Education India Project #15267

COMPUTER LITERACY CLASS FOR 30 INDIAN GIRLS

by Foundation for Initiatives in Development and Education for All ( IDEA)

Project Report | Mar 3, 2020
FEAR OF COMPUTERS, NO MORE!

By Geetanjali | Manager

Pradnya-IDEA's Digital literacy course instructor

Dear Friends,

Greetings from IDEA!

It gives us great pleasure to bring this special report to you! We are running computer literacy centres for underprivileged people for the last five years, many of our students are young women who have had to leave their studies behind due to early marriage and poor financial background.

House bound or doing menial jobs, they never thought that they could get back to their studies and computer for them was a complex machine which only educated people operated for doing important office work. When Govt. of India started promoting digital literacy in a big way, many women understood its importance but the fear stopped them.

At IDEA’s digital literacy centres, digital literacy curriculum comes later, first our instructors work on banishing the fear factor from the students. They simplify the language of computers and give personal attention to all students which creates an interest in them. Staring with basics and covering topics like digital marketing and online payments.

Some of our students gave our Digital literacy instructor, Pradnya, glowing testimonials. In the images of the testimonial in Marathi language, we have blurred some parts to conceal their identities. Please do read the English translations below -

Deepali

“I am housewife and had no knowledge of computers before joining IDEA’s Digital literacy centre. Here I got a chance to work on a computer for the first time. Initially I was intimidated to use the computer but our instructor explained everything and it became simple. Now I don’t fear it and I must say that I have learned many useful things in this course especially surfing the internet. Now I can handle the computer independently”.

Maya

“I always wanted to learn computers but I was scared. Our instructor makes everything simple to understand which dissolved my fears and I developed an interest in this. I find using internet on my mobile the most useful. I have learned how to pay electricity bill online, Facebook, I have a Google account also. I want to learn more”.

Suvarna

“Earlier I had only seen a computer, only after joining this computer class, my fear of computers went away. In this day and age everyone must know how to operate a computer, it is very essential. My fear of computers only went away because of our instructor, Pradnya and now I enjoy the computer class and I feel so nice that even I know how to handle the computer. I thank madam a lot for this”.

Many such women and young girls are digitally literate today which has increased their confidence and opened new opportunities for them. Please DONATE and continue SUPPORTING this project!

Deepali

Maya

Suvarna

Links:

Permalink

Dec 9, 2019
Computers make life easier!

By Geetanjali | Manager

Asavari taking the computer exam with confidence

Dear friends,

Greetings from IDEA!

It delights us to bring to you another report from our computer literacy project. We are on a mission to impart computer literacy to 1000 underprivileged women and girls in India and with supporters like you, we are able to go beyond our target.

We are filled with pride as another batch of ladies successfully completed their computer literacy exam. This exam is designed by Govt. of India’s - National Digital Literacy Mission and has to be taken online.

Women who were scared some months ago to even touch a computer took the exam with absolute ease. This is the result of our computer instructors who very patiently teach the women, both in groups and also individually. No doubt is too small, the students are free to ask questions and they also get personal attention and ample practice time.

In the latest batch which took the exam recently, there were two middle-aged women - Asavari and Deepa. Asavari is a student of our skill development course, she is learning to become a tailor and aims to open her own shop soon.

We convinced her to join the computer course since it will greatly help her in her new business. Deepa lives in a community where our computer center is housed. She came in one day just to find out what we do. Our team convinced her with much difficulty that computer training can be taken by anyone, even a woman of her age.

Both ladies had never touched a computer and were naturally slow to pick up in the beginning but our instructors were equally gentle and patient with them and soon enough fear gave way to curiosity. They began to enjoy the process of learning and were looking forward to the class.

They found that internet surfing is not only easy but extremely helpful. They were happy that they could talk to their children about websites, apps, etc. They learned how to do online payments, skype and book tickets online. This excited them!

Both of them have passed the end of the course computer exam and are eagerly awaiting the certificate distribution ceremony next month. Asavari and Deepa both agree to the benefits of learning computers and say that it has indeed made their life a little easier.

Friends, we request you to donate to this project and kindly spread a word among your friends. Let’s make everyone E-LITERATE!

Deepa taking the exam alongside a young classmate

Links:

Permalink

Sep 10, 2019
Digital literacy helps budding entrepreneurs!

By Geetanjali | Manager

Dear Friends,

We are so glad to bring to you the success of our digital literacy project for underprivileged and marginalized women and girls.

IDEA runs a skilling courses in both urban and rural areas in Pune. Underprivileged women are trained in Tailoring and Beauty care. They also benefit from Entrepreneurial Development Programme to inspire them to start their own businesses.

One important component of entrepreneurship is effective marketing and in today’s world - digital marketing can really help small businesses in getting access to new markets.

So along with skilling, we also train women in digital literacy as it is an important skill for any budding entreprenuer today. In 2018-19, we made more than 500 girls and women digitally literate and in this year, more than 300 girls and young women have successfully completed digital literacy training so far.

Bearing in mind that many of these women have not completed schoolingh or have studied in vernacular medium, our instructors start with the very basic lessons in computers, slowly advancing to difficult concepts and then to internet.

The women are taught how to operate MS Word, Excel and Paint. They learn to email and surf the internet for information. They are then taught online form filling, online payments, social media and digital marketing.

The women get ample hands on practice during which our instructors are present to guide them and solve their doubts. This helps increase their confidence and soon they learn to operate computers, smart phones and tablets independently. It is quite satisfying to see our students filling out college application forms and paying bills online.

To address their safety in the virtual world, we get help from various IT experts the city who volunteer their time and expertize by conducting cyber security sessions where the experts share tips to safeguard one’s identity and accounts in the cyber world. Over 400 women have received cyber security training in the past 2 years.

Many women today are leveraging social media to market their hand made products. This is making them more and more self-reliant. Digital and financial literacy is helping them bridge the gap between dreams and reality!

Friends, please donate to this project so that many more women and girls can become digitally literate!

Links:

IDEA website

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.