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Damian, as he is fondly called, Isaac Ezirim is the founder of Teens Can Code, a social innovator, and a technology inclusiveness advocate. Teens Can Code is an organization he founded with a mission to provide computer programming training to students(between 11-22 years old) who are living in low-income communities in Nigeria and equip them with skills to become players in the digital economy. Teens Can Code has trained over 200 teenagers in the Ajegunle, Alimosho and Ejigbo communities of Lagos State about computer coding and how to build web and mobile applications using the same tools that are used by professionals in the tech industry (Ruby, HTML, CSS, Sql, JavaScript, Php, Python, and others). Furthermore, Damian organizes and convenes a Teens Code Conference, a large-scale event for students aged 11-18 years through which he has been able to reach over 3,500 Nigerian teenagers in rural communities, giving them an experience in the world of technology. He also created a Teens Hub where teenagers from the community can go to learn about coding and create applications together. This hub hosts monthly demonstration days for teenagers to help them build their entrepreneurial skills. There, participants are tasked with developing and pitching tech-based ideas that they can build on their own to solve a problem in the community. To show for his work, his students at Teens Code Academy, recently, launched www.efiwe.com.ng, an online platform that breeds a community of students who learn from one another in various topics. His passion for youths led to the birth of Teens Network, an organization he co-founded, to enable him reach many other youth across Africa. Isaac Damian Ezirim is a recipient of the final Queen’s Young Leaders Award in 2017. He, alongside two other young Nigerians and 240 others from the Commonwealth countries, was recognised for their immense contributions to their community here in Nigeria. He also won the Build for My City Hackathon hosted by Co-Creation Hub (CC Hub) Nigeria in 2016. Besides running his own organization, he volunteers at Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Ajegunle Life Centre, TEDx Ikeja, Dreams from The Slum Initiative, and Shine a Light Foundation. He is also a photographer and graphics designer, and heads a media firm, SkyOne Media Company. References Culled from his Facebook ‘About’ page and his profile on the Queen’s Young Leaders site  
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This article was first published on 18th July 2018

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