( CNN ) Every week in the heart of Nima , a slum in the Ghanaian capital of Accra , families congregate at a local mosque . When the time comes , young girls say goodbye to their loved ones and part ways , filing up concrete steps leading up to the floor above . There , inside a large room dotted with brown tables , rows of flashing computer screens await for them . `` When the parents are praying [ downstairs ] , we are teaching the girls upstairs , '' explains tech entrepreneur Regina Agyare , who comes here every week to teach local teens how to code . Agyare 's first visit to see the girls -- students at education project Achievers Ghana -- was in January 2014 . This was supposed to be a one-off seminar as part of her mentorship initiative `` Tech Needs Girls '' -- however , the students proved quite a draw . `` I fell in love with them , so I decided to set up a coding club and started having regular sessions , '' says Agyare , founder of software development company Soronko Solutions . More importantly , continues Agyare , it offered the opportunity to show `` the community the value of educating girls . '' A predominantly Muslim area in a largely Christian nation , Nima has one of the densest populations in Accra . Agyare says life is often challenging for many local girls , with some growing up without ever leaving the community . `` Girls were being forced to marry early ; [ denied ] their right to go to school . Most of their dreams and aspirations were limited to just what was around them . `` I was shocked ... I thought we had progressed as a nation . I thought we had gone past that . '' This , in part , was why Agyare lent her support to Achievers Ghana . Set up by local Amadu Mohammad , the non-profit organization supports 250 girls between the age of six and 18 , priming them for formal education through extracurricular classes in reading , math , poetry and information technology . Its goal is to break through social barriers and provide Nima with a generation of female role models , and so the group provides school funding to help the girls shape their own future . The project was bequeathed its classroom above the mosque it shares a building with , and Agyare says the two work closely together . Achievers Ghana met initial resistance from local conservatives , but when the mosque 's chief imam Sheik Hussein Abdul Rahman championed Mohammad 's vision , few maintained their reservations . Now , with parents paying a nominal fee towards the running of the organization , it is in everyone 's interest that the girls succeed . Fourteen months after her first visit , Agyare 's coding class is well established . She has set up a mentor scheme as part of `` Tech Needs Girls , '' recruiting and training women at university to act as role models for her younger students in Nima . In each class , around 50 girls are taught HTML and run a blog called `` Slum Voices '' . `` I definitely feel [ technology ] has given them more of a voice , '' Agyare says . `` I feel like it 's allowed them to express themselves and interact with others ... for them , it 's important to be heard . '' Some girls had never used a computer before the classes began , but Agyare 's even-handed approach has brought all her students up to the same standard . Agyare insists that `` we do n't leave anyone behind . '' To that end , a few young male faces have found their way into her classroom . This was an accidental revelation , according to Agyare . She details the story of one affronted boy . `` He wrote that he did n't like it when he saw girls learning about computers ... it was difficult [ for him ] to see girls being empowered ; he was n't used to that . '' Agyare realized that by integrating genders in her classroom she could begin to confront gender expectations . For many boys the role of a girl is `` to be their wife , '' Agyare explains , `` and she needs to be taken care of . '' However , by running mixed classes boys from an early age `` can learn to see a woman as a contributing person [ within society ] . '' Now the hope is that many of the young students will be able to go to university -- and Achievers Ghana is working on a scholarship program to make the prospect attainable . Agyare says the goal is not to turn every girl into software developers but to enable them to `` use technology in whatever field they find themselves . '' She adds : `` It would be great if we had some girls that decided to go on and study computer science , but really it 's about helping them reach their full potential ... and bring change to the community . '' Read this : 5 reasons why tech needs geek girls . More from African Start-Up .
Many girls in Nima , one of Accra 's poorest slums , receive little or no education . Achievers Ghana is a school funded by the community to give the next generation a better chance of success . Girls are being taught to code by tech entrepreneur Regina Agyare , who believes her students will go far .