Coding for Climate Change

In the serene neighborhood of Kiyovu in Kigali, a young man in his early 20s sits in front of his laptop, deep in concentration. His fingers move rapidly over the keyboard, the clicking sounds creating a steady rhythm in the otherwise silent space.

This is Manzi Mudahemuka, a software engineer, who is busy doing what he loves most: coding. He is fully committed to programming, not only to secure a brighter future for himself but also to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues.

The 21-year-old Congolese refugee, a recent high school graduate from Rwanda Coding Academy, is currently working on his project called “Zero Co2,” an Artificial Intelligence-powered carbon capture model intended to reduce emissions in the atmosphere. He firmly believes that his project could be one of the solutions to climate change effects.

“This was an idea that came up into my mind the moment I saw people being dragged away by floods,” Manzi explains. “I came up to think: what is causing this? What is behind these floods? I’ve come to realize that carbon dioxide is one of the pressing greenhouse gases that is breaking the ozone layer that purifies the ultraviolet rays. I’ve come to realize that the solution that is needed is to get rid of these greenhouse gases.”
Manzi, who also runs his own company dubbed Climtect, an AI-driven tech hub for building sustainable climate change solutions, explains that his project “Zero CO2” is going to be embedded in the materials that emit high carbon dioxide like industries and vehicles to capture carbon elements and then release oxygen into the atmosphere.

He hopes to finetune his project soon, as he has secured a full scholarship to start his undergraduate programme in computer science this summer at Dartmouth College, one of the best colleges in the USA, which is also keen to address climate change and sustainability.
“This is the place that is going to help me to achieve success of my climate project…I feel like it’s going to be a home, my second home even if my first one has completely denied me,” Manzi points out.

Manzi’s future seems undoubtedly bright, yet his journey has not always been smooth.

Forced to flee his village in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2012, Manzi and his family of 12 ended up in Rwanda’s Kigeme refugee camp and later relocated to Nyabiheke refugee camp; facing a challenging situation at the young age of nine.

Memories of his first experience as a refugee are still fresh in his mind. He reflects on how his family and fellow refugees struggled to obtain basic needs such as clean water before the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, set up the refugee camp. He describes these as ’embarrassing moments in our lives.’

“It was a life full of despair and rejection… as a young kid, I felt blown up. This was hard for me: accepting that I had left my country, my home, my friends, even everything that I knew in my own country,” he recalls. “We didn’t have anything as a family, except for seeking help. We had to put our hands up to beg for even eating, imagine, just begging for eating!”

The challenges that Manzi faced made him stronger and more determined. Instead of giving up, he pushed himself to work even harder.

He for instance says that he spent nights revising what he had been taught in class, especially learning English language quickly as the medium of instruction.
“I took this life seriously because I saw that there is no one going to come to save me in case I don’t fight for myself. And then I was immersed in the education system, and then I excelled in every single course that I took, just beginning from the primary school,” he says.

For Manzi, the hard work paid off when he emerged among top performing students and the Rwandan government offered him a scholarship at Rwanda Coding Academy, the only high school of its kind in Rwanda that teaches coding to brilliant students, shaping them into individuals who see problems as opportunities for change and solve them using technology.

For instance, he says he started developing software apps before completing high school, which earned him some money he used to support his family.
After completing school, he has been employed by a local software development company where he continues to do programming. Beyond the money he earns, he also experiences a sense of satisfaction.

“This makes me feel that I do have something to bring to society,” he proudly says. “At first, people thought that refugees are incapable of doing things. But the moment I’m providing solutions that are used by maybe Rwandans, FinTech companies, that are used to solve someone’s problem, this makes me feel happy because I’m providing an image that refugees are also able to do everything in case they are given an opportunity to do that.”
In addition to providing tech-based solutions, Manzi’s experience as a refugee has cultivated a desire in him to pursue a minor in political science, hoping to help stabilize his country one day.

“This is the thing that I want to do. I need to return to my home country and even bring a solution that is going to end the political instability in case it has not been solved yet,” he says.

He remains optimistic that displaced people like him need support to empower them to provide solutions.

“Maybe the person that you’re helping today is going to bring solutions that will be valuable to every individual in this world,” Manzi says. “We do have to give refugees the opportunities.”