader :)

(Brit)- I read the alchemist once a year, I also loved the blue sweater by Jacquline Novogatz. But, I’m always looking for new books to read. I mostly read non-fiction and I always try to read at least one book that takes place in the country I’m visiting.

I think you'd like this story: "Diaries of a fish in land" by suleiman94 on Wattpad https://my.w.tt/CkqjSTvF5N

STORIES FROM IRAQ|

 A journey from London to Middle East.

Her name is Zahra, she was Born in London 1991, and raised in east London with multicultural and different background community. She studied English literature and government politics and law, and then majored in English and drama, and got her master in international relations. She worked as a freelancer for some time and then got her ticket to travel to Gaza to work as community engagement manager! Zahra said "My parents went crazy, they didn’t accept traveling to Gaza but then they accept it as I traveled to Gaza" Zahra said that she acquired a lot of information about the culture and the nature of life and people in Gaza that all the information she got from there applied it when she moved to Erbil to work as a program manager in Re:Coded. "I'm more with implementing more than reading, I can take the research and then implement it, and that's why I'm here to (implement) and build the tech community in Erbil and Middle East"

zahra at the tech summit in paris on behalf of Re:Coded

Zahra believes that in order to have a better education system the schools needs to update their curriculum and adopt the change instead of refusing it. "Currently the schools in UK and Europe have coding classes for children to fill the gap of jobs in the future"

women in tech event, organized by Re:Coded

Zahra currently based in Erbil, trying to help the fellows of Re:Coded bootcamp and organizing several workshops and events in Kurdistan. zahra said "The graduate fellows of the bootcamp now has a message to deliver to their community, each fellow must affect his circle of friends and family, and that's how a tech community will be built eventually" 

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