The social entrepreneur, with Senegalese background, founder of the organization I Am the Code, opens the EurAfrican Forum in Cascais, and will show how technological education can contribute to a better future. The same happened with her.

The story of Mariéme didn’t start on a happy way. Born in Senegal, she was trafficked to France with 13 years to be a prostitute and was on the streets until being rescued by the police and sent to a refugee center, as she explains to Lusa.

The late alphabetization (at 16 years old) didn’t stopped her to try a new life on the United Kingdom, where she ended up fixing and where she founded the movement ‘I Am The Code’, a project that, according to what she said on an interview to Lusa, has already reached to 10 thousand girls in 60 countries.

“Our goal is to reach one million in 2030”, having as preferential targets women and girls “that suffered from violence or live in difficult conditions”.

“We give them pride and dignity, safety, skills that they can use to stay safe at home and build their sites, becoming entrepreneurs”, stated to Lusa.

“The goal is to assure that girls aren’t trafficked to Europe, and that don’t suffer what I suffered, alone, without family, without love. This experience traumatized me a lot”, added.

Mariéme gave as na example Brazil, one of the countries where ‘I Am the Code’ is already implemented, ensuring that, in three months, helped to decrease the child propstitution in slums in 47%.

It is absolutely chocking that, in 2018, girls still live on this conditions”, regretted, stating that she wants to stop this cycle and to help girls to remain on their countries, learning how to code.

‘I Am the Code’ starts to identify girls and young women on poverty risk or that can be genital mutilation victims, marginalization or human being trafic, “that live on fragile societies”, and meet local partners to develop hteir educational programs.

Also searches for involving the governments and the private sector, besides the own communities, to help the executives to draw policies more favorable to women and “help to think with empathy and compassion”.

Feelings that Mariéme considered being underrepresented on the european migration policies. “I think that we need to look at people as people, and not as people that need help. But the political decision-makers aren’t thinking about this, they are looking to people as a burden, as a disturbance. We have to think on a friendlier way, people don’t come to Europe because they want, but because they face difficult conditions, because they are desperate”, highlighted.

Recalling her own life history, as well as her brother’s – a refugee that arrived in Italy by boat coming from Lybia and that lives nowadays on Germany – Mariéme pointed out that everyone wants “to be happy, to prosper, and feel safe”.

She hopes that the 1st edition of the EurAfrican Forum, where she participates today and that joins African and European leaders on an event directed to new generations, would assist to change the relations between Europe and Africa.

“Europe has always looked at Africans as if Africans wanted to come to Europe. But Africans don’t want to come anymore, they want to stay at home. I think that what we need to do is to find partnerships that makes sense. We need to find a balanced link between both continents, because Europe needs Africa and Africa needs Europe”, concluded.

 

By Lusa, Julho 2018