ZOO Memorial Foundation’s work helps develop, connect and transform communities, empowering women to fully engage in digital technology and the opportunities it brings. This access benefits not only the women but also their families and wider society. In 2019, 70% of those ZOO served were women, and through the Sera Program, women have access to a friendly, open environment that encourages learning and sharing ideas.
Digital training is essential for women to get small businesses off the ground and fully participate in a world that is becoming ever more digitally focused. ZOO’s women-focused programs create a safe environment in which to learn and develop new skills and confidence to assert themselves in digital spaces. This is essential as communication digitally connects not just businesses with customers, but families and friends too.
The importance of the internet and modern technology is difficult to understate. Mix in a global pandemic that heavily limits free movement for people all over the world, it becomes impossible to understate.
The importance of the internet and modern technology is difficult to understate. Mix in a global pandemic that heavily limits free movement for people all over the world, it becomes impossible to understate.
The convenience of computer and internet access in offering key services is at the front and center of people’s daily lives, as offices and even schools begin to close and limit in-person access, which has to prompt the question; what if I didn’t have a computer? What then? This, unfortunately, is a reality for many in rural and marginalized communities, and has been coined as the digital divide. The digital divide – characterized by a gap between information-haves and information-have-nots – is an imbalance based on more than just issues of access. Often, the digital divide is evidenced by a cultural divide – which is a split in socio-economic structures and psychologies between communities. It is within these splits that the digital divide stands more prominently, as a community’s views and values surrounding technology, which are affected by socio-economic circumstances, would stand as the first barrier to entry for most.
For instance, low access rates could be attributed to affordability, which stems from an urban bias, leading to sparse and limited digital infrastructure in underdeveloped and rural areas. Often this creates income gaps between developed and underdeveloped communities, sometimes forcing people living in rural areas to move away to find opportunities. Who gets to move is however, a gendered issue, as rural women – who are generally restricted in their ability to own land, paid low wages on top of the general income gap and are often single parents due to men migrating – are not afforded such opportunities. Their time is often spent recovering from these hits through pre-established avenues (such as agriculture), building up sentiments of those things are for clever people and men. I don’t have time for such things. Ultimately, access is afforded through time; time to understand how to operate devices, time to understand digital languages, time to build enough capital to own devices and reliable internet sources.
‘…those things are for clever people and men. I don’t have time for such things…’ – If cultural disparities are not considered, aspirations of universal access will remain obscured.
Unequal gender access to digital technologies is still present in urban areas as well. Research from the World Wide Web Foundation, localizes the problem to Kenya, showing that only 20% of women in Kibera have access to the internet as opposed to 57% of men. This is a reflection of stagnant gender roles existing widely within communities, where women are not afforded much autonomy socially and economically as compared to men. In urban communities, this leads to women being excluded from the digital innovations that urban areas benefit from such as M-Pesa, which provides a safe money transferring method to its users.
The digital divide is often described as a temporary issue; within X amount of years and with Y new developments, we can fully eradicate it. But if cultural disparities are not considered, aspirations of universal access will remain obscured. Inevitably, technology will leave people behind. In a pandemic, these issues gain a deeper sense of urgency, with women in under-served communities potentially losing access to important resources and innovative technologies that can help improve their conditions, such as access to healthcare and government services or educational materials. It is in this way, that working towards digital empowerment should provide more than just access to information, but seek to improve local conditions and build communicative cultures and identities as well. During the pandemic, this means introducing new modes of interaction and adaptation to communities that need them.
How ZOO Memorial Foundation brings digital empowerment to marginalized communities
ZOO Memorial Foundation looks beyond the digital divide and into the cultural divide, attempting to transform communities through not only tackling digital inequalities but by providing equal gender access and knowledge of digital tools and platforms.
Through collaboration with grassroots organizations, ZOO has set up 10 digital labs in rural and underserved communities across Kenya – a good starting point at directly combating the digital divide. They established their first community digital lab in 2009, where the contentious gap began to seep through – as over 90% of visitors to the lab were male. 1% of women benefited from the digital training, with most of them only visiting for complementary services (such as photocopying). From this it was clear – just having a computer was not enough.
The first group of women trained at one of ZOO’s women-focused digital labs.
To tackle the social and gender exclusions created by digital and cultural divides, ZOO’s Women in Sustainable Enterprise (WISE) – established in 2017 – and Golden Girls Foundation – established in 2015 – train women and girls on basic and advanced computer skills – leading into areas involving coding and web development. Women and girls are being given the opportunity to actively participate in the information society, which empowers them and provides agency to their trajectories. They also utilize their digital platforms to offer training in a variety of areas ranging from agriculture to finance. This way, women are provided more than just the ability to understand digital languages, they can also apply these skills in their daily lives and current jobs. In the case of rural Kenyan women who tend to work in agriculture, this gives them the opportunity to lift themselves from their positions as they are now capable of not only expanding their range of knowledge in agriculture through digital information structures but can also apply digital innovations to help improve their work. The Golden Girls Foundation digital lab was established in the same village as the 2009 lab, and saw an incredible increase in women’s participation with 91% of adults served being women. Similar exercises are conducted in their other digital labs such as Dr. Robert Ouko Primary School and Nyakoko Secondary School to name a few.
ZOO’s digital labs have served over 30,000 people since 2009. In a Covid-19 reality, they adapted quickly and equipped their digital labs with laptops and webcams allowing for remote learning for beneficiaries.
ZOO provides a solid framework towards eradicating not only the digital divide but the cultural divide too, one that still can be strengthened and improved upon. The work of ZOO is against separatism and calls for a collective anti-exclusion stance, which requires your help. Become a partner or contribute to ZOO’s mission through donations and directly impact the lives of women and children living in excluded communities. This type of dialogue and action around social relations is important and something each of us should be a part of.
Switching on a computer is empowerment. Learning how to use the internet creates confidence. Training in computer coding could be life-changing. But for many women and girls across the world, these opportunities are out of reach because…
Switching on a computer is empowerment. Learning how to use the internet creates confidence. Training in computer coding could be life-changing. But for many women and girls across the world, these opportunities are out of reach because of the digital-gender divide. The divide is the product of social, cultural and economic factors affecting women and men’s access to information and technology.
Access to the digital world is increasingly vital and ZOO Memorial Foundation, a small non-profit in Kenya, is working to address this divide. Narrowing the gap will bring social and economic benefits not only to women and girls but also to the local and wider communities they live in. During the COVID-19 global pandemic, there is a danger that the divide will become even more pronounced. Women and girls could suffer as business and social contact are fully relegated to the digital sphere, and without access, many will find themselves isolated and unable to work.
Why does the divide exist?
In some communities, it is harder for women and girls to become computer literate than for men and boys. There are many reasons for this including:
Reduced access to education,
A lack of confidence to interact with technology,
Stereotypes of this being a “masculine” activity.
In societies with a strong patriarchal structure, this view discourages women and girls from engaging.
This causes a lack of confidence as girls and women do not gain the necessary skills to engage with technology and in turn cannot pass on knowledge and encouragement to the younger generation. The impact of the digital-gender divide means that women can’t contribute fully to or innovate in economies which rely increasingly on technology and the internet to develop and grow.
Combatting the digital-gender divide
The ZOO Memorial Foundation, in partnership with Women in Sustainable Enterprise (WISE), is equipping women in disadvantaged communities with skills and technology to combat the increasing digital-gender divide due to COVID-19. The not-for-profit organisation empowers communities and schools by bringing the power of digital technology through open access to equipment, skills, and opportunities. Women make up 70% of adult users. ZOO Memorial Foundation encourages women by providing them with inclusive environments in which to learn and develop digital skills.
WISE organisation near Lake Victoria received digital equipment and training from the ZOO Memorial Foundation, benefitting from a women-only environment which allowed their confidence to grow. The training highlighted opportunities presented through digital literacy by teaching coding and web design skills. ZOO’s courses involve each stage of learning how to use digital technology, from switching on a monitor to using the internet. This knowledge that many take for granted is the foundation on which women can innovate and support themselves and their families.
