Organisation Overview
For people joining the team, and people thinking about it.
Contents
Who we are
Giiyo Tech is a STEM education and technology initiative of Giiyo Foundation, a non-profit association registered on 13 September 2024 in Yaoundé under N° 001551.
Giiyo Tech was founded in March 2024 by Maureen Wepngong, around a simple belief: most young people do not lack ability, they lack the chance to find out what they can do with technology.
We work with students aged 7 to 19, in English and French, through STEM clubs, workshops and an annual summit. Our base is Douala, and we have run programmes in Bamenda, Limbe, Douala, Yaoundé, Mbouda, Dschang and Mundemba: seven towns spanning five of Cameroon’s regions, across the North West, South West, Littoral, West and Centre.
That work has reached 500+ children, with STEM clubs running in 5 partner schools.
The organisation has been self-funded since founding and has received no institutional grants to date.
Our slogan is Empowering Future Innovators.
What "Giiyo" means
"Giiyo" comes from the Founder’s great-grandfather’s name in Limbum. It means "do yours".
That idea sits at the centre of the organisation. Young people should not only watch other people build technology, or assume innovation happens somewhere else and arrives finished. They should learn, experiment, build and solve problems themselves.
Mission and vision
Our mission is to equip children in Cameroon with essential technology skills that will unlock doors of opportunity and empower them to become future innovators and leaders.
Our vision is to cultivate a generation of tech-savvy and empowered youth who are confident in leveraging technology to solve real-world problems.
In practice this means our programmes are judged on what a student can do at the end of them. A student should leave having built, designed, tested, presented or fixed something, not having listened to somebody talk about technology.
What we believe
Access matters. Technology education should not depend on whether a young person happens to attend an expensive school, or on which town they were born in. Reaching students in Mundemba or Mbouda is not an add-on to the work, it is the point of it.
Students learn by building. Projects, experiments and real problems teach more than instruction does.
Exposure changes what feels possible. Nobody seriously considers a field they have never been allowed to touch.
Technology should solve real problems. We want students looking at their own schools and communities and asking what could work better, then building it.
Girls belong in STEM , and getting them there takes deliberate work rather than an open invitation.
Consistency matters. One workshop can spark interest, but only continued learning builds skill and confidence.
People matter as much as programmes. Facilitators, mentors and volunteers are what allow any of this to happen more than once.
Working with children
We work with students aged 7 to 19. That carries obligations that come before everything else in this document.
Giiyo Tech has a Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, a Safeguarding Reporting Procedure, a Volunteer and Facilitator Code of Conduct, and a Volunteer Vetting Procedure. These are not decoration. Everyone who works with our students reads the Code of Conduct and agrees to it, and goes through vetting before being placed with a programme.
What that means in practice:
- Concerns about a child’s safety are reported through the procedure, immediately and to the named person in it, not handled privately or left until it seems convenient.
- We photograph and write about student work regularly, because their work deserves an audience. We do that with consent, and a parent or school declining is simply respected.
- Conduct expectations apply to facilitators, volunteers, mentors and visitors alike, in person and in any messaging with students or their families.
If any of this is unfamiliar to you, that is fine and not a barrier. Not taking it seriously is.
Where we are today
Our reach so far has come through two kinds of work. Workshops and community programmes have taken us into seven towns across five regions. STEM clubs, which run weekly inside partner schools, are where the deeper work happens.
The current flagship is STEM Club Cohort 2026 at Olive Bilingual School in Bonaberi, Douala, running weekly since 1 April 2026 and covering robotics, AI, coding and science experimentation.
Student work from the cohort includes a Digital Literacy 101 booklet written by the students themselves, and an offline marks-recording application built for teachers in schools where connectivity cannot be relied on.
Both came out of students identifying a problem in front of them rather than being handed a project brief.
Innovation & STEM Summit in Bonaberi is where that work meets an audience. Students present to parents, teachers and the wider community, explain what they made and why, take questions, and see their work treated seriously by adults.
How we teach
We use project-based learning wherever possible. The cycle is: identify, research, design, build, test, present.
Students should understand not only how something works, but why they are building it and who it is for.
Our curriculum draws from digital literacy, coding and programming, web development, artificial intelligence, robotics and electronics, cybersecurity, graphic design, 3D design and printing, and problem solving. The mix depends on the programme and the age group.
Assessment is practical. We look at what a student can do, how they collaborate, how they approach a problem they have not seen before, and what they finished, rather than at examination scores.
Current programmes
School-based programmes where students learn consistently over weeks and months instead of attending a single session. This is where our deepest work happens and where students produce projects worth showing.
Shorter sessions that introduce a field such as programming, AI tools, robotics or design. These are how we reach new towns and they work as entry points into longer-term learning.
Our showcase, where students present their projects to parents, educators and the community.
In development
Nothing in this section is confirmed. Treat it as work in progress and do not promise any of it to a school, a parent or a student until it has been announced.
