Vol. 001 | Impact Chronicles✨
With your help, we're on a mission to redefine digital literacy education so all kids can invent a better future. Here's a peek into how your contribution is making a difference.
Hello from Saturday HQ!
'Rejoice in the opportunity to change the world' 🌎
You’re receiving this letter because you’re a part of our impact community - a volunteer, donor, partner, or friend - who has made our work possible. As part of our goals for 2020, we want to be more intentional about keeping in touch… it’s been long overdue. If you’d like to opt out of receiving these quarterly emails, just let us know.
Hello from the last quarter of 2020! 👋🏻 None of us saw a year like this coming, but if nothing else, it’s brought to the forefront the urgency of our work to bridge the digital literacy gap more than ever.
In the last 3 months, we’ve: Pivoted to run Code in the Community classes for under-privileged kids online. Piloted Code Meets World: Applied Coding for Big Ideas, a year-long intermediate programme, with a batch of 11 kids including 3 Code in the Community graduates (whose spots were made possible by generous donations to our Pay it Forward fund). And in September, we launched the first CITCx Bootcamp using a new project-based curriculum combining science and code.
All this is possible because you’ve supported us with your time, talent, or treasure, and you’ll read more about these adventures in impact below.
First… #smallwins!
Our impact in numbers. 🎉
170 kids from disadvantaged backgrounds graduated from Code in the Community online classes, with the help of 46 superstar volunteers - many of whom were teaching via Zoom for the first time.
18 new donors to the Pay it Forward fund. These donations will be matched 1-1 by Saturday Kids, so kids from disadvantaged backgrounds can participate in our holiday camps and term-time coding classes through the year.
60 Code in the Community alumni graduated from our first CITCx Bootcamp, where they were among the first to experience a new curriculum combining science with code designed by our sister company, Doyobi.
What we’ve been reading.
Sharing is caring. 🗂
COVID-19 has made access to education for kids living in refugee camps even more precarious than before and is expected to lead to increased dropout rates. Aside from school closures, the lack of infrastructure in many camps inhibits their access to distance learning programmes. Read more here via UNESCO.
Technology invariably reflects the bias of its creators; only with more diverse voices at the table will it be possible for tech to promote equality and a better future. This is why diversity in tech is so important - whether it’s more female representation, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, people with disabilities - and a peek into what ‘equality tech’ could look like.
This is why we do what we do.
Hear from the kids. 🌟
“I know what being on the wrong side of the Gini coefficient means and feels like. I’m living in it.
Under such circumstances, learning something educational and useful as well, such as coding from Code in the Community, is a godsend to the underprivileged in the community in this Digital Age.”-Buddy, father of Fiona who joined us for the first CITCx Bootcamp this September.
What’s next?
Volunteer, read, spread the word. 👀
Calling for reinforcements! We’re always on the lookout for volunteers to teach Scratch - a beginner-friendly block-based programming language - via Code in the Community. Check in here for the latest volunteer opportunities.
I feel it in my fingers… As part of our year-end camps, we’re planning a few seasonal initiatives to give back to kids who are less privileged. We’re still ironing out the deets, but if you’d like to participate, be sure to keep an eye on our socials!
Hot off the press. Our very first impact report has just launched! If you feel so moved, we’d love it if you shared it with a friend.
It takes a village to make an impact.
We couldn’t do it without you - a huge thank you to our new Pay it Forward donors from the last quarter. 💛
Jacqueline Ang, Bak Zhee Shuen, Ng Jun Han Calvin, Jum Tan Zijie, Ruchi Prakash, Yadav Sunil Aachhelal, Anandh Kumar Kaliyamoorthy, Andrea Yeo, Tan Yi Jie, Jonathan Juan Santosa, Vamshi Krishna, Li Li Chia, Gerald Yip Wei Yong, Le Hong Nhung, Kee Meng Yew, Govind Venugopalan, Liu Shuhui Audrey, Akshaya Venkateswara Raja, Deepak Buddha, Sun Yiqun, Tejas Ewing.
At Saturday Kids, we’re a small social enterprise and it’s the support and advocacy of change-makers like you who enable us to do what we do. Spread love, not germs, by forwarding this letter to a friend.
“There is no separation of mind and emotions; emotions, thinking and learning are all linked.”
— Eric Jensen