STEMpower Creating Impact Across East Africa

STEMpower
Jun 25, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Jan 8, 2022

STEMpower has been working mainly in Ethiopia for more than a decade, establishing 48 STEM centers there. Recently, STEMpower has been bringing science & engineering enrichment to an expanded list of impoverished East Africa countries.

Secondary and post-secondary education is relatively rare, and few schools have science labs. STEMpower has committed to leap ahead fast forward, bringing access to hands-on STEM education. Not only to a nation’s capital city, but also across disadvantaged towns. In the past half-year, STEMpower has established: 12 more STEM Centers in Ethiopia, 7 more in South Sudan, plus the first STEM Centers in Rwanda and Kenya.

University of Rwanda STEM Center, Rwanda

ree — Training of Trainers conducting in the Electronics lab.

Three more STEM Centers are under construction at campuses beyond Rwanda’s capital. Thank you to the Israeli Embassy in Rwanda for all the support in setting up the labs

Beverly School of Kenya

ree — BSK students working on virtual computer labs.

STEMpower’s STEM Center (the first in Kenya) at the Beverly School of Kenya was expertly installed by our installation team who flew in from South Sudan. We believe that establishing the BSK STEM Center may be the first instance in human history of South Sudan helping Kenya on such a large scale.

National TVET Training Center, South Sudan

Designated by South Sudan Ministry of Education as central training for STEM teachers.

The National TVET Center is South Sudan's central headquarters to train vocational and STEM teachers throughout the nation. As part of the national educational revitalization effort, STEMpower helped refurbish the building, installed solar electric power, added basic high school science labs, and of course established a STEM Center.

South Sudan enjoys an impressive network of vocational schools (TVETs). Our close partnership with the Ministry of Education accelerates the relevance of the TVETs. We’re testing the idea of utilizing the STEM Centers also as shared basic high school labs among a town’s multiple high schools, addressing head-on the dire situation of no basic labs anywhere in the nation’s public-school system.

Yambio TVET STEM Center, South Sudan

Yambio TVET STEM Center is located near South Sudan’s border with DRC Congo. Thus, STEMpower has reached halfway across equatorial Africa. It is difficult to describe the instant joy as deserving STEM students eagerly work with their new advanced educational Center.

How does STEMpower’s impact expand so rapidly across Sub-Saharan Africa?

Simple. We are do-ers and engineers, who have absorbed knowledge as volunteers at STEMpower’s earlier STEM Centers. Having established 55 STEM Centers, our teams are seasoned implementers. Our model in any Sub-Saharan country, is to establish a beachhead STEM Center in a country, then train the trainers, then expand outward from there – all with enthusiastic local government buy-in. We don’t waste time on fruitless meetings, nor suffer from using poorly-designed engineering toys, nor talk by waving our hands in the air. Critical to our success is that we have become logistics experts, as well as capable local STEM experts.

25 more STEM Centers are now in queue! We are expanding to even more countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, and South Africa.

Are you interested in helping Africa, or promoting Girls in STEM, or repairing environmental damage, or youth solving community problems? Such opportunities await your support.

Learn how to bring hands-on STEM labs to students across Africa: https://www.stempower.org

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