A student arrives using technology the way most of us do — passively, as a customer. They leave making things with it: content with a voice, an audience that grows, an income they control, and a platform they own outright. The transformation is the product.
Cost is never the reason a talented student is turned away. Every dollar of their year is covered.
Geography is not destiny. Live instruction reaches students wherever they are — Abeokuta, Paramaribo, or the U.S.
Built around the very tools reshaping the economy right now, so students enter the field fluent in its present.
Girls and women are the heart of our mission — and we teach boys and young men right alongside them. Every underserved learner who wants to grow is welcome: children, teens, young adults, and elders.
Countries — Nigeria, Suriname & the United States
Areas of learning — AI, law, ethics, wellness & enterprise
Courses — each ends with a real, published project
Free — laptop, connectivity, AI tools & instruction
One year, four courses, eight weeks each. We don't hand out certificates of attendance — every course ends with a real, published project, in public, with their name on it. Three of the four are already built and running.
Outcome: a published voice. They find their voice and learn to let AI amplify it.
See the outcome
Outcome: a growing following. They turn attention into a following they can measure.
See the outcome
Outcome: a first income. They convert that following into livelihood — leads, offers, real mechanics.
See the outcome
Outcome: a platform they own. They plant a flag — a website and brand that belong to them alone.
See the outcomeSchools, shelters, orphanages, faith communities, libraries, foster homes, prisons and community programmes — anywhere people are gathered and want to learn. We come to you, from a single workshop to a full cohort, and we never charge the organisation or the learner.
Invite Us
Kuumba Code connects students with distinguished professionals and mentors who help them develop technical skills, confidence, leadership, professional awareness, and access to opportunities that may otherwise remain outside their reach.
Dr. Uzo Nwankpa is a doctorate-prepared nursing leader, educator, and researcher. She shows students that their background is not a limitation, but a source of strength, knowledge, and leadership.
Through her mentorship, students will learn about wellness, resilience, self-confidence, professional development, education, healthcare careers, leadership, and balancing personal responsibility with academic and career goals.
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“The Fixer”
Damond Isiaka is a distinguished mediator and TREC-recognized educator who combines a law degree with an MBA.
He teaches students how to negotiate their worth, protect their intellectual and creative work, understand contracts and professional agreements, resolve conflicts, make sound business decisions, and lead with ethics and integrity.
Jurisprudence & Social Policy, UC Berkeley
Nicole Lindahl-Ruiz helps prepare students for legal education and careers in law, policy, and public service.
She introduces students to legal and analytical thinking, academic preparation, study skills, social responsibility, digital rights, technology ethics, and the relationship between artificial intelligence and the law.
Students interested in becoming attorneys or pursuing legal careers will learn what academic discipline, preparation, and professional skills are required to enter that field.
A senior technology executive in the Kuumba Code network — currently in a senior role at Apple — will speak directly with students about international technology careers, innovation, product development, leadership, professional standards, and the skills required to succeed inside a global technology company.
Speaking in a personal capacity as an individual mentor. Their employer is noted only to indicate where their expertise was built. Kuumba Code is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or a partner of Apple Inc., and this speaker does not represent Apple. Their name is withheld by request.
COINTELPRO survivor · Writer, speaker & storyteller
Watani Stiner is a Black Power revolutionary elder, writer, speaker, storyteller, mentor, COINTELPRO survivor, and advocate for social and restorative justice. He lived in Suriname for many years and raised part of his family there, giving him a deep personal and historical relationship with the country.
He has spoken before students and communities at institutions including UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and other academic, cultural, and community organizations. His participation gives students access to living history — and the lessons of someone who personally experienced political struggle, exile, life in Suriname, incarceration, return, healing, and community building.
Kuumba Code’s growing network also includes physicians, nursing leaders, attorneys, mediators, professors, researchers, artificial-intelligence specialists, software developers, digital entrepreneurs, educators, energy-sector professionals, creative leaders, and members of the Surinamese and international diaspora.
Students will not only learn technical skills. They will have opportunities to ask questions, receive guidance, hear personal career stories, understand educational pathways, learn how to protect and negotiate the value of their work, and build relationships with respected professionals.
