“I wanted to be a software engineer, but I needed to focus on supporting myself. Tanga is my home. I was selling dresses here, but always looking for other opportunities.”  

Shamte Mahmoud’s father died when she was only eight years old. After his death everything changed for Shamte, her mother and her five siblings. Her mother, who did not work prior to her husband’s death, struggled to find a way to support the family and resulted in farming. Shamte often worked early morning in the field before school and on weekends.  

When Shamte was 13 she lost her mother, too. It was now her oldest sister’s turn to surrender her dreams and take over raising Shamte and her siblings.  

Selected to go to University in Tanzania, Shamte knew she wanted to pursue a career in either teaching or nursing.  

As fate would have it both areas of study were filled and unavailable. As a result, Shamte had the opportunity to discover her true gift: technology.  

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a 3.8 grade point average.  

“I kept studying and practicing and my interest in computer science grew. I came to love system engineering and web programming.”  

Armed with her diploma and impressive grades, life still did not fall easily into place for Shamte. She was ready to launch her career path, but the jobs were not there.  

Ever resilient, Shamte decided to become an entrepreneur until she could find a job in her chosen field.  

It was while in pursuit of her new dress making venture Shamte serendipitously learned of Next Step Foundation and the Amazon Web Service Trainings offered through the Foundation’s partnership with Fondation Botnar.  

Excited to find out about the upskilling opportunity and never one to waste time Shamte joined the training ‘already in progress.’ Thanks to her tenacity and ability to learn quickly she caught up to the rest of the class with ease.  

“It wasn’t hard for me,” Shamte shares. “The day I started it was announced there was a test the next day. I told myself I can do this. I took the test and I passed.”  

Now a Certified Amazon Web Services Cloud Practitioner, she credits Next Step Foundation for assisting her in discovering and remaining on her career path.  

“I want to tell the Next Step Foundation you are doing good things. This knowledge and training we could not get anywhere else and get it for free. I want to tell the young people of Tanga, Tanzania not to hesitate to join any Next Step Foundation training that are provided.”