A structured cybersecurity programme for teenagers, currently in curriculum development, with facilitator arrangements and programme dates still being settled. It will begin after Build Your First Robot rather than being rushed.
A practical two-day robotics workshop. The delivery timeline is drafted and a first working prototype is being built and tested.
We are also developing more deliberate outreach around girls’ participation. That means understanding why girls do not always enrol even when a programme is open to them, rather than simply advertising more widely.
We are also developing a web development pathway that takes a student from basic concepts to a finished portfolio, instead of a series of disconnected lessons.
A short orientation seminar for recent GCE graduates was planned and cancelled because of low registration and venue problems. We may return to the idea with more lead time.
The Giiyo Ladder
The Giiyo Ladder is how we describe a student’s progression through Giiyo Tech. It is the main frame to use when explaining our work.
A student meets technology for the first time in a way that feels possible for them, usually through a workshop or a school session.
They build real skill over time through a STEM Club, rather than collecting one-off experiences.
They make something of their own: a product, a tool or a solution to a problem in their school or community.
They put that work in front of people who matter, through the Summit, competitions, applications and opportunities beyond Giiyo Tech.
They come back as facilitators, mentors, judges or sponsors, and open the door for the students behind them.
Where we are: Most of our current work sits in Discover, Learn and Build. Launch and Lead are the parts we are still constructing, and they are the reason the long-term work in the next section matters.
Long-term direction
This section describes ambition, not commitments. It exists so that people joining understand where the work is heading and why we care about systems rather than events.
Running programmes in seven towns from a base in Douala is only possible for so long before travel and one person’s availability become the limit. The long-term aim is trained facilitators who can deliver programmes to a consistent standard in their own communities, supported by teaching resources, mentorship and practical experience. Some of those facilitators should eventually be former students.
Many students have no reliable internet. We are interested in learning materials that work offline, content students can continue with between sessions, and better ways of tracking what a student has actually learned over time rather than guessing.
Teaching a student is not the end of our responsibility. Over time we want to connect strong, motivated students to scholarships, internships, competitions, hackathons, mentors and university routes that would otherwise not reach them.
Some students develop ideas that outgrow a classroom and deserve mentorship, workspace, equipment and technical guidance. The aim is not to turn every student into an entrepreneur, but to support the ones who genuinely want to take an idea further.
The most developed concept is a permanent space in Limbe offering computers, robotics and electronics equipment, prototyping tools, project workspace, clubs, workshops and mentorship. The intention is a continuous learning environment rather than a computer laboratory that opens only for scheduled lessons.
Our five-year direction is depth before scale: stronger programmes, more partner schools, trained facilitators, reliable internal operations and sustainable funding.
Specific targets for schools, students, staff and budget are set in annual planning rather than invented here.
How the organisation is run
Who is here now
Maureen leads Giiyo Tech and is responsible for the overall direction of the organisation. She develops new programmes and initiatives, leads partnerships and fundraising conversations, coordinates the team, makes major organisational decisions, oversees programme quality and represents Giiyo Tech externally. She also drives the development of the organisation’s systems, products and long-term strategy.
Wilco works alongside Maureen on Giiyo Tech’s strategy and organisational development. His role includes improving internal systems and operations, supporting partnerships and external relationships, contributing to the website and technical infrastructure, helping shape new initiatives and supporting Giiyo Tech’s international growth. He is also expected to play a major role in Giiyo Tech’s future expansion outside Cameroon.
Suzy is responsible for Giiyo Tech’s visual design system. She develops reusable Canva templates, programme graphics, campaign materials, presentation designs and other visual assets. Her job is not simply to make individual flyers, but to build design systems that allow the communications team and other volunteers to produce consistent Giiyo Tech materials without needing a designer every time. She also helps maintain the organisation’s visual identity and brand standards.
Gesu handles Giiyo Tech’s day-to-day communications and storytelling. Her responsibilities include social media content, captions, programme announcements, interviews, student and volunteer stories, photography and video coordination, event coverage and communications planning. She helps make sure Giiyo Tech’s activities are properly documented and communicated to parents, partners, supporters and the wider public.
Romaric supports the technical side of Giiyo Tech’s programmes, particularly robotics and hands-on STEM activities. He helps research and test programme ideas, build prototypes, troubleshoot equipment and technical problems, prepare technical materials and support programme delivery. He also helps make sure activities are technically realistic before they are taught to students and can assist facilitators during practical programmes.
Nady leads the development of Giiyo Tech’s cybersecurity education work, including Giiyo CyberBridge. She is responsible for shaping cybersecurity curricula, structuring learning sessions, defining technical requirements, developing programme content, supporting or coordinating facilitators and helping ensure that cybersecurity programmes are practical, age-appropriate and technically sound. Her primary responsibility is cybersecurity rather than general design, communications or miscellaneous volunteer work.
Everyone on the core team has an @giiyotech.com account, and our work is tracked in Giiyo Tasks at tasks.giiyotech.com rather than in messages and memory. We meet weekly on Saturdays, and people raise blockers during the week rather than saving them for the meeting.
