An initiative born from a simple observation: too few girls in tech.

Since 2015, we have been training the generation that will solve Africa's challenges through science and technology.

mission

Mission

Give secondary school students in Benin, especially girls in the south and north, hands-on robotics and STEM training.

vision

Vision

An Africa where young people, girls and boys alike, design technological solutions to their own challenges.

values

Values

Learning by doing : understand a robot by building it.
Equal access : prioritise girls and public schools.
Excellence : prepare students to compete at world level.
Passing on knowledge : former students become instructors.

2015 → 2026

2015

Rachael Orumor launches femCoders (“female coders”) to train women who will in turn support girls and children in digital skills: robotics, programming logic, Blockly, Scratch, 3D printing and HTML.

2017

Rachael mentors the very first Team Benin at the FIRST Global Challenge in Washington DC. No girls were able to join the team that year. The seven boys finish 7^th out of 163 and 1^st in Africa. The turning point: reach girls earlier.

2017-18

With a US Embassy grant and support from Team Inspiration and Team Spyder (San Diego), GFRTP is launched. The programme's early cohorts bring together 380 young people, including 280 girls.

2018

GFRTP graduates join Team Benin at the FIRST Global Challenge in Mexico.

2019

femCoders organises the BeninBot Challenge, Benin's first national robotics competition, at Sèmè City (13 teams). Team Benin competes in Dubai and at PARC in Ghana.

2022-25

Geneva, Singapore, Athens, Panama City: Team Benin attends each edition. The programme expands to Parakou.

10for250

With the US Embassy, femCoders trains 10 NGOs to teach STEM to 250 girls across the country.

2026

Team Benin represented Benin in Incheon, South Korea, at the FIRST Global Challenge “Igniting Innovation”.

Two Team Benin 2017 members carrying the flag at FIRST Global in Washington — Washington DC, 2017: the first Team Benin.

Rachael Orumor

A software engineer with more than ten years of R&D experience, Rachael Orumor has made girls' inclusion in technology her life's mission. There were only three women among forty-three students in her engineering class.

Founder of femCoders (2015) and the Rachael Orumor NGO
Lead mentor of Team Benin at the FIRST Global Challenge since 2017
Fellow YALI (Mandela Washington Fellowship)
UN Women consultant (2022): curriculum for the African Girls Can Code initiative
2^th vice-president of the African ICT Foundation
Benin ambassador for Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO)
Mentor with Women in Tech Africa and Google Women Techmakers

How we teach

Discover

Awareness sessions in schools.

Build

Building mBot robots and competition kits.

Code

Block-based programming (mBlock, Scratch), followed by programming languages.

Communicate

Technical English, teamwork and public speaking.

Compete

Exhibitions, national competitions and FIRST Global.

Pass it on

Our strongest students become instructors.

femCoders is an initiative of the Rachael Orumor NGO, based in Cotonou (Benin), with activities in Parakou and connections in Nigeria (NG Bot Official).

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