Our story began in 2014. Back then our founder, Nathan Damtew, was a freshman in College of Natural Science, Addis Ababa University studying Computer Science. Nathan and some of his friends had a good base in computer programming as they were fortunate enough to be introduced to Computer Programming in their high school. But for most other students, the subject was very new and the introduction couldn’t get any harder for them. The fact that most of his classmates had trouble building a simple computer program had him bothered for a while until he figured out a solution after 3 years into college.
In 2017, Nathan saw an opportunity to teach young kids computer programming through gaming as he saw his cousins who were only 10/11 by then playing and enjoying Clash of Clans. So he thought if kids can understand a game as complicated as COC, then they could possibly understand programming. That was his eureka moment.
Late that year, Nathan founded BeBlocky, Inc., an enterprise committed to exposing young African children to basic computer programming skills. In 2018, his senior year in college, he launched the first version of BeBlocky, an award winning gamified programming learning app for kids.
In his journey to make programming education available for every child, Nathan proceeded to establish Yenetta Code in early 2019, a programming learning center for kids in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nathan believes coding is an invaluable digital skill that every child should get the chance to learn.
Nathan Damtew, Founder
“Educating children on digital skills that not only helps them use technology, but also innovate, is important to create a transformational change. “
Nathan Damtew
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