SDG: 4

I want kids to invent with technology instead of just being users of technology

Martin Exner
Coding Pirates
Started to explore the field of creative coding and constructing technologies when I was studying to become a teacher. Began thinking of creating a club outside school for kids to explore this. The reason was that I really wanted a similar club to have existed when I was a kid myself.
2014 in Copenhagen we opened Coding Pirates and quickly went viral. I remember one weekend of exceptionally lots of travels. It consisted of opening three Coding Pirates Clubs in Denmark and a wedding in Sweden.

Project

Coding Pirates is clubs for kids aged 7-17 that wants to be creative designers of technology. This involves coding, electronics, maker technologies of all kind ect. The initiative is non profit and is typically based in the time between 5 and 7 PM. Now Coding Pirates is spread over the entire country with almost 100 clubs and 1000 volunteers.

Impact story

I was speaking at a social entrepreneur-conference in Sofia, Bulgaria when one in the audience, Plamena Todorova said to me afterwards that she wanted Coding Pirates in Bulgaria. Not many weeks after, I went back to Sofia to train the local volunteers and open the first Coding Pirates Bulgaria chapter! This experience taught me a lot about european collaboration and was one of the best moments I look back to when I think of the first years of Coding Pirates.
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