There is an urgent need among rural Self Help Groups of Women to expose rural women to information communication and technology for socio-economic development and for establishing their human rights. This is mainly because of the discrimination of women in the information technologies where men occupy the digital environment predominantly. Main Goal of the project is to empower 1500 rural self help groups through ICT for sustainable development and economic empowerment and to eliminate discrimination between men and women in the development of ICT and to generate institutional capacity.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
CHINNAMANUR, THENI DISTRICT, TAMILNADU, INDIA
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
GREEN has formed more than 1500 Self Help Groups of rural women. They are from rural areas and have no access to and use of internet. Most of them are provided with micro-credit for self reliance and entrepreneurship development. They never visit computer centers and are never exposed to ICT related technologies. GREEN explained the urgent need and all the women groups agree to participate in the ICT development programme for computer literacy and internet familiarity. 50% of the women groups are young and are eager to know the world through internet and the latest technologies available for endogenous development. They are eager to be empowered to advance their rights through technology related learning at GREEN. Eventually we aim to close the internet gaps by including them in the ICT.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
GREEN is a member in various social media networks such as Facebook, Linkedin. http://facebook.com/GREENBOSE on Facebook and in.linkedin.com/in/greenbose on Linkedin. We also have a twitter account: https://twitter.com/greenbose. In addition we have our own website: www.green.org.in. Through these links, GREEN will be able to link the women groups in our district and connect them with the world of internet. Women groups will be requested to create their own social media networks and get connected with the world as media citizens.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
GREEN is confident that by using citizen media, our women groups will be able to stop exploitation of young women in textile industries on contracts. We intend to create separate contents to educate our women groups on reservations for women guaranteed by the Government of India, opportunities in various sectors, procedures for reporting violence against women, their rights as women, gender perspectives, education, employment and empowerment through enrollment in IT work force in cities and towns and related issues. In fact, GREEN will facilitate to create barefoot IT Managers from our self help groups of women to expedite women’s development through ICT. From managing water distribution at the village-level to standing for local elections and having access to lifelong learning in ICT
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
We have contacted two established IT agencies in Madurai and Theni for collaborating our activities. Foundation for Research and Sustainable Development,(FRSD) Madurai will assist GREEN in content development, since the organization is our exiting partner for several projects. D Tech Solutions, a reputed IT lead in Madurai will provide proper training to our women groups on internet, social media, media citizenship, and the advantages of using Microgrant platforms. Future partnerships with reputed IT industries in the State will also be worked out for successful completion of the project. FRSD is an experienced and qualified organization on Internet Governance, ICANN, etc. Its Chief Functionary is an alumni of the ICANN, Diplo Foundation, Malta, and has completed Five Courses on IGP.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
GREEN expects to train 2500 young rural women to participate in the programme. We plan to identify educate young women from our Self Help Groups of women in the districts and enroll them as direct beneficiaries of the project. After enumerating them in the GREEN for the ICT project inclusion, necessary infrastructure will be created in the GREEN with trainers to sustain the participation of more women from our women groups every year. GREEN wants to ensure that the benefits accrued from the synergy of knowledge and ICT should not be restricted to the urban women of the society and have to freely flow to all segments of the women population in rural areas also. Tamilnadu is popular for Self Help Group concepts and have millions of women as members. Hence, we shall ensure participation.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
FRSD is an experienced and qualified organization on Internet Governance, ICANN, etc. Its Chief Functionary is an alumni of the ICANN, Diplo Foundation, Malta, and has completed Five Courses on IGP. GREEN has trainers in the district who are highly qualified and are experts in the field.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
GREEN is equipped with basic computer facilities and has adequate space for undertaking training of women groups on ICT, internet etc. Access to internet will be made easier, and usage will not be restricted to our women groups in a separate room in the office. GREEN has uninterrupted power supply through UPS, connected with BSNL ADSL, USB Modems etc. It is operated by a woman at present, who is qualified in computer literacy. We have five computers in the office with three printers and two scanners. We have five separate rooms available for undertaking separate classes for our women groups.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
All the women beneficiaries are from the Self Help Groups of rural women formed by the GREEN. As on date, GREEN has formed 1523 Self Help Groups of women. One Self Help Group consists of 20 members. Since all these women groups are enrolled in our organization, we are confident to write that we are the most appropriate organization to implement this important project for your own community.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
While planning this significant project, we do not foresee any challenges since we are going to deal with our own work force i.e. our own women groups in our own operational villages and hamlets. No security concerns are foreseen.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
GREEN is an experienced community based organization and has implemented several welfare projects in the past for the welfare of women and children. As carried out in the past, we shall designate a Monitoring Committee and an Evaluation Committee during the middle and at the end of the project to assess the success of the project. The success of the project will be measured by the indicators: Number of women beneficiaries directly participating in the ICT, Number of women groups capable of accessing the social media, number of training programmes conducted, number of experts visited the organization, number of women groups became active members in the social media like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc. Monitoring and Evaluation reports will also be taken into account to measure success.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
1. Baseline survey of the women groups and their knowledge on ICT, Internet etc: One month
2. Establishing separate facilities and infrastructure in the GREEN's office for the project.1 M
3. Selection and enrollment of women beneficiaries for the ICT inclusion project: 1 Month
4. Selection and appointment of trainers
5. Training women groups on Internet, social media, ICT etc: three months
Expected dates: GREEN plans to implement the project from June to November 2014
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
1. Access to internet by women: $ 200
2. Hardware for the training : $ 100
3. Cost of training women group: $ 1500
4. Expenses for trainers : $ 500
5. Printing of booklets in Tamil : $ 200
Total cost of the project: $ 2500
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
GREEN needs financial support at the outset to realize our goals and ambitions to bring rural women groups at par with the urban women in our State. We also need guidance, support and encouragement from the distinguished Rising Voices for successful implementation of the project. We also seek support from various women groups across the globe for technical inputs for our project if selected by the Rising Voices.
Contact name
Mr.P.S. BOSE, Secretary, GREEN
Organization
GREEN
1 comment
It is widely believed that if you educate a women, you educate a nation. These are a very commendable efforts