Today marks the launch of the first Girl Summit in London, to raise awareness for the global campaign against FGM and the forced marriage of girls and young women. The summit is a major milestone in a long journey of promoting these causes by a range of NGO’s including Plan UK and the NSPCC, amongst others. The event has the backing of the UK government’s Department for International Development, who have given considerable support including moves to establish policy and to add strength to the UK’s position in condemning these abhorrent practices.
One of the key points of the summit is to highlight the long-term view of the social benefits to women and girls of bringing an end to these procedures and activities, by providing them with the opportunity to fulfill their true potential in society in their own right rather than be controlled, both physically and socially. The fight against FGM is clearly not just a case of preventing this cruel and appalling practice and the long-term physical and psychological harm it can cause, but coupled with preventing forced early marriage, it is a case of restoring pride and self-esteem, while working towards a point at which girls can look forward to a future with real possibilities of personal development, through making their own fundamental choices about their lives. Pursuing a structured education for instance, should be a right and a viable option rather than having their lives controlled and being led into forced marriage arrangements. When girls and young women in the communities concerned are able to take back control in this way rather than be controlled, the resulting rewards of educational attainment can provide huge benefits to them as well as their whole community, through greater employment opportunities and ultimately greater economic stability.
In the spirit of celebrating the concept of promoting opportunity for women and girls in some of the world’s more challenging cultural environments, and in the spirit of one of main themes of this blog – that is, highlighting where technology, innovation and education are applied to support and improve people’s lives in developing nations – my ‘tribute’ to today’s special event is to look at two recent ‘good news’ stories that focus on the rise of women and girls through technology and education, in South Africa and Kenya.
Digital learning programme for rural Kenyan girls
According to Vincent Matinde’s recent story on the itwebafrica.com website, a project is in place to provide digital learning to 25,000 girls in rural Kenya. ‘Project iMlango’ will provide the necessary computers and high-speed internet needed to connect 195 rural schools so that the girls can be educated within their communities. The scheme is supported by several UK companies (Avanti, sQuid, Whizz Education and Camara Education) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Lynne Featherstone, International Development Minister for DFID is quoted in the article, as she draws a direct connection between the causes of today’s Girl Summit and the planned programme:
“…Education is vital to helping improve the life chances of millions of marginalised girls and protecting them from harmful practices like child and forced marriage…”
The full article can be viewed here:
Rural Kenyan girls to get e-learning boost
http://www.itwebafrica.com/ict-and-governance/256-kenya/233244-rural-kenyan-girls-to-get-e-learning-boost
‘Girls Invent Tomorrow’: Mentoring South African girls in computer skills
A new initiative to provide IT training and computing skills to girls in South Africa has been launched as part of the African EduWeek conference at the Sandron Convention Centre in Johannesburg. As reported in Arthur Goldstruck’s insightful article in the South African Business Daily Live website, the Intel-sponsored ‘Girls Invent Tomorrow’ workshop aims to provide as much emphasis on computer education as to the supply of IT hardware and equipment to schools. Combined with another Intel-backed scheme, the ‘She Will Connect’ project which is committed to bridging the digital divide by expanding the digital literacy skills of young women in emerging countries, the two projects aim to avoid the mistakes made with previous concepts of this nature, where resources were poured in to providing expensive equipment whilst training and educational resources were neglected, resulting in much of the investment in ‘kit’ being wasted and underused.
As quoted in the article, Thabani Khube, corporate affairs director for Intel South Africa explains Intel’s position, rationalising their sense of corporate social responsibility in relation to the aim to prioritise education and training as much as physical investment in technology:
“…Our approach is to change mindsets….In most corporate social investment, technology deployment is about ticking a box and then moving on. At Intel, education is a huge focus in itself…”
The complete article can be viewed here:
SIGN POST: A generation of IT girls on the rise
http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2014/07/20/sign-post-a-generation-of-it-girls-on-the-rise
Benjamin Smith 