Kuumba Code combines technology education with mentorship, professional exposure, wellness, history, law, ethics, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Students gain practical knowledge while building the confidence, relationships, and vision needed to pursue meaningful educational and professional futures.
The tools that once required a studio, a team, and a budget now fit inside a single browser tab. The people who learn them this year will help set the terms for the next decade; the people locked out risk being locked out for a generation. So we move now, while the advantage is still ours to share rather than theirs to keep.
Kuumba Code teaches students and young creators — girls, boys, and rising artists across the United States, Nigeria, and Suriname — to use AI music tools like Suno. Music gives them an immediate way to feel the power of AI: they are not just watching technology happen, they are using it to create.
Turn an idea into a finished, original track with AI tools like Suno.
Tell their own stories through lyrics, turning culture and language into music.
Build better prompts and creative direction to shape the sound they hear.
Understand melody, genre, and song structure like a real producer.
Learn to use AI as an honest, responsible creative tool — not a shortcut.
Gain real confidence in technology by making something they are proud of.
Practice creative direction and digital production from idea to release.
Connect music to content, media, and entrepreneurship in the creative economy.
Suno calls itself a music company — “AI is our tool, not our identity.” That is why we are writing to you and not to a research lab. Our students in Nigeria, Suriname and the United States have never had a studio or a way in. What they have is taste, rhythm, and something to say. We want them building it on Suno.
What we are asking for
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.
We are not asking Suno to fund the program — only for access to the tools, and permission to
tell the story of what these students make with them. A small yes with a long tail.
styner@kuumbacode.com
I’m Styner Stiner — founder, program director, and lead instructor. I’m also a SaaS founder and full-stack systems architect: for years I have built secure, database-driven platforms that protect sensitive financial and compliance data and control who is allowed to see it. Kuumba Code is where my engineering discipline and my deepest purpose finally meet: I build people the way I build systems — with care, with rigor, and an obsession for what actually works.
I was born in Suriname, where my umbilical cord is buried — a tradition that ties my life, identity, ancestry, and spirit permanently to the land of my birth. I am American by citizenship today. But Suriname is not simply another country where I have family and professional experience. It is my birthplace. It is my homeland. It is Mama Suriname — Mama Sranan.
My family’s movement between Suriname and the United States runs through my father’s history. Watani Stiner — a Black Power revolutionary elder and COINTELPRO survivor — lived in Suriname through years of exile and raised part of his family there. His political history, his exile, and his eventual return to the United States are an inseparable part of my own.
I have taught in Suriname myself — third- and fifth-grade mathematics. So my relationship to the country is not only ancestral. I have stood in its classrooms, in front of its children, and taught them.
Pe mi kumbatitei beri.
My relationship with Suriname is rooted in
So establishing Kuumba Code in Suriname is not an outside organization entering an unfamiliar country. It is a daughter of Suriname returning knowledge, technology, education, mentorship, professional networks, and international opportunity to the land where my life began. I am not going back to teach a temporary class — I am building a lasting educational relationship with Mama Sranan, so that young people there understand that their geography does not set the limits of their talent or their future.
But Suriname is not the whole of this work, and it never was. Our first cohort is in Nigeria. We teach in the United States. The network reaches across the African diaspora. Being from one place and building in another is exactly what taught me the thing this program runs on: where a child happens to be born should never decide what they are allowed to become. That is true in Paramaribo. It is just as true in Abeokuta, in Oakland, and anywhere else we are invited.
American by citizenship. Surinamese by birth, family, history, culture, and spirit.
Mama Sranan — pe mi libi bigin, pe mi kumbatitei beri.
Global or country-specific, restricted or unrestricted, cash or equipment — it all arrives as the same thing: a person with a laptop and a reason to open it.
Adebisi is one of them. She is why the numbers on this page are written as a year of operation and not as a number of seats — because the next person through the door should never be the one we ran out of room for.
Some funders want their gift in a specific country. Others want it to go wherever it will do the most good. Both are welcome here — and every ask funds a full year of operation, not a fixed number of seats.
Fund the mission, not the map. Your gift is not tied to one country — we direct it wherever the need is greatest that month: a cohort in Nigeria that outgrew its room, laptops that have to clear customs in Suriname, paid guest faculty in Oakland. Each country runs its own instructors, its own programs and its own costs, and those needs do not arrive on schedule.
