For press and funders
Press kit.
Everything you need to write about us accurately. If something is missing, ask.
Boilerplate
How to describe us.
Short, one line. Emzini weCode is a computer science education organisation founded in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 2019, teaching students across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Standard, one paragraph. Emzini weCode teaches rigorous computer science and mentors the people who finish. It began as weekly workshops in a room at the Bulawayo Public Library in January 2019 and runs an online computer science course, a residency, and school clubs starting in 2027. The name is isiNdebele: emzini means "at the home of", so the organisation reads as "at the home of code". Alumni are at universities and companies in Zimbabwe, across Africa and beyond, and many come back to teach the year below them.
- Name
- Emzini weCode. Lower case "we", capital C. Not "Emzini WeCode" or "EmziniWeCode".
- Pronunciation
- em-ZEE-nee weh-code. Emzini is isiNdebele for "at the home of".
- Founded
- January 2019, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
- Founder
- Eric Khumalo, founder and chief executive. He still teaches CS7.
- Where we work
- Based in Bulawayo. Students across Sub-Saharan Africa. Please do not describe us as Zimbabwe only.
- Poseidon
- Our automated grading platform, used for our own teaching and available to institutions. poseidon.emziniwecode.com
- Registered entity
- Please contact us for our current registration details and we will send them directly.
Founder
Eric Khumalo.
Photograph supplied by Emzini weCode. Free to use with credit.
Grew up in Gwabalanda and sat his A-Levels at Mpopoma High. Read Data Science at UC Berkeley as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar, interned at Twitter across three summers, and has worked as a data scientist and privacy engineer since. Teaches CS7 himself.
For interviews, use the contact routes below rather than a personal address.
Previous coverage
Where we have been written about.
2021
Assets
Logo and photographs.
The Emzini weCode mark
PNG with a transparent background, suitable for print and screen.
Please keep clear space around it, do not recolour or stretch it, and do not place it on a busy photograph. If you need a different format, ask and we will send it.
- Photographs
- Session and classroom photographs are available on request. Everything we supply is cleared for use with the credit "Supplied by Emzini weCode".
- Students under 18
- We do not supply identifiable photographs of minors, and we ask that you do not name a student under 18 without their guardian's written consent, held by their school.
Story angles
What we can talk about.
If you are looking for a story rather than a quote, these are the ones we can speak to.
- The return loop
- A large share of the people teaching here came through the programme themselves. We can introduce you to alumni who now teach the year below them.
- Teaching computer science on a prepaid data bundle
- Our courses were built to be taken on an intermittent connection and a shared device. The design decisions that follow from that are unusual and specific.
- Credentials that can be checked
- Every certificate we issue can be verified by anyone at emziniwecode.com/verify, without contacting us, and without publishing the holder's name unless they choose to.
- Building the tools rather than buying them
- Poseidon, our grading platform, is built and run in Bulawayo and available to institutions.
Interviews
Talking to us.
- Languages
- English and isiNdebele.
- Time zone
- Bulawayo is Central Africa Time, UTC+2. The founder is frequently in the United States, so please say what times suit you and we will work around it.
- Turnaround
- We answer press enquiries within two working days, and faster if you tell us your deadline.
- Fact checking
- Send us the figures you plan to publish and we will confirm or correct them before you go to print.