CoderDojo Czech Republic Volunteers Meet for the First Time

A message from Tereza who has been supporting the growth of CoderDojo in the Czech Rep with MEP Luděk Niedermayer:

Czech Republic was for a long time one of few European countries without any Dojos. Thanks to CoderDojo Foundation event in the European Parliament during the CodeWeek in October 2016 the Czech Member of the European Parliament Luděk Niedermayer learned about this amazing movement and decided to help to spread the word about the CoderDojo in the Czech Republic.  It did not take long and there were first registered Dojos in spring 2017. By the end of the year there were six running Dojos in the Czech Republic, more are in registration process. There are close to 100 ninjas, who are learning coding for free in their school, public libraries and private companies now.

Just couple days before Christmas most of the champions and mentors from the CoderDojo Czech Republic community met in Prague to introduce their Dojos to others, share their experiences and make plans for 2018. All took place in Christmas spirit with Czech traditional cookies, music and little gifts.

It was so great to see how much is everyone enjoying running their Dojos and how proud they are of their ninjas’ progress. Here are couple interesting facts about each Dojo we learned:

1. CoderDojo Náchod is the only Dojo, which runs two meetings per week and some ninjas drive over 30 km to get to the meeting!
2. Ninjas in CoderDojo Most are learning not only practical coding skills, but also the history of ICT and how the big IT firms works!
3. CoderDojo Ústí nad Labem will be probably the first Czech Dojo to have robots for their ninjas to “play” with!
4. The youngest mentor in the Czech community is at CoderDojo VSE. He is only 13 years old!
5. Ninja are already entering coding competition. One ninja from CoderDojo Frýdek-Místek took part in the whole republic final of Kodu Cup Česko in December. 
6. CoderDojoData4You is the youngest Dojo in our CoderDojo family. They already organized two weekend workshops and will start with regular meetings in February 2018.

All the best to the whole CoderDojo community around the world! May 2018 be filled with as many as possible fun coding sessions for everyone!