At 11 years old, talented entrepreneur Femi is a huge inspiration to all

Posted Tue 9th May 2017 at 12:26
by Femi

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Femi has already helped over 150 young people, parents and teachers learn about coding and physical computing and is ready to take his charitable vision to the next level.

Hi, my name is Femi and I’m 11 years old. I love coding and I write a blog - hackerfemo.com - about my experiences within the coding community. I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at the age of seven and, at the age of 9, decided to set up the South London Raspberry Jam, which is autism and Tourette Syndrome friendly;  where others can learn about coding and physical computing in an inclusive environment. We’ve had three Jams, a six- week code club and a Family Hack day so far. I’ve also run Robot/Physical Computing workshops all around the South East and at MozFest for two years in a row. 

I have won a couple of hacks including the Microsoft Azure competition, using the Microbit with a special nano-satellite attachment; and a Hackcess Award - designing a prototype product to help young people with disabilities.  I was also a Tech4good finalist for the BT Young Pioneer Award, where I was able to see how amazing it really is when you use technology to help others. I am really proud to be helping other young people enjoy coding and robotics.

We ran more sessions for young people in 2017, entering the Astro Pi competition  where our submission achieved a ‘Highly commended’ award and will be run on the International Space Station later in the year. I also entered  my robot in the Pi Wars competition – as a beginner. Lets just say if you learn the most through failing, then I learnt a lot that weekend! But our group will be working on improvements for next year...

Also in 2017, I ran a series of Robot workshops as a guest maker for the Digital Makers Collective (part of University of Arts London), as part of the new Tate Modern Digital Arts programme, looking at participation and digital interaction. 

Femi’s Bangladesh Campaign

We have run workshops for over 150 young people, parents and teachers, and I'd like to reach even more young people. So I have set up this campaign to run my workshops in Bangladesh, to 100 kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, and share my love of digital making along the way.

You can help!

We don't want to burden the charities in Bangladesh, and therefore, I've worked out - if 100 people donate £7.60 each that would cover travel costs to Bangledseh for me and my mum. Any additional funds raised will go towards costs of extra equipment that we can leave behind for the children to continue coding on.

I will be working in partnership with the Mozilla community, Code Club Bangladesh, a small charity called CAFFE who work with low income families, and NGOs to skill up young people in coding, physical computing and programming to improve life chances.

What's in it for you?

Well, apart from getting access to my vlog at the end of each day whilst in Bangladesh - which should be entertaining in itself - you will get to help us make a difference to loads of kids and enable a connection to be made for future collaborations. Mozilla will also be providing a Stipend for one young person, to come over to London and run their own workshop at MozFest 2017 -which I will also support.

Please donate now and pass on/retweet to colleagues, friends and family.

Thank you in advance, Femi

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