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The illiterate used to be the person who does not know how to read and write;
nowadays the illiterate is the person who ignores how to use computers.
Nada the question is for you.
You said that the program started in Lebanon in 2008,
after it started in Yemen in 2005 and its big success.
What can you say of the status of women after they graduate from your program?
Where are they afterwards?
Actually, the idea started with the Women in Information Technology NGO,
which is an organization that was created by a group of women
in order to take care of the status of women and their relationship with IT,
because it is widely thought that everything related to computers and IT is a male domain.
Consequently, they found that this program is in line with their organizations goals and vision.
Thus, in 2008, under the direction of IIE, Microsoft and MEPI, we started with our partner organization
to talk about what is this program and what are its curriculum and taught topics and skills.
This step was the toughest one,
because we had many women thinking that it is too late or impossible to learn computer usage at their age.
And some women said:
”I feel embarrassed towards my kids because I don’t know anything about computers;
least I want to acquire and be able to develop this skill”,
while others said:
“I want to be able to know and control what my children are accessing on the internet,
I want their safety!”
Also this parental control program is a Microsoft program;
maybe Mr. Ali will talk about it,
and how parents can ensure their children’s’ safety on the internet.
This was our first step in the program.
At the beginning, women were not taking this too seriously;
they doubted that it would teach them much;
however, after they found that they are reaching incredible knowledge and results,
Moreover, I noticed the change.
I met women before and after they took the program and I assure that they whole life changed.
Even if some women are not working or do not want to work,
they are able to apply the new acquired computer and personal skills in their home,
which is in itself a great improvement in the quality of their lives.
You see a 70-year-old woman is chatting with people, friends and relatives or her kids living abroad,
a woman marketing her products and handcrafts through the internet even to other countries like Sweden.
We are helping to eradicate the women’s illiteracy in IT.
In fact, this program started because of statistics performed by MEPI in Middle East and North Africa
concerning the number of computer literate women, which showed to be very low in the region.
Nada, concerning the fact you mentioned that age is not an issue at all,
can you tell me what the age of the youngest and of the older woman that enrolled in your program?
And isn’t the knowledge of English a barrier
knowing that many old women doesn’t know foreign languages?
Our youngest students are around 15 years old and the oldest ones are in the 70’s.
Through Microsoft, the program’s curriculum is available in the world’s languages.
What happens is that, after a woman applies to the program, she passes a small test
in order to able to divide them into groups of the same level,
many feel very embarrassed and shy to be in the same course with people who knows a lot more than them already.
Consequently, through this technique, very homogeneous groups are created
concerning the language they want to take the courses in and concerning their level,
since Microsoft has the curriculum in all languages.
Here, I want to go back to Mr. Haraki.
As Nada mentioned before, you have a special parental control program,
because we all know that these days, even after parents are asleep,
children sneak out to the PC and surf the internet,
without any control to the sites they access.
So what is exactly this program?
What you said is true, and one of the first things we recommend to parents
is to avoid putting the PC in their children’s room,
and leave it in a common room of the house.
This way, they decrease their children’s tendency to access dangerous websites.
We do not want to forbid children, who are curious in nature, of accessing the internet.
We should not repress this curiosity but orient it towards positive things.
Technology, like everything else,
is used by many people for the best of humanity,
while some others try to deviate it from its natural course towards bad things.
Here comes our role of interacting with the parents and the educational institutions
on how to control and orient their children because children doesn’t discern clearly good from evil
and they are nowadays most of the time,
developing stronger computer skills than their parents and previous generations.
without having the maturity to know what is good and what is bad.
Consequently, in our trainings, we do not only try to teach parents how to control their children.
We do not want the parents to act as police officers.
We want the computer experience to be very relaxed and motivating both for the parents and for the children,
in order to avoid that parent’s refuse having internet at their homes to avoid problems.
Because the main goal of the internet is to educate and enlarge the horizons
of the young generation in a way that are always up to date with what is happening in the world
on all the levels and learn from that in order to improve their life.
Miss Basma Alkhatib, as mentioned by Nada,
this program is in many counties in the MENA region.
However, we find it curious to be in Iraq, given the dangerous situation there.
Are there really women interested in learning technology in such hard times, where the only goal maybe is safety?
Safety, of course!
Financial and economical independence are major parts of safety.
We are in a transitional period, and we need it!
This program provides these kinds of independence and gives hope,
knowing that there are no restrictions on the education of women in Iraq,
where women are an active part of the workforce,
, and 70% approximately of the staff of our organizations are women;
however they ignore their rights and they don’t have any mean to improve themselves and their skills,
since we spent 14 years isolated from the world.
It is not only for women, but for everyone,
because, as you said, we have a very difficult situation.
Hence, we have young people, who doesn’t have enough and adequate skills for the market.
However, as an NGO,
with a lot of connections in Iraq, which is Amal association...
In which regions?
We work in Baghdad.
We started in very tough regions such as the city of Al-Sadr and Baghdad fi Alkarrada.
Regions where even men are afraid to go.
At 5.30 there is no one on the streets,
thus timing was a crucial issue.
In Karbalaa’ and in Tikrit,
in 2007
and also in Erbil where the situation is kind of better.
And now, given that the situation is a bit calmer,
we are operating in 5 centers:
Najaf, Karbalaa’, Baghdad, Karkouk…
Active and Important places!
Yes, very and with plenty of women.
Even if their levels are different,
we try as an NGO,
to teach them how to collaborate and help each other’s,
in the spirit of an illiteracy eradication program.
NGO’s are growing in Iraq because the state has plenty of problems
and thus there are no services at all.
we need acknowledgement, support, a database, male and female graduates,
we develop these skills in our program,
not only in our Unlimited potential curriculum, but also in our Personal Development one.
Our network is instilling education!