The winner of the Rising Star of the Year Award at the 2023 Women in Digital Awards in Australia is making waves in the no-code space through her work as a developer and sharing her skills and passion with women in Fiji.

Shenal Harakh was born and raised in Australia and is both a Fijian and Australian citizen.

Her mother is originally from Sabeto, Nadi while her father is from Suva.

When she was 10 days old, her family moved to Fiji, but returned to Australia a few years later.

No-code industry 

Fast-forward to today, Miss Harakh is the founder of her eponymous software development agency Shenal, which builds online platforms without code for clients around the world.

She has worked with not-for-profits and organisations in Australia, Hong Kong and New York City.

The 28-year-old is now based in Fiji where she delivers workshops to help women learn how to create websites for their businesses via no-code tools, Softr and Airtable.

The former accountant said she taught herself to build things using the same apps she currently uses to teach her students.

Miss Harakh detailed an experience when she was living in New York that eventually led her to return to the islands.

“I was quite active in what’s called the no-code scene. The no-code industry consists of a bunch of modern tools that help people build software without code and some of the biggest tools in the world are founded out of New York,” she said.

“I used to attend lots of events, and I’d constantly hear that an increasing amount of people in the world will not only be consuming software; they won’t just be using Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, but they’ll also be creating things of their own.

“I’d listen to all these things, and I’d sit there and think, ‘well, that’s such a biased point of view’, because you’re thinking about Americans, Europeans, Australians.”

This is when she thought, “What about people in Fiji?”

Miss Harakh said she felt that it was her responsibility to bring no-code tools to Fiji.

And she did.

Opportunities for women 

“I want to help upskill everyone, but I’m starting with local women because they’re the most immediate or pressing audience to help,” she told SunBiz.

So far, Miss Harakh has run two workshops in Suva for 26 women in total with diverse backgrounds.

These workshops have met a demand for an affordable and engaging way to build websites.

“These are non-technical women. Most of them have their own small businesses as tour operators, bakers, and teachers,” she said.

“They all wanted their own website, but they found it expensive to build one based on the quotes they were getting, or they found it difficult to interact with the software engineers here because they were more focused on the technical things.

“These women wanted something that told their business story.”

The sessions aren’t just about website building and helping participants digitise their work.

They also offer an opportunity for Miss Harakh and these women to connect and get to know one another.

“They come to my workshop having no idea what to expect and how technical it is,” she said.

“But they leave feeling excited, with a finished website by the end of the workshop, and with new friends.

“I get to learn about their businesses.”

Only the beginning 

From ocean management services consultancy Ika Bula Consultants run by Shritika Prakash to self-taught Fijian artist Mele Higano Tagitagiaimanu Nabola and many others, Miss Harakh’s workshops have made building websites accessible to the women who have joined.

And it’s only the beginning.

Miss Harakh plans to facilitate two more workshops in Nadi and a follow-up for her Suva group.

“What I’m trying to do here is bring a whole new audience to software creation; people who never thought they’d be able to build a website, whether it’s out of cost, or skill, or because they don’t have a software developer in their network,” she said.

“These are the types of women who come to my workshops and they leave having created one.”

This community of people who had little to no prior experience or knowledge in building platforms yet learned to create websites from scratch with Miss Harakh’s support is growing.

No-code tools are widely accessible today, and she said giving them a go is the first step.

“Try building something for yourself or someone in your family as a way of experimenting and testing things out,” she said.

“Once you keep building a lot of different things, you’ll end up with a portfolio that you could eventually market.

“From there, try and build for other people for a living. But it all just starts with the first project.”

If you’re interested in joining Shenal Harakh’s workshops, sign up at fiji.shenal.online/sign-up or reach out to Miss Harakh on LinkedIn and Twitter.

She is also taking interest from student groups, non-government entities and other organisations.

Feedback: jernese.macanawai@fijisun.com.fj