Mohamed Abdelghani

Egypt

His parents’ eyes tell a thousand stories and the looks on their faces sum up all their feelings: pride, praise and confidence in a better tomorrow for him.

By the time he turned 21, Mohammed still had no clear path for his life, neither a job or a degree. He lived at home and had no passion to drive him.

With every passing day, his parents’ fears multiplied for a son who hadn’t yet drawn up a future. In fact, any talk about the future brought two or three words, negative and hopeless.

It was a summer day when Mohammed stepped out to escape his grief –his parents’ constant talk of his future– to meet some friends at a nearby coffee shop. There they spoke less about money, or the lack thereof, or the future, unemployment and lack of job opportunities, which have burdened Mohammed for many years.

One friend emerged, one he hadn’t seen for a few weeks returning to the group to tell them loudly –grabbing the attention of the entire shop– about free courses he took in coding through a platform he referred to as the       “Magic Lantern”.

Something sparked and Mohammed put down his food, quickly asked for a paper and pen and wrote down the name of the platform, “One Million Arab Coders”.

That night, he stayed up late and quietly registered for the website development course, finally feeling hopeful about his future. He was among many young men and women who registered for the initiative. Many had degrees, jobs and even worked on freelance projects while Mohammed had neither and needed to test his abilities.

He went on to develop a platform for ordering and delivering medicine. And while Mohamed wanted time to experiment and improve the initial version, its overwhelming success within a few months increased his enthusiasm and passion.

Today, his coding degree hangs in a golden frame on the wall of his very proud parents’ sitting room.

At the age of 23, Mohamed has found a job in his field at a major Egyptian company, and is also busy with his freelance work. When looking at the change in Mohammed’s life, there is no need for a lot of words. His parents’ eyes and smiles say it all.