RiseAfrica is growing: a new chapter, 500 questions in 3 languages, girls leading the way

Hello,

This is the first RiseAfrica newsletter. Thank you for being one of our earliest subscribers. You are here from the beginning, and that means a lot.

Here is what has been happening.

We launched SaloneLearn, our open STEM dataset project

On September 27 we kicked off the collection of 500 teacher-verified science and math questions and answers in Krio, Mende, and Temne, written by students across the North, South, and East of Sierra Leone and verified by teachers. The questionnaires are already in classrooms. When the collection is done, the full dataset goes public and free, so anyone can build learning tools in our own languages.

Girls are at the center

Our first Girls in STEM club opened at Dr. Kadi A. Sesay Girls Secondary School in Port Loko, and this month we trained young women as STEM data collectors alongside Girls Connect Sierra Leone. They are the ones gathering the SaloneLearn questionnaires, skilled work that puts them at the heart of the project.

We are growing beyond Sierra Leone

Welcome to our newest community chapter in Masaka, Uganda, working with schools to bring STEM learning to students there, aiming to reach 3,000 young people.

What is next

More courses and challenges are coming to the platform, and we are preparing our first annual report. If you know a school, a teacher, or a young person who should be part of this, forward this email to them.

Thank you for believing in this early.