Rural Technology Centres for Young Womenin Disadvantaged Indian Communities

This document was prepared by the Malian Foundation Consulting Services Program for the usage of the Goodwill Social Work Centre. The Malian Foundation is an Australian non-profit organization which provides free products and services catering to the needs of charitable causes worldwide. The Foundation focuses on supplying management consulting services and technology solutions while circumventing the costs put forth by for-profit consulting firms to cash-strapped charitable causes. The Foundation operates two programs, the Empowering Communities Program and the Consulting Services Program, both of which are offered without charge. To find out more about the Foundation, please visit www.malianfoundation.org. All rights reserved by the author(s) of this work unless specifically directed otherwise in writing. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the Malian Foundation and the document author(s) provide this document on an ‘as is’ basis without any warranty or fitness implied. The author(s) and the Malian Foundation shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the material contained within this document.

About the Project Partners

The Goodwill Social Work Centre The Goodwill Social Work Centre, a professional social work organization deeply committed to the development of children, youth and women was founded by a professionally trained Social Worker in November 1981. It is located in the temple city of Madurai, India with the prime objective of performing a wide spectrum of roles in the development of children, youth and women and undertaking a comprehensive action through professional approach with a preventive, curative and rehabilitative perspective. It aims at utilizing positively the scientific methods of Social Work for problem identification, problem solving and problem prevention for the multifaceted development of children, youth and women who are at a disadvantage.

Contact Information The Goodwill Social Work Centre 5 South Street Extension Singarayar Colony Madurai 625002 India ℡ +91 (0452) 253 1175

chriskan@satyam.net.in www.goodwillsocialwork.org

The Malian Foundation The Malian Foundation is a not-for-profit organization which provides products and services catering to the needs of charitable causes worldwide. Causes supported by the Malian Foundation are wide ranging in the spirit of the Foundation's aims of "sharing our hopes and living our dreams". Examples include dog shelters, churches, universities and multi-national organizations. The Foundation operates two programs, the Empowering Communities Program and the Consulting Services Program, both of which are offered without charge. The Empowering Communities Program of the Foundation focuses on the common issues surrounding non-profit organizations such as volunteer management, fundraising, fiscal management, strategic planning and donor relations. To assist clients better manage these issues, management and software tools are provided. The Consulting Services Program compliments the products and services offered within the Empowering Communities Program by providing 'one on one' assistance to charitable organizations. Contact Information The Malian Foundation 133 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia ℡ +61 2 9431 5343

www.malianfoundation.org

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Project Overview

The Goodwill Social Work Centre, in partnership with Malian Foundation Consulting Services, proposes to establish Rural Community Technology Centres targeting young women in low to moderate income communities in the city of Madurai located within South India. The project aims to empower young women with technology skills to strengthen local Indian villages. It is estimated that within a span of three years, the project will have benefited over one thousand young women. Using the skills they have acquired, the girls can achieve financial independence by seeking work in word processing, database preparation and office management which are opportunities plentiful in the area.

A high proportion of young women in rural areas do not have any opportunity to acquire computer skills which is important to both the educational process and a significant contributor to achieving positive career outcomes. The project aims to empower young women with technology skills by providing Microsoft Office and computer programming training, dispensing information technology career guidance and providing encouragement for further education.

The Rural Community Technology Centres will adopt open learning methodologies and facilitate an intensive ‘hands on’ experience. Focus areas will include word processing, database management, internet skills and graphic design.

The project will target girls who belong to Dalit communities which are socially oppressed classes in India, young women whose parents work in primary sectors such as agriculture and young women in dysfunctional families. It is expected around one thousand young women will benefit from The Rural Community Technology Centre within the first three years of its operation.

Rural Technology Centres for Young Women in Disadvantaged Indian Communities 4/6 The Goodwill Social Work Centre & The Malian Foundation Consulting Services Program

Further Project Information Project Sustainability The Rural Community Technology Centre will offer special educational courses and programs to children, youth and adults who can afford to pay fees. Various ICT courses namely Language Master, Microsoft Office, Introductory Visual Basic 6 and a Certificate in Design and Animation will be conducted on a regular basis to generate income to meet administrative and maintenance costs of The Rural Community Technology Centre. Nominal fees will be charged for each course and program. Project Methodology The Rural Community Technology Centre will identify young women in the age group of fifteen to thirty and collect baseline information about the target population in the project areas. The Rural Community Technology Centre will design courses and learning objectives in introduction to computers, word processing, spreadsheets and the Internet. The strategies will include classroom teaching and exercises, class tests, hands-on training and field placement training. The project will be implemented in the following phases:

