Digital Literacy Training help to use computers, digital cameras, VOIP, text messaging, internet video calls, social media etc. to make a radical change on the ground in rural Nepal.
We will be using this grant to cover the costs of the actual training rather than in the infrastructure to be able to reach out to over 1000 people in a year with a 2 week training, where during the training, the women participants are empowered by allowing them to take the laptop home and to ensure that they also practice from their homes in off-hours. We have seen a radical social change in their confidence.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Rural areas of Nepal
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
For hundreds of women, this campaign may be the lifeline to a new future. Nearly 1,500 Nepalese youths leave the country each and every day leaving only elderly, young and women in the villages and it is imperative for them to stay in touch with the women at home through digital means, which normally is more economical and efficient. Yet, due to lack of digital literacy skills they normally have to rely on middle-men who often take benefit of this by either charging a fee for this service or many times even misusing the money that the people send from overseas to home. The grant to cover the costs of the actual training rather than in the infrastructure to be able to reach out to over 1000 people in a year with a two week training.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
We have confidence to make radical changes in the society with the access to technology, Since we have been doing this for the past 5 years, having gotten to know a lot of grassroots community that can take care of the logistics when we take the training to the rural community.
Through the small team with a lots of challenges to sustain this program due to enough fund, access to rural area and poor IT infrastructure, we already had trained more than 1000 women with the single lady. We are planning to expand the resources and the infrastructure to to reach every house with free digital literacy program.
Allen Bailochan Tuladhar- https://www.facebook.com/allenbailochan?fref=ts
Samjhana Bhandari https://www.facebook.com/samfalsriti.bandari?fref=ts
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
This project will increase the ability to effectively using a range of digital technologies which help women communicate and keep up with societal trends. This project aims to provide access to technology to vulnerable women group. Learning from training centers for women is normally not possible and sometimes expensive.
* People trained in one year: 1.000
*No of training: 20
* Different cities/villages/venues used for training in one year: 18
* Videos of the training created during one year: 20
* Blog posts created for these training: 50
* People added to the social media network: 5,000
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 are looking for opportunities to partner with national government, local government, local schools, academic institutions, various NGOs, International NGOs, etc to extend this training as much as possible to the locals in various parts of the country for its sustainability of the proposed project. We will not charge anything for the training, however, looking at the costs needed for the travel and local expenses, the final plan, financial outlay for each partner, roles and responsibilities of the partners and the final time schedule and budgeting can be mutually discussed and agreed upon.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Reach out to over 1000 people in a year with a 2 week training.
We will not charge anything for the training, however, looking at the costs needed for the travel and local expenses, the final plan, financial outlay for each partner, roles and responsibilities of the partners and the final time schedule and budgeting can be mutually discussed and agreed upon.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
A blog site for this project will be created whereby all the training provided, the pictures, the lessons learnt, the partnerships created to roll out the training, etc will be shared with the community.
Social media will be used extensively so that the participants also get to start using these tools to be able to tell their stories.
From every training, the participants’ voices video will also be created to be put in youtube by the participants as part of the project of the training, but also to disseminate the training outputs and impact.
A multi-stakeholder advisory board be formed to advice and direct the project and which will meet in a quarterly manner.
Written reports will also be created for every training and in a quarterly level of the project.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
50 touchscreen laptops
Projector based learning classes
Light refreshments
High speed internet facilities
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?
We currently have done partnerships with 40 best college and universities of Nepal to ensure that the digital literacy classes reduces the digital gap of the rural communities.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
One of the biggest risks that we see is if the laptops we stolen or robbed when we take it to the rural communities, and we partner with a local community group to assist us with the security and in organizing the training.
The safekeeping of the laptops when it is being used by the participants in their homes is another risk factor of this project. We request the participants to take good care of the laptops and we have seen that they normally do, in the past 5 years experience of ours.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
* People trained in one year: 1.000
*No of training: 20
* Different cities/villages/venues used for training in one year: 18
* Videos of the training created during one year: 20
* Blog posts created for these training: 50
* People added to the social media network: 5,000
*Evaluation forms of the participants and its analysis.
*Feedback of the local partners who assist us in organizing the events.
*Feedback of the multi-stakeholder advisory board on the governance and transparency of the project implementation.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
* Review Meeting on every month i.e. second week of every month.
* No of Training- 20 training within a year. At least schedule two training each for 15 days Whole day except Saturday and public holidays.
Project will be started June 15, 2014.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Accommodation and Fooding for Trainer $2,100.00
Travel Expenses $400.00
Total Expenses $2,500.00
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
50 Touch Screen Laptops during the training period; resources cost and other related costs will be sponsor by Unlimited Technologies.
Contact name
Allen Bailochan Tuladhar
Organization
Unlimited Technologies Pvt Ltd.
