In April 2021, in partnership with Inspiring Girls, Fundación Secretariado Gitano, and our friends from electricBricks LEGO City, we organized a two-day, hands-on workshop that introduced girls ages 10-16 of Roma descent to the basic concepts of robotics, enabling them to build confidence and to problem solve by constructing and programming robots. A quarter of the girls had special educational needs, some had a degree of hearing loss, so Let’s Bot! was conducted in Spanish and Sign Language. This inclusive program may have been the first of its kind in Spain.

After the workshop, we created a sustainable robotics club that uses donated resources from the workshop to enable participants to continue to develop their skills and to provide opportunities for additional young people. The club was launched with a training session for teachers and coordinators from the Fundación Secretariado Gitano.

The session was held after the academic school year was over, but in time to include the club activity in the Fundación’s summer programs. A great education multiplier! We are proud to say that together with Alvaro Radigales, one of our Let’s Bot! teachers, this session at the robotics club was led and conducted by one of the teenage student participants from our earlier two-day workshop, Ana Pirvan. Let’s Bot! is already helping to develop future leaders!

We further amplified this workshop’s success through social and traditional media. Let’s Bot! reached a potential audience of 100,000 people. However, this is not just about the numbers, it’s about visibility and awareness. Relevant accounts echoed the launch of the program or interacted with the publications, which undoubtedly contributed toward elevating social awareness.