Will the next Silicon Valley be established by refugee girls in Amman?
A California college student from Silicon Valley helped to start two Girl Scout troops in the Zaatari Refugee camp this year, and will be sharing her skills with 20 Syrian refugees, ages 9-13, so they can earn their computer programming badges.
This summer, Ameera Naguib, who studies Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies at Santa Clara University, began an internship in Jordan with a business consulting company co-founded by Dr. Nadia Al-Alawi who had the idea to bring the Girl Scouts of the USA to refugee girls in Jordan.
It was during her internship that she discovered a grant opportunity through her university’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society to provide the girls with a credit-card sized computer, called the Raspberry Pi, which plugs into a TV and a keyboard.
By the end of the semester, the girls will also learn first aid, self-defense, gardening and financial literacy. The goal is to empower them, as well as help them develop after their exposure to trauma.
Refugees anywhere are exposed to many dangers, which is why Dr Al-Alawi’s Collateral Repair Project is sponsoring more than 20 Girl Scouts and has devoted volunteer services aimed at securing a future for the girls who fled the Syrian civil war three years ago.
Writing help from Elijah Reynolds, SCU