Unrestricted support is the most useful money we can receive, because it lets us move the moment something is needed instead of waiting for the right funder to appear. A partner can fund the full international program, one country, one area of operation, or any combination of funding, technology, equipment, expertise and professional opportunities.
What it covers
Country budgets and a consolidated international budget are available on request.
Not every partner gives money, and I do not need every partner to. A company that cannot fund a country can still remove a cost from it — and to us those are worth the same thing. If what you have is software, hardware or a door into an industry, that is not a lesser contribution. It is often the one we cannot buy.
AI platforms, educational software, cloud infrastructure, development tools, nonprofit licences or student credits.
Laptops, tablets and computers placed directly in the learning environments that need them — plus the internet access and mobile data to use them.
Professional certifications, guest instructors, mentors, internships, apprenticeships and real employment pathways for graduates.
Styner Stiner Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Kuumba Code
We publish our goals because we expect to be held to them. These are the organisations we are working toward over the next two years, ordered by mission fit and by how realistic the first step is — not by size.
This is a statement of our own goals only. The organisations listed here have not been approached about these partnerships, have not agreed to them, and are not affiliated with, sponsors of, or endorsers of Kuumba Code. Confirmed partners appear only in Confirmed partners, and only once an agreement is in place.
Or fund a single country
A country ask covers twelve months of operation end to end: a laptop and a year of data in the hands of every student we enrol, live online instruction, local facilitators on the ground, curriculum and project support, certification, and paid honoraria for the physicians, attorneys, professors, and technology executives who come and teach. We do not ask accomplished professionals to donate specialised work indefinitely, and we do not cap a country at a headcount — when a country is funded, we keep opening cohorts and we keep enrolling.
Our largest and fastest-growing program, and the proof the model works. Funding here lets us keep opening cohorts as fast as students come to us, and puts equipment and connectivity in the hands of students who would otherwise share a device or go without one.
Our live ask, currently with national funders. This founds the program in the country where our founder was born — a full year of instruction, equipment, local coordination, guest faculty, and in-person visits, delivered with Surinamese partners on the ground.
Community-based and rooted at Canticle Farm in Oakland, open to whoever comes through the door. Lower overhead because the space and the community are already there — funding goes to equipment, instruction, and the faculty who teach.
Fund a country outright as its founding funder, or partner at whatever level fits. Full itemised budgets are available for each country. Talk to us.
Teaching someone to build is only half the work. The other half is a door that actually opens. We are inviting companies — technology firms, studios and agencies, banks, hospitals, engineering and creative businesses — to give our graduates in Nigeria, Suriname and the United States somewhere real to go.
Structured placements with real work attached — paid wherever your organisation is able to make them paid.
First jobs, contract briefs and commissions. A single paid project can change what a student believes is available to them.
An hour a month from someone doing the work is worth more than most curricula. Bring your team into the classroom.
You do not have to be in our countries to do this. Work is already global — opportunity should be too. If your company hires remotely, contracts freelancers, or simply has people willing to mentor, there is a role for you here.
We publish our goals because we expect to be held to them. Each country is at a different stage, and each one is looking for a different kind of partner to reach the next.
Our largest and fastest-growing program, and the proof the model works. The goal is to keep opening cohorts as quickly as students reach us, and to put a laptop and a year of data in the hands of every student who is currently sharing a device or going without one.
A full twelve-month program, delivered live and online with Surinamese partners on the ground. We are in active conversation with national institutions, corporate social-investment programs, and foundations, and are seeking a locally registered partner organisation to deliver alongside us.
Community-based teaching rooted at Canticle Farm in Oakland, open to whoever comes through the door. The goal is to formalise what is already happening — consistent cohorts, proper equipment, and paid guest faculty rather than borrowed time.
Confirmed partners
Proposals are currently with national energy companies, government offices, foundations, and corporate social-investment programs across Suriname, Nigeria, and the United States. Partners are named here once an agreement is in place — never before. Talk to us about partnering.
Kuumba Code is actively engaging government institutions, educational organisations, corporations, foundations, and industry leaders to build sustainable access to artificial intelligence and digital-skills education.
