Girls in Denham Town Gain AI Skills

Digicel Foundation and STEM Spark Solutions brought female students from Denham Town High School and Tivoli Gardens High School together in Kingston on May 20 for a one-day hackathon built around artificial intelligence and climate resilience. The session, held at Denham Town High School, formed part of the foundation’s Girls in ICT programme and focused on hands-on work rather than lectures alone. Students were asked to think through how AI tools could be used before, during and after severe weather events. Organisers said the aim was to connect digital skills with problems the girls already know from experience. ### Why was the workshop built around hurricanes and climate response? The May 20 event centered on disaster preparedness, with students exploring how AI could support early warning systems, emergency coordination and post-storm recovery. Organisers tied that focus to the damage many participants had recently seen in their own communities after a Category 5 hurricane last October, according to the Jamaica Observer’s account of the programme. (jamaicaobserver.com) Dianne Plummer, engineer and chief executive of STEM Spark Solutions, said the design of the hackathon was meant to show students that AI could be used on problems close to home. She said the girls understood what it was like when roads flood, power goes out and neighbourhoods are left rebuilding, and said the workshop was meant to show that technology could help communities prepare better and recover faster. (jamaicaobserver.com) ### Who took part, and what did they actually do? Female students from Denham Town High School and Tivoli Gardens High School spent the day in collaborative sessions focused on AI and environmental challenges. The programme description said participants worked on real-world hurricane preparedness and response problems and were encouraged to devise practical solutions. (jamaicaobserver.com) Antoinette Heirs, a Digicel Foundation board director, also took part in the event and shared her own path in information and communications technology while mentoring students, according to the Jamaica Observer. The coverage described the day as combining technical exposure with direct contact between students and women already working in the sector. (jamaicaobserver.com) ### Why is Digicel Foundation framing this as a girls-in-tech effort? Charmaine Daniels, chief executive of Digicel Foundation, said the organisation sees AI exposure for girls as urgent because the technology is spreading across industries and daily life. She said that without deliberate efforts to bring girls into the field early, “we risk leaving an entire generation behind.” Daniels said the foundation views AI and ICT training as a way to equip girls to protect their families, communities and environment. (jamaicaobserver.com) Digicel Foundation has been running related Girls in ICT work in Jamaica beyond this single event. In an April 24, 2024 item on its website, the foundation said it had partnered with STEAMHouse on a school tour and mentorship sessions aimed at encouraging girls to pursue ICT and STEM careers. That earlier programme included Digicel women leaders visiting schools and speaking directly with students about careers in technology. (jamaicaobserver.com) ### How does this fit the communities involved? Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens are western Kingston communities, and the event brought students from schools in those areas into the same room for a full day of project work and mentoring. Organisers described the workshop as an effort to pair digital training with local experience, rather than teaching AI as an abstract subject detached from community needs. (digicelfoundation.org) Plummer said that when a young woman from Tivoli or Denham Town can build a climate model or design an early warning system, “she becomes part of the solution.” That framing linked the technical exercise to visible local problems such as flooding, storm damage and emergency response. ### What comes next after this one-day hackathon? (jamaicaobserver.com) Digicel Foundation said in its 2024 Girls in ICT materials that it planned to continue investing in programmes exposing young people, especially girls, to emerging STEM and ICT careers. The foundation also said that, as part of its 20th anniversary activities that year, it planned to establish 10 additional Smart Rooms in primary schools across Jamaica to widen access to hands-on technology learning. (jamaicaobserver.com) The May 20 hackathon adds a newer AI-focused layer to that work. For the students from Denham Town High School and Tivoli Gardens High School, the immediate next step was mentorship and continued exposure through Digicel Foundation’s Girls in ICT pipeline, according to the event descriptions published on May 22 and May 23. (jamaicaobserver.com) (digicelfoundation.org)