Betelhem Dessie

Betelhem Dessie

Betelhem Dessie (born 1999) is an Ethiopian web and mobile technologies developer. She is the founder and CEO of Anyone Can Code (ACC) and the chief executive officer of iCog, a social enterprise dedicated to offering youth digital literacy skills for the 21st century.

Quotes

• My aim is to democratize technology.
  • [1]

• Ethiopia’s youth have no lack of ideas, energy or ambition,but they can’t fulfil their potential alone. What we see in Ethiopia is a lack of co-creation centres where like-minded people can come together and create and innovate.
  • Dessie on the problems facing African innovators

• More than that, it’s about equipping kids to cope in the 21st century,It’s about problem solving, analytical thinking and self-learning, as well as digital literacy. It means understanding how the internet works, how to get information from it, how to identify wrong and false information, how to keep your privacy and make sure your data is not being used. We think these are really important lessons, especially in this day and age.
  • Dessie on the vision of her company

• The girls get the coding education but also other skills and the necessary knowledge to keep themselves away from problems – or at least be aware enough to report them.
  • Dessie speaking on the impact of her program

• It doesn’t matter if you went to a great university – what matters is if you have a computer, access to the internet and the drive to achieve.
  • [2]

• I think now they understand the value of the quality of the education that’s provided, and the enabling environment for entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. It’s a struggle every day, but we have seen a lot of progress.
  • Dessie on the response of Ethiopian politicians to nurturing tech talent in the country

• Teaching young girls coding and seeing them become confident and inspired reminded me of how I felt when I started coding.
  • [3]

• The biggest thing we have in Africa is a young generation. So if we train the young generation in tech, we’ll be able to build something that is everlasting.
  • [4]

• Parents have an expectation of what you should be — if you’re a good student, you’re a doctor, you’re not an engineer or in the computer science field... They haven’t seen any female being in STEM and being successful.
  • [5]

• But the sad thing is, even if they want to, they won’t be able to apply it after they finish their high school education.
  • Dessie speaking on the challenges young girls face in Pursuing STEM

• Technology inspires you. Having that feeling of freedom and being able to do something gives you that sense of accomplishment and that sense of accomplishment drives you to do more things that you love, more things that excite you.
  • [6]

• The boys imagine more, they want to do something that’s big and inspired, the girls they really want to help their community from the core.
  • Dessie on the contributions of female students during her workshops

• Unless you really are in the industry, there is no one to look up to in technology.
  • Dessie on the lack of female role models in the Afrcan TECH space

• Who can solve the problem of a female if she cannot tell you the problem, and find her own solution?
  • Dessie on the importance of her projects