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!
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