Digital Empowerment Foundation and Facebook’s mentorship programme Going Online As Leaders (GOAL) is ready to roll out its first phase of implementation across five Indian states namely- Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. The programme that uses virtual interface for mentoring young girls from rural and tribal communities, especially from backward and aspirational…
Geda Bai Sen, from Bijawar distict, Madhya Pradesh always used to be wary of using smartphones and accessing the internet as well. Even though she was very interested in tailoring, it used to be difficult for her to try new designs. In order to learn the techniques of new and complicated designs, sometimes she would…
The idea with which Smartpur was initiated is being reflected in the on-field activities taking place across the 100 Smartpur centres. The entrepreneurs who were associated with Smartpur have started developing the skill of entrepreneurship in the truest sense. They are no more restricting their services to their specific villages and now focus on growing…
What does reading mean for a critical society? A lot! In the latest edition of Digital Empowerment Foundation’s (DEF) dialogue session DEFdialogue with author and public library movement activist Mridula Koshy, importance of free libraries and reading spaces—especially for the children—was highlighted. “A vast majority of people in India have never been invited to read;…
The adolescent girls in the 100 Smartpur villages had on no occasion imagined to be sitting in a group and discussing menstruation and hygiene practices and how to break the stereotype. Having never talked about the pain or the discomfort with the closest of friends, all of them were hesitant to begin a conversation about…