On the 6th and 7th of August 2022 PayFast participated in an amazing event in collaboration with GirlCode, an NPO dedicated to empowering young girls and women through technology, to support young women who are interested in pursuing an exciting career as a developer.
We sponsored and attended GirlCode’s annual hackathon in Cape Town that celebrated Women’s Month with the theme #Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future. The goal of the hackathon was to provide young women who are eager to join the software industry with an opportunity to develop some of the real-world skills they need to make it as a dev through a fun, competitive yet cooperative environment.
During the hackathon, 70 participants of college-going-age eagerly attended the 24-hour event in Cape Town to work together and show off their computer programming, software development and other techie skills to develop a software solution. Due to its open format, participants were able to hack on web, mobile, desktop, or hardware applications in teams consisting of two to four individuals.
One of our very own devs, Kevin, volunteered his time to attend the hackathon as a mentor to assist the young participants in answering any of their questions and to guide and keep them on track with their projects.
A big congratulations to everyone who participated, especially to the winning team, Modern Girls from Johannesburg, who won R60,000 for their solution that tackles access to sanitary pads. The top three teams in each of the participating cities, including Cape Town, received laptops.
The hackathon turned out to be more than a competition; it was a collaborative learning experience where all participants walked away with new knowledge that will help them continue their journey in the tech space. We really enjoyed participating and look forward to next year’s special GirlCode hackathon.
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