GEC NEWS WIREDeputizing for Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Majd Shweikeh has announced the successful conclusion of Refugee Code Week 2017. Throughout the week, more than 15,000 Syrian refugees and Jordanian youth learned coding skills, preparing them to enter the global workforce and drive the digital economy.
“By bringing together the public, private, and academic sectors, Refugee Code Week enables refugee camps to become education and innovation hubs for the digital workforce,” said Gergi Abboud, MD, SAP Gulf, North Africa, Levant, and Pakistan.
Refugee Code Week 2017 was led by its founding partners – global digital transformation enabler SAP, UNHCR, and Galway Education Center – along with numerous partners across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
“By empowering youth and refugees with coding, Refugee Code Week can restore people’s dignity and help them to live more meaningful daily lives, and for refugees, give them the tools to help rebuild and stabilize their country when the conditions are in place for them to return,” said Stefano Severe, Representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In its 2017 edition, Refugee Code Week expanded its program, encompassing free coding workshops in UNHCR camps, community centers, and universities in locations with high refugee populations, including Egypt, France, Greece, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Sweden, and Turkey.
On his part, Hugh Bosely, Founder and Executive Director, ReBoot Kamp, said, “Coding is the digital language of the future. We’re dedicated to working with Refugee Code Week partners to enable refugees and youth to have the educational foundation to become world-class software engineers.”
As part of the SAP Next-Gen Program, German Jordanian University joins a global network of more than 3,300 educational institutions in 111 countries that are collaborating with the public, private, and academic innovation ecosystem to drive innovation, and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students can build skills, help to disrupt innovation, and re-imagine the future of industries with the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system.
