Establishment of gender equity to empower women and disabled through mobile internet.

by

Fahmida Hossain | May 31, 2020 | in Women in technology challenge | Tech solutions for communities

State your goals

Our goal is to establish gender equity to empower women and disabled through ICT & mobile internet. This project is focusing on the women and the disabled people. We are already working with women, physically challenged women and youth. We have a huge network of volunteers and we have connections with the local communities, SMEs who are working for empowering women through skills and economic development.

Goals:

• To diminish the gender gap and open opportunities globally for all women using the internet and mobile technology.
• Provide digital skills to the handicapped to support their families despite their disadvantage.
• Make sustainable work opportunity with available and affordable internet for all.

Objective:

• Growing the number of women mobile internet users, giving them access to the world.
• Building awareness about the merits of using mobile data and the internet.
• Provide an amiable environment for boosting digital skills & work environment.
• Promote and encourage the talented participants in the local as well as the global platform.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

It is the women of our society who we do not look at. They are the building blocks of our livelihood. Men being the dominant creature in this society, usually ignore a woman’s capabilities even when they are commendable. Over 43% of these skilled women are leaving their jobs for reasons ranging from pregnancy to general insecurity.

Additionally, the situation is no different for the disabled. A recent incident, there was a case of an Australian youth being bullied for the way he looks. These events have led to many calamities and even attempted suicide. In a global perspective, 15% of the world population live a challenged lifestyle. Bangladesh unlike many are also facing the same issues if not more.

Elegant has identified a number of challenges in the implementation stages of the project and modified the implementation strategies according to the learnt lessons. Elegant has observed that often there is a social belief that in comparison to men, women are not equally capable in handling technology. Besides, their career choices or any decision are mostly made by the male member of the family. Access to a gadget such as a smart mobile phone, laptop and even internet, are strictly prohibited or limited for most of the women.  Many qualified women are leaving their careers in the growth stage to raise the families.  In some cases, we found out that women have lack of confidence in learning or managing complex features of tech.  Repetitively listening to the demotivate phrases from the intimate ones of the society is the root cause of this attitude and then, they start doubting their own capabilities. And during the lockdown situation, the scenario is getting worsen and the domestic violence is getting much higher unfortunately. As a non-earning member and no/less access to the modern world, the women are oppressed in every possible ways. 

Due to this lockdown, the handicapped whose only source of income was a small shop and even the maid who supported her entire family or garments worker may now die out of poverty before the virus. Many make a living even by begging. Today they are jobless due to the nationwide shutdown. They have spent their last saved penny and are now living in abject poverty. 

In this Covid -19 pandemic, people are not only losing their lives, they are also losing their jobs specially who lacks adequate digital skills. For social distancing, people are not able to continue their regular works, education, life-skill development training etc. Many government initiatives and NGOs’ support are completely stopped or paused for the time being. And, unfortunately, most of our initiatives is Dhaka city based whereas the focus should be on the remote areas. Therefore, 46.8% of the beneficiaries of Elegant IT are from rural areas.

Advancing digital skills and access to the global market can be a game-changer to solve the economic dawn-fall of the country.  In addition, some women are interested in learning digital skills, but due to lack of resources they could not learn.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

Our organisation, Elegant IT Limited has taken all of these into consideration and decided that it is our time to contribute to the world in the battle against COVID-19 situation. We launched a project focusing on women and the handicapped and have been working on it for the past 3 years, developing the program and increasing workforce. We reach out to people, providing them necessary free ICT training, presenting them with work from home and freelancing opportunities so they can support their families financially. With the given coronavirus situation at hand, this project has boosted its capabilities and is now our major focus. A series of initiative we are implementation which are as follows-

• Free of Cost Online Training:

Our organisation now provides free online ICT training courses about 2100 women & people with disabilities. Also, we teach about the use of internet, mobile data & mobile technology and its wonders. and resources to such individuals over the COVID-19 period, enabling them to freelance in the real world putting their talents at work.

A number of renowned organizations from Srilanka, Namibia & African’s shows their interest to work collaboratively with us and to use our online education and job placement model for their beneficiaries as well. We are in the final stage to have them on board. https://www.facebook.com/ELEGANTITLIMITED/posts/929905157481282

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalSkillsForWomen/

• First Job Placement site for People with disabilities in Bangladesh:

We have taken the initiative of introducing the vary First Job Placement site for People with disabilities in Bangladesh which also intends to keep the people safe from coronavirus. Through our “online job” platform, people can now hire these individuals with the click of a button. We are proud to say that we have brought smiles too many faces. onlinejob.io

• Leaving No One Behind:

We have taken the strategies of “leaving no one behind”; when we have made connections to our beneficiaries and listen to their challenges, we developed a strategy - 'advocacy to individual family level'. We identified the decision-maker of the family and had one on one discussion. In the beginning of our journey, we have 10 women and physically challenged people who took the ICT training for about three months.  These successes were our core strength to influence others to be interested in the capacity building initiatives and to win the faith of the beneficiaries as well as the families. The successful inclusion of women and physically challenged people in the complex field of technology starts breaking the social stigma.

• Affordability & Accessibility:

Affordability to necessary resources such as arranging laptop or smart phone and internet cost were two other major challenges which we are facing very frequently. We have raised corporate social funding and contributed form our company revenue to arrange these resources. Also, we have arranged instalments and loans from local micro-credits company with our networks. We are also in taking terms with the Telco companies to provide low-cost internet for our registered members under this initiative.

Communication skills and language barrier are the concerns for successful implementing the initiative. In some context, some of the beneficiaries are facing difficulties in understanding the scope of work, instruction, training manuals etc. We have developed our champions/help points who help them to understand the clients’ actual needs or other materials. Besides, we have developed Bangla based platform to which has already proved as a useful tool.

