Web 2.0 MY DRIVER FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

I’m so fascinated about the Web 2.0, in that as a health educator, I don’t need a degree in Journalism to tell my story and have people listen. So far reading the materials for week one and the live stories linked, the voices heard from women all over the world in VOF has been life changing. There is no other fast and interesting way to hear the voices of millions of down trodden women around the world better than through Web 2.0. Interestingly, Web 2.0 bridges the gap between literacy and illiteracy, race and religion, rich and poor, it encourages all women to speak.

The Web 2.0, in-fact has been a solution to the long silenced voices of women around the Globe. Those sorrowing voices that have long wished to be heard, praying to have an opportunity to be heard so that such things causing pain, bitterness and shame around their communities can be stopped and other younger generations of women delivered. The major solution that Web 2.0 has brought to the women folk is releasing of our voices from the shackles of Speechlessness to an avenue where we speak out, socialize, share ideas and achieve sustainable development in our rural communities.

The Web 2.0 has affected the global women's empowerment movement positively as it has given opportunities for more women to be heard and as more women are heard, their stories brings solutions to social ills, the international communities supports their voices and change happen. As this change happens, more women are empowered and encouraged to speak up. The VOF of World Pulse has been one of such strong tools which have empowered more women to share information, speak up on social ills in their various communities.

Coming to learn about World Pulse have been live changing for me, sometime earlier last year, I registered on World Pulse but didn’t understand much about it but later I went to the site and took time to go through the voices of women on the site I wept and wept and it made me remembered what women in my community go through in gender based violence and widowhood and I went sore. Web 2.0 has personally given me the opportunity and the empowerment to speak out here in a rural community in Nigeria and be heard globally. I have used Web 2.0 to create online forums & discussions & got meaningful contributions. I have also participated in series of life changing video conferences and have posted over 42 videos on YouTube that helped in projecting my developmental activities. Since I came know about Web 2.0 & the empowerment it gives to women, I have vowed to use Web 2.0 to drive change especially for women & have so far trained over 10,000 community women and girls on how to use the computer and internet, helped them signup on different new media so that they can also make the voices heard.

Watch Angela Anaba’s Testimony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBdBm90Kla4