How the work divides
Five functions carry the work. Each one should eventually have clear ownership rather than sitting with the Founder.
Programmes and operations. Programme setup and closure, volunteer coordination, classroom logistics, parent communication, event management, and the travel and equipment planning that working across seven towns requires.
Partnerships. Outreach, meetings, school relationships, sponsors, grants and longer-term collaborators, including universities and technology companies.
Finance. Budgets, programme payments, facilitator payments, procurement, equipment records, receipts and reporting.
Communications. Social media, articles, newsletters, photography, video, programme documentation and student stories.
Strategy. New programmes, expansion and organisational direction.
Priorities for the next 6 to 18 months
Turn what we do into playbooks. Right now too much gets rebuilt from scratch each time. We want written, reusable processes for running a workshop, opening and closing a programme, onboarding students, recruiting volunteers, communicating with parents, managing classroom logistics and documenting what happened.
The test is whether a programme can run properly in Bamenda or Dschang without one person in Douala remembering every step.
Strengthen volunteer and facilitator management. Clear recruitment, onboarding, responsibilities, supervision and expectations, and a route for strong volunteers to grow into programme leaders.
Move work off the Founder. Programme coordination, volunteer coordination, classroom logistics, parent communication and day-to-day operations currently depend too heavily on one person. These are real pieces of work available to anyone able to take one and own it properly. If you want one, say so.
Give every programme an owner. Each programme should have someone who can prepare, deliver, document and improve it without constant founder involvement.
Build financial discipline. Collecting programme payments, paying facilitators, purchasing and tracking equipment, keeping receipts and budgeting programmes properly before they start.
Document the work as it happens. Photography, student stories, programme records and public reporting are far easier during a programme than reconstructed afterwards.
What we currently need
These are real and available now. If one of them is yours, say so.
A programme coordinator for the STEM Clubs: preparing sessions, classroom logistics, communicating with the school and with parents, and documenting what happened.
A volunteer coordinator: recruitment, onboarding, scheduling and supervision, so that facilitators are not arranged individually each time.
Facilitators who can deliver in-person sessions in Douala to a consistent standard, with support and teaching materials. As programmes open in other towns, we want to recruit people locally in those communities rather than automatically sending someone from Douala.
You do not need to match a description exactly. If you can take one piece of work and own it properly, including the parts nobody enjoys, that is what matters.
The practical details
The roles currently open in section 14 are volunteer roles. No salary, wage or other payment is offered or implied. Giiyo Tech has been self-funded since founding and has received no institutional grants. If we later open a paid or stipended role, that will be stated clearly in that specific role.
Depending on the role, expect roughly 5 to 15 hours a week, plus the Saturday team meeting. Hours are approximate and we work more around tasks and deadlines than around a clock. Programme weeks are heavier than others and we say so in advance. Studies and paid work come first. If your availability changes, tell us early.
Our base is Douala and our programmes run in person. You do not need to live in Douala for every role. Much of the coordination, design, communications, programme development and technical work can happen remotely, and several of our team already work that way. Roles involving direct work with students or in-person programme delivery require you to be able to be in the town where that programme is happening.
If Giiyo Tech asks you to travel outside your base for a programme, the transport arrangement and any support are agreed before the trip. Do not spend personal money assuming reimbursement will be automatic. Any programme travel support must be approved in advance.
We run programmes in English and French. French is not required for every role; it depends on the work. For roles involving teaching, parent communication or direct work with Francophone communities, being able to work in French is required or strongly preferred. For some design, technology, strategy and remote roles, English may be enough. Being bilingual is an advantage.
before working with students: read and sign the Volunteer and Facilitator Code of Conduct, and complete vetting.
What we expect from you
Giiyo Tech is still being built. You are not joining a finished institution with every system solved. You are joining an organisation with real students, real programmes and real ambition that is actively becoming more structured, and you will find gaps. Some of them will be yours to close.
We care most about reliability and communication. Tell us early when something changes, ask when something is unclear, and bring the better way of doing it if you see one.
If you take responsibility for something, own it through to the end, including the documentation.
Above all, remember who the work is for. Every process in this document exists so that a student in a Cameroonian classroom gets a programme that actually runs, actually teaches them something, and treats what they build as worth taking seriously.
How to join
Write to hello@giiyotech.com. Tell us:
- Which part of the work interests you, and why that one
- What you have done before that is relevant: paid, voluntary, academic or self-taught, all count
- Roughly how much time you can give, and from when
- Where you are based
You do not need a formal CV, and you do not need to have worked in education or technology before.
We will reply either way. If it looks like a fit, we will arrange a conversation, share the Volunteer and Facilitator Code of Conduct and the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, and talk about which programme you would start with.
Please do not wait until you feel fully qualified. Section 14 exists because there is more work here than there are people, and the useful thing is willingness to own something properly.