She Came to Douala for a Week. She Left With a Website She Built Herself.

There are many reasons a young person might leave Bamenda for Douala. For Nji Alexia Ringda, one of those reasons was the insecurity back home.

What she probably didn't expect was that her visit would end with her building and publishing her very first website.

Alexia grew up in Bamenda, a city in Cameroon's North West Region. Since 2016, the armed conflict in the country's English-speaking regions has disrupted education, displaced families and changed what growing up looks like for thousands of children.

For many young people in Bamenda, school is not always something they can take for granted. There are days when insecurity makes leaving home frightening. And when education is interrupted repeatedly, it becomes harder to explore interests or discover opportunities beyond the classroom.

Alexia knows this environment because it is the place she calls home.

But this story is not only about the difficulties of growing up in a conflict-affected community. It is about what can happen when a young person is given the opportunity to learn something new.

An unexpected introduction to web development

Alexia was spending time with her older sister in Douala when she joined Giiyo Tech's Web Development Week, a practical programme where three young people learnt to build websites using HTML and CSS.

She wasn't completely new to coding. She already knew a little HTML, but there was still a lot she didn't understand.

She knew some of the basics, but putting everything together to make a functioning, well-designed website was another matter.

During the programme, the students learnt how to structure webpages, style them with CSS, make their designs responsive and use GitHub to publish their work.

But there was another part of the programme that mattered just as much as learning the code.

Instead of giving everyone the same website to reproduce, we asked the students to think about problems they had noticed in their own communities.

They could choose what they wanted to build.

And Alexia thought about Bamenda.

Why she built BamNet

Electricity and internet connectivity are two things many people depend on without thinking much about them, at least until they stop working.

For students in Bamenda, unreliable electricity and poor internet connections can make ordinary activities unnecessarily difficult.

Imagine trying to complete an assignment, research a school project or follow an online lesson when the electricity can go off without warning.

Alexia had experienced these frustrations herself.

So when she was asked to choose a problem to explore through web development, she decided to focus on unreliable electricity, internet connectivity and mobile network services.

She called her project BamNet.

BamNet is a website that brings together information about these challenges, practical suggestions and useful resources from relevant service providers.

It doesn't promise to restore electricity or repair telecommunications infrastructure. That isn't something a beginner's website can do.

But it represents something important: Alexia identified a problem affecting people around her and used her new skills to create something related to it.

For her first web development project, she chose to build something connected to home.

From knowing a little HTML to publishing her first website

Anyone who has tried learning to code knows that understanding what a piece of code is supposed to do and getting it to work are two very different experiences.

During the programme, Alexia worked through HTML tags, CSS styling, webpage layouts and the process of getting her website online.

By the end, she had done something she hadn't managed before.

She had built a complete website and published it on GitHub Pages, making it accessible to anyone with the link.

That might seem like a small milestone to an experienced developer. But think about what it means for someone learning to build websites for the first time.

An idea that existed only in her head was now something she could open in a browser, share with her friends and continue improving.

And, perhaps more importantly, it was something she had made herself.

Explore BamNet: https://alexiaringnda.github.io/BamNet/

A future beyond her first website

Alexia is currently studying Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bamenda.

Her ambitions extend beyond web development. She is particularly interested in bioinformatics, a field that combines biology, computing and data analysis to help researchers better understand living systems and diseases.

There is still a long way between building a first website and working with biological data in scientific research.

But every developer, scientist and engineer starts somewhere.

For Alexia, one of those starting points was a week spent learning to build websites in Douala.

And it raises a question worth thinking about.

How many other girls are growing up in communities like Bamenda with interests and abilities they haven't yet had the opportunity to explore?

How many might enjoy programming, engineering, robotics or scientific research if someone simply gave them the chance to try?

Alexia had someone who could introduce her to coding. Not every girl has that opportunity.

Three students, three different ideas

Alexia was one of three young people who participated in Giiyo Tech's Web Development Week.

Each student chose a different problem to explore, and each developed a website based on their own interests and experiences.

That was intentional.

At Giiyo Tech, we want young people to do more than follow tutorials and reproduce examples from a screen. We want them to look at the world around them, ask questions and learn how to make things that matter to them.

Sometimes that begins with a robot. Sometimes it's a simple website.

And sometimes it's a Biomedical Sciences student from Bamenda building a website about the problems she has experienced growing up.

BamNet is not a finished solution to Bamenda's connectivity challenges. It is a first project, and Alexia has much more to learn.

But she has already taken an important step. She has moved from learning about technology to creating something with it.

We're excited to see what she builds next.

For now, meet Alexia and hear her explain BamNet in her own words.

This is the first article in our Giiyo Tech Student Stories series, featuring young people who are learning to turn their ideas into real projects.

Take the Next Step

Explore Alexia's website at https://alexiaringnda.github.io/BamNet/ and follow Giiyo Tech for more stories of young people building technology around problems that matter to them.