Community mapping to identify interests and needs of prospective Participants Establishing a Community Technology Centres for girls and young adult women coming

from villages and backward areas in the peri-urban region. Plan for operational needs-space, hardware, software, furniture, and furnishings,

Personnel for the CTC etc. Designing curricula for various ICT courses and programs Enrolment of girls and young women Conducting a demographic survey Pre assessment of Technology use and skills of girls and young women Initiating ICT programs for girls and young women Post assessment survey of the sampled population attending Community Technology

Centre Documentation and Research reporting

Project Timetable The project will span thirty-six months. The initial four months will be spent setting up the Rural Community Technology Centre by enrolling young women, purchasing equipment and designing learning materials. The next twenty eight months will be spent on the implementation of the program. The final two months will then be dedicated to reviewing the effectiveness of the project. Project Outputs The project will train one thousand young women in the age group of fifteen to thirty five in basic computer skills. The participants will acquire different skills namely usage of Microsoft Office, databases, programming and the usage of the internet. Further, the Rural Community Technology Centre will work in collaboration with local governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in locating appropriate volunteer work. The trainees will develop knowledge competencies and applicable skills in information and communication technology and will be equipped with different computer skills which would provide them with employment opportunities and advance economically in today’s digital economy. The Rural Community Technology Centre will seek accreditation for the computer training courses and programs from the Ministry of Human Resources Development within the Government of India. The accreditation will be valuable to the participants in securing a personal loan from a financial institution and when applying for technology-related employment opportunities. Project Monitoring and Evaluation The assessment methods will be “project-based” that is to say each participant will print out a copy of a document she has worked on as an evidence that she has met the learning objectives for the various computer literacy training courses and programs. The evaluation methodologies will include a checklist of tasks that participant print outs out, in-class exercises and production of a document showing the different skills learned. Various instruments such as a demographic survey, pre and post assessment survey, generic member survey and participant satisfaction questionnaire will also be used to elicit information from the target groups.

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Project Scalability and Reliability The Rural Community Technology Centre will use evaluation instruments to measure the impact of computer literacy training on the participants. Since the proposed project will be an innovative one, which is first of its kind in Madurai region of South India, it is proposed to expand the activities and to replicate it to more villages to cater for demands of many more young women who could benefit. Project Staffing The project will be managed by Emeritus Professor Daniel and Professor Christopher. The Rural Community Technology Centre will appoint full-time ICT Professionals and Trainers on a contract basis to conduct the programs and activities for the beneficiaries. The terms and conditions of employment will be determined accordingly. Partnerships In addition to the Malian Foundation, the Goodwill Social Work Centre will also partner with commercially run Computer Education Centres and Web Browsing Centres. Feedback and guidance will be sought from the Departments of Information Technology attached with Colleges of Engineering at Madurai. This project partnership with local ICT institutions and resource centres will also assist in finding employment opportunities for the beneficiaries. Benefits Since empowerment of young women is a crucial pre-requisite for sustainable development, ICT is considered as one of the most powerful weapons in the empowerment process. The project will benefit young women, which will generate acceptable investment returns through their active participation in the workplace. It will benefit young women in learning different computer skills and providing a range of new employment opportunities previously unavailable to them. The project will also allow local non-governmental organizations to benefit from volunteer work provided by students completing the program. Impact Girls and young women in low and moderate income communities in villages will be empowered with technology skills and usage in a community based setting. The intensive program will enable them to acquire applicable technology skills to advance economically and compete professionally in today’s digital economy.

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Three year budget

Capital equipment

10 x Computers with P4, 128 MB RAM, 40GB HDD, 15” Color Monitor, CD-ROM, Multi-media, Keyboard, Mouse modem & general configuration as required.

HP Laser Printer 3 x UPS 3KVA/5KVA 2 x Air-Conditioner Furniture & Light fixtures 7 x Over Head Projector Umax Scanner 9 x Technical Books Licensed Software Packages: Windows 2000/NT, Ms-Office, Turbo

C, Turbo C++, Visual Studio, Oracle, SQL, PhotoShop, Flash, AutoCAD 2000, 3Dstudio Max, Dream Weaver, Java, MSDN, Anti-virus tools, etc.

Lease amount for office premises as advance Purchase of a four wheeler Van for village visits.

120,000 35,000 55,000 70,000 400,000 35,000 39,000 60,000

300,000 200,000 900,000

Salaries

Project Coordinator 2 x ICT Trainers Social Researcher 2 x Secretarial Staff Auditor fees for three years Miscellaneous expenses such as data collection, field visits to rural

communities, statistical analysis labour costs and stationery printing.

252,000 360,000 162,000 288,000 40,000 150,000

Total cost in Indian rupees 3,466,000