Earlier this month, I attended the Intel She Will Connect Program for Women in Media and right there, I was presented with staggering facts, in relation to the female gender especially. No, don’t roll your eyes. Yes, a lot of conversations have been ongoing about that aspect of society and as topical as I think they are, I’d rather talk about the actual issues; the root of majority of problems we vent about on social media. Education, Internet education. You would be surprised to know that the people for whom activism and twitter trends are generated haven’t remotely seen or even touched a computer system, talk less of a Twitter or Facebook app.
According to Intel Corporate Affairs manager Babatunde Akinola, for every 7 persons on the internet, only 3 are women and Intel wants so badly to change that statistic and bring (digital) development to Africa, and to say they have it all figured out will be a gross understatement. My presence at the workshop coupled with an exclusive chat with Country Managing Director, Intel West Africa, Mr Olubunmi Ekundare left me very impressed!
The Intel She Will Connect Program which was first launched in 2013 in the USA is a virtual and physical platform that incorporates digital literacy with gender and development targeting women and girls. Its introduction to Africa (Nigeria) was inspired by Intel’s objective as a global brand whose ‘job’ takes them outside their local community, saw the need to just bridge the gap between digitally literate men and women plus the fact that the internet penetration in Nigeria is at a low 11% compared to 15% in Ghana and 12% in Kenya.
On whether or not digital literacy affects our development as a nation, Akinola had this to say, “here at Intel, we believe that smart girls are the equivalent of a smart world. What we seek to do is to do their best in school and seize the opportunity to build a world where youth are inspired to be advocates for change.”
The question of how they ‘recruit’ beneficiaries arises. Intel does not work alone on the program. There are partners; partners who I got to meet. Partners who are as passionate as Intel is, about educating and enlightening the female gender opportunities available on the internet.
Oreoluwa Lesi, founder of Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), whose aim is to provide technology education for Nigerian women and girls so that they use ICT effectively for leisure, work and activism spoke to us about how they are partnering with Intel on the She Will Connect program by engaging girls and women in learning technology in a creative and fun manner. She shed light on the two week camping program that is organized where women and girls learn the basic computer skills and how some have even advanced to creating useful apps that hope to be marketed and used on every smartphone in Nigeria and the rest of the world.
Another Intel She Will Connect program partner is the Youth For Technology foundation (YTF). A foundation that believes that access to technology and education should be a basic human right. YTF partner with Intel through their work in rural and peri-urban communities by disregarding challenges people in these areas face, from poverty to geographical disconnection from urban areas, by reaching out to school-age girls, youth and women in developing programs that use technology to fight poverty, stimulate entrepreneurship and teach life skills.