• Working NGOs, leaders and other SMEs:

We, Elegant IT is working with local NGOs, leaders and other SMEs in order to seek out potential amongst the rural Bangladeshi women. Several community leaders are deploying as trainers to help guide these talents. Also, training sessions and materials are also uploaded online so they can be accessible through mobile internet. (can also be used for the disabled)

We have also collaborated formally and informally with some local agencies, NOGs, activists who are assisting us in finding more work opportunities for these people and our collective efforts are making this initiative successful so far. There is a true need of support and patronage from bigger platforms to continue this progress in empowering women and disadvantaged people as well as minimising the gender gap in technology. In addition, women and disadvantaged people should realise their true capabilities and come forward to break the social taboo and relish their possibilities. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6619552600348028928

• Awareness campaigns:

We are running awareness campaigns to spread the message about the benefits of mobile internet and technology. 

Simultaneously, the inclusion of husbands and family heads is crucial as they can be an example of the success of our program. We are also taking the initiative to develop necessary platforms, so that they can sell and earn from the local market via the internet.

Stephen Hawking, a genius unlike any, has discovered various secrets of the universe, was a physically challenged person. Taking him as an example, we have pushed through the stereotypes and provided opportunities to these people. Many of these disadvantaged are now working under the banner of Elegant IT Limited as well. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/elegantitltd_elegantabritabrltd-differentlyabled-digitalskillsforwomen-activity-6622389109258313728-1-mg

Share your story (your narrative)

In Bangladesh, 1% of IT companies are led by women and Elegant is one of them. Our core business service is UX research & UI design, Animation and Software. I positioned myself as Chairman of Elegant IT Limited for creating, planning, implementing, and integrating the strategic directions of an organisation. In addition, I am providing senior management level leadership with overall responsibilities for engineering and operations teams. Prior to Elegant, I worked for Grameen phone as an UX researcher for about three years. I also worked in Growth Technology Limited as UX researcher and Trainer for about a year.

Since my childhood, I did not have a computer and internet access at home. So I was far behind the advancement of technology. I had to work hard to keep up with technology. Many women like me are lagging behind in terms of computer and internet usage. Especially in rural areas, they don’t have any knowledge about using the internet. From that thought I started working for empowerment of women and have initiated many programs for capacity building in the technological field and which eventually contributes in minimising the gender gap. One of the ongoing projects is to build the capacity of the physically challenged people and women in ICT and patronise them to develop a career in the local and global market.

I have keen interest in sharing my experiences, challenges, learnt lessons and successes to the global audiences and, equally, possess the urge to learn the best practices around the world; which, I believe, help me to refine my ideas and to produce the best tailored strategies for my own community and contribute to bring impactful opportunities. Simultaneously, I have great interest to utilize my knowledge and competencies to mentor the upcoming talents and strengthen their capabilities and eventually to transform their potentialities into affluent digital professionals.        

Currently, I am working on this project to engage them in ICT and in this regard, I have done communication and advocacy in policy level as well as in grassroots level. In addition, I am playing the role of community mobiliser for engaging women, youth, physically challenged, teachers, local governments and the influencer groups. I have a brilliant track record of voluntary work in different national and international organisations from my student life and experience in brand communication and campaign management in the public and private sector.

There has already been a significant number of satisfied participants and are currently working under Elegant IT’s banner. Women can now use mobile technology and mobile data to know more about the world as well as support their families through freelancing. A smile on one’s face can reverberate like a wave of peace and that is what Elegant IT is striving to achieve.

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

Elegant IT is currently working with women and the physically challenged and has already created a huge impact in closing the gender gap and inequalities. Minimising such and introducing more women to technology will surely eliminate the traditional stereotype. Global and national leaders must also take small initiatives like ours to leave a great example for the generations to come.

Considering the limitation and reality, engaging physically challenged people and women in the complex field like ICT is a very rare and challenging concept especially in the developing country. We have got many great responses in supporting our project. Funding is the most crucial element to implement our project and we are pitching to raise it but, simultaneously, we are trying to build connections for getting support for our project in terms of strategy development, promotion, resource pool, infrastructure development etc.

A Story one of our Beneficiary:

Jahed Hossain, a 28 years old bright young man lives in Chittagong with his family. Unfortunately, he was born with disabled cerebral palsy, severe. His elder brother was the only earning member for the family. With little academic education and disabled leg, he was in acute depression. He was extremely shameful for being a burden and lives in insecurity, He said – 

“ sometimes, I feel worthless to be on this earth, why do I live, after my mother, who will support me”

He was ready to do anything to come out of that live and to live a respectful life. Few months back, from some friends, he heard about the advantages of internet and digital world. He as eager to learn something practical to have a living. Through a contact, Elegant IT Limited reached him and let him know about the potentialities of free-lancing IT work as a front end developer professional. Elegant offered his profound training on this aspect and work under the company in the global market. After a rigorous search, he found a hope of life by learning the benefit of being an IT expert. He has taken IT basic training for about eight months and built his skills to work in the market. Elegant has arranged free course, resource and connection for him. Through Elegant IT, Disabled Council International also supported him by providing a laptop to continue his professional life. Now, he is earning a living and also supports his family. He said -

‘I have never imagined that I can be a provider to my family. Now, I can proudly say that I do have some skills and I have found out a purpose to live on this earth’

When we look around us, we may see a harsh world at first glance but if we look closely, there is a flower that needs a little sunlight to blossom. We at Elegant IT aim to provide that light so they flourish despite their gender, race or appearance. The national and global leaders need to come forward to support such small initiatives like ours and to retune their policies and prioritise their goals to ensure human existence.

Website: https://eleganttechbd.com/project/

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes