From rgoyal@learningpartnership.org Sun Jun 11 12:46:04 2000
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 13:21:27 -0400
From: Rakhee Goyal
Reply-To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
Subject: [GKD] Women's Learning Partnership
Dear Members of GKD,
I would like to introduce to you the Women's Learning Partnership for
Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP). We are an international NGO that
aims to advance communication and cooperation among women of the world
in order to protect human rights, facilitate sustainable development,
and promote peace. We work toward advancing gender equity, and we
believe that modern ICTs are among the most effective means to enhance
women's leadership capabilities. We focus on creating culture-specific
multimedia education training materials for radio, video/TV, CD-ROM, and
the Internet. We provide these materials and other tools to women's NGOs
to help advance women's participation in decision-making processes.
Our Focus 2000 program aims to support expansion of women's leadership
in Muslim societies, and ICTs can help women in Muslim societies obtain
culturally-relevant information and communicate with others. The program
will:
- respect and respond to indigenous cultures in the design of
educational materials
- establish a nexus between modern ICTs and local sociocultural
structures
- link grassroots NGOs with regional and global information networks.
We believe it is important to recognise that:
1. Only 4% of the Internet users in the Arab States are women (compared
with women as 7% of the Internet users in China, 17% in South Africa,
17% in Japan, and 38% in US).
2. By 2001, there will be 700 million women online.
3. By 2001 there will be more than 150 million new Internet users
globally, of whom half will be women.
4. The number of Internet users in the Arab world are doubling every
year. By 2003, there will be some 12 million Internet users.
5. The Internet community in the Arab world is overwhelmingly dominated
by men.
6. There are 32,000 Internet users in Morocco, most of whom are young
well-educated men.
7. Internet access in Lebanon increased by over 60% in 1999.
In response to these conditions, we held a conference last week, in
preparation for the Beijing Plus 5 activities beginning June 5. The
conference, "Cultural Boundaries and Cyber Spaces: Innovative Tools and
Strategies for Strengthening Women's Leadership in Muslim Societies"
drew women from the Middle East and North Africa, and other Muslim
societies. During the conference, the participants, predominantly women,
discussed the wide range of ways that ICTs are being used to strengthen
women's leadership and women's options around the world. We also
examined the importance of building women's capacity to develop content
for ICTs that is culturally sensitive and reflects women's aims and
values. The outcomes of the conference are being developed into a short
educational video.
If you would like more information about WLP's efforts in this area,
please contact us at mailto:wlp@learningpartnership.org.
Sincerely,
Rakhee
Rakhee Goyal
Research and Technology Director
Women's Learning Partnership
Web: www.learningpartnership.org
From pipello@home.com Sun Jun 11 12:48:36 2000
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 08:11:05 -0700
From: Craig and/or Marilyn
Reply-To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
Subject: [GKD] Empowering Women's Leadership Through ICTs
Greetings,
I refer you to some programs and materials that we are designing in
order to promote youth leadership through the use of technology. One of
these courses addresses empowerment of young women and is called GenGIT
<http://genyes.org/gengit/index.html>. My colleague, Craig Costello and
I have been teaching this course to adolescent girls for the last four
years in Olympia, Washington. We have recently received a grant from
the Intel Corporation to disseminate this course to other schools in our
area. Furthermore, we have developed an organization (GenYES) that is
developing the materials and disseminating this course nationwide.
There is nothing, however, that precludes us from reaching a world
market. The delivery methods and content can be adapted to meet the
cultural and social needs of particular areas. Please visit our very
informative web page and feel free to contact me for further information.
Both my husband and I have been educators for the last 30 years. We
bring with us a wealth of knowledge and experience in writing and
delivering K-12 courses.
Sincerely,
Marilyn Piper, educator
marilyn@genyes.org
http://www.genyes.org
Olympia, Washington 98501