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Code for Palestine Booklet

Jericho, Paltel Group AcademyAugust 1st-15th, 2015

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Who We Are

Paltel Group started its operations in Palestine in 1997 with Paltel, the public shareholding company. The group pro-vides state of the art services to the Pal-estinian end user. Its variety of services include: local and international fixed telephony services, internet, data com-munications, mobile services and next generation services. The Group has been able to achieve the highest standard in telecommunication services by wisely in-vesting in modern technologies, telecom infrastructure and human resource de-velopment. Today Paltel Group consists of the following subsidiaries:

• Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) which provides fixed line, internet

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access via BSA and other value-added services

• Palestine Cellular Communications Com-pany (Jawwal) the first mobile operator in Palestine

• Hadara Technology Investment Compa-ny the biggest internet service provider in Palestine

• Reach for Communications Services Com-pany the first contact center in Palestine

• Palmedia for Multimedia Services Com-pany the media arm of Paltel Group

• Hulul IT Company the IT arm of Paltel Group

On the off-shore investments side, the Group holds 25.3% of Vtel holdings and Vtel MEA shares, which was registered at

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the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), which is one of the most reputa-ble financial centers in the region. Vtel registration is considered an important achievement of the company’s goals to-wards growth and expansion.

Paltel Group significantly contributes to the Palestinian GDP; in addition, Paltel stock represents 33.25% of the total market CAP of the Palestine Exchange (PEX) at the end of July, 2015. The Group’s net earnings grew rapidly during the past years, which provided it with fi-nancial stability to further invest in tech-nology and development across the ICT industry. Furthermore, Paltel Group is the biggest employer in Palestinian private sector with more than 3,000 employees.

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Websites

Paltel Group: www.paltelgroup.ps PalTel Group Foundation

Jawwal: www.jawwal.ps jawwal

Paltel: www.paltel.ps paltel

Hadara: www.hadara.ps Hadara Internet Services

Palmedia: www.palmedia.ps palmedia

Reach: www.reach.ps

Reach

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About the PalTel Group Foundation

The PalTel Group Foundation is an in-dependent, non-profit organization es-tablished by Paltel Group in 2008 as a direct response to the growing needs of the Palestinian society. The Foundation is the first of its kind-an indigenous, self-fi-nanced, corporate-supported body.

The Foundation focuses on various forms of youth empowerment by providing equal opportunities to all segments of society in education, by promoting a knowledge based society, by encourag-ing entrepreneurship, and by identifying role models to inspire future generations of Palestinians. Our philosophy is to con-tribute to the national development of Palestine and the human development

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of Palestinian society through partner-ships with all of society’s stakeholders and with the Palestinian Diaspora, since only an integrated approach to human development can succeed.

What and Why - We Code?

We Code is a project that is implement-ed by the PalTel Group Foundation and will be held in cooperation with Jawwal. It aims to teach students in the fields of technology and IT, where they will be giv-en access to the world of high tech, cod-ing, business and leadership skills.

Students who are selected will be entering the 9th grade school year and will continue with the program for a duration of 3 years.

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The summer camp will be held in the West Bank town of Jericho at the Pal-tel Group Training Academy. The 2015 program will commence on August 1st, 2015 and conclude on August 15th, 2015. Every day will begin at 8am sharp and end around 5pm, depending on the instructions provided by the instructors.

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Program Process

Projects

Summer Program: The 2 week summer camp will be held in August and students will meet the international instructors and learn the basics in re-gards to Python programming. During the summer program, the students will also learn about problem solving, teamwork, leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The summer goal is for students to under-stand the fundamentals of object based program-ming, be comfortable with Python syntax and be able to develop simple GUI.

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Yearlong Program: After the conclusion of the summer camp, the students will continue to work with the same instructors via Skype calls. Such calls will be scheduled once a week where they will attend lectures and work on programming projects. In addi-tion, students will build on the fundamentals in order to build advanced GUI designs and to create small scale programming projects focused on addressing Palestinian issues. The goal is for students to be able to develop a program such as Soduku or a confer-ence call app and develop basic teamwork skills.

Summer Program: The 2 week summer camp will be held in August and be based on the work car-ried out during the previous summer camp. Students will learn advanced technologies, i.e. embedding multi-media in GUI’s, building business plans in addi-tion to more skills on entrepreneurship, business and

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team-work skills. The summer goal is for students to be comfortable working in a software development project team and present to audiences and gain proj-ect management skills.

Yearlong Program: After the conclusion of the summer camp, the students will continue to work with the same instructors via Skype calls. Such calls will be scheduled once a week where they will at-tend lectures and work on programming projects. In addition, students will work on a real-world project with web technologies where the teams will be led by mentors and they will have a better understanding of needs/deadline, prototyping and user testing. The goal is for students to have developed a digital solu-tion for an issue impacting Palestinians.

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Summer Program: The 2 week summer camp will be held in August and be based on work from the 2nd year. Students will be given the opportunity to serve as teaching assistants to 1st and 2nd year sum-mer programs and will focus on preparing the stu-dents for a career in programming. The summer goal is for students to have a strong command of Python (and/Java) through projects and have a strong skill-set in business and entrepreneurial skills.

Yearlong Program: After the conclusion of the summer camp, the students will continue to work with the same instructors via Skype calls. Such calls will be scheduled once a week where they will attend lectures based on Nand2Tetris System. During this time, students will work through Nand2Tetris course, build a hardware computer using Hardware Descrip-tion Language and work on software projects-assem-

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bler, virtual machine, complier. The goal from the final year is for students to be able to construct a modern, full-scale computer system.

Sadek JaberProject Consultant

(sadek@sadekjabr.com)

Sadek graduated from BirZeit University with Bache-lor degree in Computer Science and Business Admin-istration, He as well works as a Software Developer at Progineer Technologies. He has experience in similar summer camps and in educating young age comput-er science students.

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Jessie Duan(jessiejduan@gmail.com)

Jessie just graduated from Stanford University with her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in com-puter science. At Stanford, she started working as a teaching assistant her freshman year, and later co-founded Girls Teaching Girls To Code, an organi-zation that encourages high school girls’ interest in computer science.

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Alex Fu

alex.xiao.fu@gmail.com

Alex is a junior at Stanford University studying com-puter science. She is originally from China, and now living in the Bay Area. Her experience with WeCode so far has been extremely fulfilling with the opportu-nity to visit a beautiful country, meeting with won-derful staff and working with lovely students.

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Arushi Jain(arushijain1993@gmail.com)

Arushi is a senior at Stanford University studying Computer Science and will graduate in June 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree. In the past she has worked at Microsoft as a software engineering intern, and volunteered at a crisis-mapping platform in Kenya called Ushahidi. She also worked with she++, a non profit aiming to increase female participation in Com-puter Science.

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Rori Macqueen(rorymacqueen@gmail.com)

Rory received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University. He is now working as a software developer for a San Francisco based startup called Endless Computers. At Stanford he worked as a course assistant, helping professors to teach undergraduate computer science courses. Rory is very excited to be working for WeCode this summer in Palestine!

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Instructions

Commitment by the trainee to refrain from using his/her mobile phone during the sessions. It is preferred that the mo-bile phones are left in the rooms. Mobile phones to speak to family and friends can be used during breaks or in the eve-ning when the sessions have ended.

Commitment by the trainee to adhere to the policies relating to staying overnight where the doors will be locked for the entry of the rooms allocated for female and male participants during curfew hours. Trainees will be informed of such policies and bear the responsibility for any violations that may occur. Obeying such policies at all times is necessary due to the established rules of the Training Academy premises.

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Map to the PalTel Group Training Academy, Jericho

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Commitment by the trainee to follow the policies of Paltel Group should not be overstepped in any manner because the Paltel Group Training Academy rep-resents all Group companies and must ensure its reputation is maintained at all times.

Commitment by the trainee to maintain their personal belongings. The Train-ing Academy is not responsible for the loss of any personal property.The trainee bears responsibility for the loss/misplace-ment of his/her property. If such an inci-dent occurs, Paltel Group will do its best to resolve the matter with the trainee.

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Commitment by the trainee to maintain the room area.The trainee will be held re-sponsible for their room key which will be provided and delivered to them upon arriv-al. Trainees are advised that the loss of the room key will be the sole responsibility of the trainee, who will bear all costs involved if the key is lost.

Commitment by the trainee to ensure that the air conditioning is turned off when it is not in use. In the event of any technical fault in the air conditioning, the trainee will be required to contact the support staff to report the issue. In the event of non-compliance, the train-ee is responsible for violating the policy and will bear all the costs that may be incurred.

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Commitment by the trainee to eat and drink within the cafeteria area located in the basement of the Training Academy. There is no food and drinks allowed in the rooms in order to preserve the clean-liness of the rooms.

Alcoholic beverages and pets are strictly prohibited on the premises, The trainee will bear the responsibility for any breach of these instructions and will be referred to the Human Resources Department for appropriate action to be taken.

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Training Academy Facilities:

Basement• Fitness Center• Cafeteria• Showroom (Cinema)

Ground floor• Reception• Conference Hall• Lecture hall• Management

First floor• Bedrooms

Second floor• Bedrooms

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Back Garden:There is an empty space to enjoy without leaving the Training Academy premises.

Training Academy also includes:

• Separate men and women swimming pools• Football and basketball courts• Restrooms• Cafeteria• Seating area

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Important phone numbers

Team:Iyad Jaradat: 0592-906010iyad.jaradat@pgfoundation.ps

Misal Nabeel: 0592-607037Misal.Nabeel@pgfoundation.ps

Ammar Lahham: 0592-800850Ammar.Lahham@pgfoundation.ps

Fateh Omer: 0595-000117Fateh.Omar@pgfoundation.ps

Boran Saleh: 0592-101094boran.saleh@pgfoundation.ps

Diala Taneeb : 0599-694535diala.taneeb@pgfoundation.ps

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Student Information

Full name:

ID Number:

Gender:

Age:

Residence:

Mobile:

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Palestine, Ramallah, P.O.BOX 3999Tel: +970 2 242 5000, Fax: +970 2 242 6000info@pgfoundation.ps

www.paltelgroup.ps

Paltel Group Foundation