The organisations below have received proposals or requests for collaboration. Inclusion in this section reflects outreach initiated by Kuumba Code and does not imply a confirmed partnership or funding commitment.
We invited the Staatsolie Foundation to serve as founding funder for the development and delivery of the first year of the Suriname program — covering student technology, laptops and digital equipment, internet access, local facilitators, curriculum development, professional instruction, guest educators, mentorship, student support, program management, evaluation, certification, community outreach, and periodic in-person engagement. We also requested guidance on the appropriate formal application process and on developing a local Surinamese partnership structure.
Proposal submitted · response pendingWe requested financial sponsorship and practical support to help establish AI and digital-skills education in Suriname. Potential areas of support include:
The specific sponsorship level would be developed in consultation with Telesur.
Sponsorship request submitted · response pendingWe requested assistance in connecting the program with the appropriate government agencies, educational institutions, schools, and technology partners — specifically help identifying:
We also proposed exploring a train-the-trainer model and expanding access to underserved communities throughout Suriname.
National partnership proposal submitted · response pendingWe proposed working with the Ministry to establish a free AI and digital-skills pilot program, and asked for assistance identifying:
The proposal also expressed interest in working with Onderwijs Binnenland to reach communities in Marowijne, Brokopondo, and Sipaliwini, and with CeNaSu to develop a train-the-trainer model for local educators.
Collaboration proposal submitted · response pendingWe contacted a member of the Chamber's leadership network to request guidance and an introduction to the appropriate Chamber representative. The outreach explored possible collaboration connecting AI education, digital skills, workforce development, technology, entrepreneurship, and future opportunities within Suriname's energy sector.
Introduction & guidance requested · response pendingVow Hope Orphanage Home provides residential care alongside vocational training, computer classes, tutoring, a library, life-skills training, and music and dance programming. We are preparing an approach to deliver Kuumba Code’s AI and digital-skills curriculum to the young people in their care, building on the computer education they already run.
This connection came to us through Damond Isiaka, JD, MBA — our legal counsel and instructor in ethics and negotiation, a distinguished mediator and TREC-recognised educator — by way of a longstanding family friendship. The relationship is his, and the introduction is his to be credited for.
Introduction made · approach in preparationA well-established and reputable technology training facility in Nigeria that will host students on site — giving learners a room, a connection, and equipment they do not have at home. It is led by a software engineer who holds a Master’s in Software Engineering from the University of Michigan and has built a long-standing record in technical education in Nigeria.
This arrangement is already in place. It was secured through Damond Isiaka, JD, MBA — our legal counsel and instructor in ethics and negotiation, a distinguished mediator and TREC-recognised educator — whose professional standing and long relationship with the facility’s leadership made it possible. We withhold the facility’s name and its director’s name here as a matter of privacy, not because anything is unsettled.
Arrangement confirmed · name withheld for privacyCanticle Farm is our fiscal sponsor and the ground we work from. Our United States program is not a proposal waiting on an answer — it is already happening here. Styner Stiner and Watani Stiner speak with students on site, and Styner keeps the community’s technology working: building websites, solving whatever tech problem walks through the door, and teaching whoever wants to learn.
We are now working to formalise and grow it — consistent cohorts, proper equipment for every learner, and paid guest faculty rather than borrowed time.
Active partner · program running
Organisations may fund a complete country program, sponsor a specific area of implementation, contribute equipment or services, or help connect us with the communities and institutions that can benefit most.
We welcome conversations with foundations, corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, technology companies, community organisations, and individual funders committed to expanding access to artificial intelligence and digital opportunity.
In our Friday class she is already curating food packages, marketing on social, and hiring help — not waiting for anyone's permission. She lacks only access: a dependable laptop and the AI fluency to make it durable.
An Animal Science graduate remaking her path with AI and digital skills — already moving before we arrived, and moving faster the moment the tools are in her hands.
Turning new AI and digital skills into paid work in sales and social — building an income she controls, on a platform that will belong to her alone.
Somewhere right now, a student with everything it takes is one laptop and one open door away from a life they cannot yet picture. Leave your email and we'll send the funder & partnership brief.
Kuumba
