Digital Empowerment for Community Women

Many times we engage women in digital literacy training, we tend to flood the women with so much information all at once. I have learned to approach the subject of digital literacy and empowerment with creativity and relevance. It is important to be creative in our training approach by being practical and less technical with the content. It is also helpful to make the training relevant to support the everyday life of the women.

The women I engaged had zero level technology knowledge and I had to explore the basic level to start introducing them to the internet and technology. All the women had never used a computer before and they have no access to the computer or internet in their community. But, some of the women had smartphones and it presented a good place to start introducing them to technology.

Over the course of the training, the women learned about the power of the internet to improve their social lives, improve their work and business, and every area of their lives. The women learned about mobile applications, browsers, and social media.

The women were excited to learn about the amazing opportunities that lie in their phones when they put the internet to use. They were enlightened about how they can improve their businesses, expand their networks and even connect their voices with women around the world, via World Pulse, to catalyze global change.

As the women build their skills on their phones, we would expand their training further.