TelNek is essentially a tele centre, with the primary objective
of educating rural women and children. By educating the
rural women in particular and the rural mass in general
in the skills of Information and Communication Technology
it enhances their employability, besides conferring many
other intangible benefits. When they are empowered to procure
jobs within the rural set up they dwell in, it further reduces
urban migration.
Background:
Our TelNek was a pilot project 4 years ago. It was immensely
supported and funded for the first 2 years by GAIA (Cluster
of Telecommunications) in the Basque Region,
as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies.
It is situated at Bidadi (39kms from Bangalore), on the
Mysore highway. The Information Technology boom had and
has confined itself to the urban setup and the rural areas
seem to be relegated to the background.
The project is oriented towards providing IT education
to women, with the intent of providing a platform for ICT
based employment.
Though it would be something to wonder as to why a computer
center as a tool for community development we would like
to emphasize that some our findings led us to establish
this computer center besides today it has evolved into a
community center.
Some of the prominent findings among
the many were as under:
Though there were a spate of computer donation programmes
to government schools in rural areas the execution of
these programmes was questionable
The children could access these computers in the government
schools, for not more than two and half minutes
The teachers themselves were provided training in programmes
which when taught to the children in turn has no use for
the children. The need based approach was lacking in the
teacher training
Most members of the community had basic degrees but
due to lack of essential computer skills they were unable
to procure desired jobs. Also Bidadi is a highly industrialized
town with some of the big names such as Coca Cola, Pepsi,
Toyota Kirloskar and many more companies have manufacturing
units in Bidadi and hence the opportunity of finding jobs
within Bidadi is high.
Training in New Information & Communication Technology
Raising Employability and Income Levels
Self Reliant
Reduce Urban Migration
Reduce Digital Exclusion by promoting local language
in teaching medium
Bridge the Digital Divide
Participation of the Community
Bring Positive Social Transformation
Networking with other such projects
Milestones of the community:
Since the start of the project we have reached a long way.
The change agent that the center intended to be has been
achieved and we will continue our efforts towards empowering
the community for the betterment of their lives. Today it
is indeed heart warming to witness more and more parents
bringing their daughters to the center who previously were
unaware of the existence of computers.
The women who walk out of our center are much more empowered
individuals, than when they walked into the center. These
are the same women that were previously not even allowed
to switch on the television in their own homes. It gives
us immense pleasure to see women gain momentum in supporting
their families due to the heightened empowerment feeling.
Also they now command respect among the family members.
Some of them have turned entrepreneurs as well. Three women
together have set up their own shop for mobile repair. One
of them has started a DTP center and another, photo studio.
Number of students who pursued higher studies: 50%
Number of vocational training programmes: 10
Number who started their own business enterprise: 2%
The future of Tel-Nek:
Now that we've established our center and won the trust
of the community we wish to implement many more programmes
be it in the health sector, employment within our center,
kiosks with the vital internet connections for the farmers
and the artists.
However the lack of resources is still proving to be a
detrimental factor which we will overcome in time to come.
We wish to add the pre-requisite element of sustainability
to the center, since the funds injected now into the center
are personal funds. We wish to convert the center into an
income generating center for it to function as a self sustainable
center, wherein it will function smoothly while also creating
a corpus for implementation of many more projects.
Do you wish to lend us a helping hand in bridging the divide?
ion,
as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies.
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