This knowledge that many take for granted is the foundation on which women can innovate and support themselves and their families.
During the coronavirus crisis, this work has been more significant than ever. Carol Odera, the founder of WISE, has worked in partnership with ZOO to reconcile the digital-gender divide and spoke about her experience. WISE works with women within the fishing communities of Lake Victoria to engage them in sustainable enterprise, including agribusiness, green energy and ecotourism. Information Communication Technology (ICT) is significant in this, as Odera commented, ‘for any enterprise to succeed ICT and digital platforms must be at the centre of it all’. She also emphasised the importance of leadership skills and confidence that WISE encourages in conjunction with IT training and sustainable business development. When asked her view on the connection between learning digital skills and building confidence, Odera affirmed, ‘learning ICT skills shows people how leadership has been redefined. You can be a leader in ICT or you can be a leader in business, having mastered a few skills in the ICT space.’
WISE and ZOO are working to provide ICT training and women’s development in the local community through their Hub training sessions. It is the only place in the community which provides such training and with trainers who speak the local language. Odera emphasises the significance of this as ‘most of the technical language around computers is taught in English, but women who don’t speak English still need to learn how to use a computer.’ The women only training sessions have also allowed women to see ‘how leadership is redefined’, according to Odera. She commented, ‘you can be a leader in ICT or you can be a leader in business, having mastered a few skills in the ICT space.’
Dunga Beach, Kisumu
Working with ZOO has meant WISE can focus on women and girls’ development as well as encouraging computer literacy. Odera recalls how fundamental ICT skills were developed in the training sessions, explaining how women were taught basic skills necessary for business communication and to market their products and services, including social media skills. For Odera, it is also important to ‘break the fear of facing a computer for the first time.’ This element highlights the impact the partnership between ZOO and WISE made on women and how they interact with technology. Currently, WISE and ZOO run training sessions on how to use Zoom to communicate for women who may never have used the platform before. When asked how WISE has dealt with the impact of COVID-19, which has sparked such training sessions, Odera sees a positive outcome for her organisation, commenting, ‘once we explain [to the women] that this is what the future is going to look like and this is how they are going to start talking to customers, then they understand and then they get involved.’ Running training via Zoom has also reduced the cost of transporting trainers in to teach, and the only essential being the cost of fast internet.
When asked about the future of WISE, Carol Odera plans to expand: ‘we only have one Hub in one fishing village, so my plan would be to have more Hubs around the lake region for women and girls. But I also want to help women to be more confident to take up the training because COVID has shaped the way things are being done right now. And no one is talking about it on the women’s level and in their language. So, we need to be able to preach this narrative to sensitize women to the future of work and why they need to start using technology and ICT.’
WISE Women Carol Odera (Far Right) – WISE Founder, with her team at the WiseHub. Background Image: Dunga Beach, Kisumu. The WISE Hub is the only local hub in the village allowing most of the women and girls to now show interest in information communication technology, ICT. ZOO Memorial Foundation works to create digital spaces in rural and underserved Kenyan communities like Dunga in Kisum
Looking forward
The digital-gender divide is growing as we enter an increasingly technological age. As the coronavirus crisis emphasises the importance of digital communication and working online, initiatives like those supported by the ZOO Memorial Foundation are essential to narrow the gap.
Many of us enjoy the privilege of constant easy access to technology. We must use this privilege to continue the conversation and raise awareness of this issue. The ZOO Memorial Foundation is a small grassroots organisation working to make a tangible difference in challenging environments where the gender-digital divide is prominent. It builds digital community projects and has been operating for over ten years. ZOO’s goal to connect communities to the digital age is ongoing and will have a long-term positive effect. This is significant because of all the projects and training launched by the organisation, 76% of those who benefit are children.
So how can you help? Support ZOO and local organisations through donations; this funding will support local communities and empower women and girls. Without our support the digital gender divide will grow wider following the coronavirus pandemic, causing further societal inequality which affects us all as global citizens.
How computer training in women-only spaces is tackling the digital-gender divide
