MAKING PAKISTANI WOMEN TECH SAVVY

If you have been following me for a while now, then you must have an idea of what this whole thing is about. We started with the idea of making women who are not able to pursue their careers later in life because of several reasons. The result is them getting sidetracked with the booming technologies. So to minimize this, we planned to create a YouTube channel where we will post short 2–4 mins videos of basic daily life tech-related things.

Without further due let’s dig into the activities that have already been done in order to execute our idea.

1. Creation of the curriculum for the YouTube channel

We have designed a whole curriculum keeping in mind all the day to activities that are really important and are necessary to be in touch with. We have also searched and discussed this matter with several women of Pakistan and collected their views on which of the topics they feel that they lack the most in and came up with a list of the following activities:

1. Creation of Gmail account
2. How to install an app from the app store
3. How to operate WhatsApp effectively
4. How to surf the internet and perform R&D in any topic
5. How to download videos from youtube

2. Creation of Facebook Page

Another step that we have taken is to create a Facebook page where we have planned to post all the updates about our channel and to create awareness among our generation in order to tell them to persuade women around them towards the awareness we are trying to create through our channel. Some of the women are also a part of Facebook and we want each and every target audience to become a part of this community on Facebook and get connected with others on this platform just like Soul Sisters Pakistan.

The link to our Facebook page is as follow:

https://www.facebook.com/Tech-Savvy-Women-of-Pakistan-115188800341751

3. Creation of YouTube channel

This step is an integral part of our idea because this is the platform that we have targeted for transforming the women of Pakistan into tech-savvy ones. However, there is still a long way that needs to be covered on this step and we have been making more videos to fill the gap. Currently, our channel has three videos in total in which we have covered the topic of how to install an app from the AppStore and how to create a Gmail account.

The link to our youtube channel is as follow:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQQQPgwPzheos31ETDvwZxQ?app=desktop

4. Creation of Brochures

Our next step is to move door to door and distribute the following brochures that we have created so far. Since we all know that our target audience is not present on the social sites already and they still feel comfortable with the old school methods so in order to create awareness about our platform first we need to distribute flyers and communicate with them one to one.

5. One-on-one sessions to create awareness

We will need to create awareness for this channel by first starting from our own homes. For this purpose, we briefed all of the above to our moms and then asked her to persuade her friends to take part in the cause. We will have to do several drives in the institutions and motivate the daughters of today to ask their moms and their sisters-in-law (especially) to become a part of this channel and this sacred cause.

OUR IMPACT

Since we have just started our campaigns and we have not yet got the time to go door to door so our results are not visionary at the moment. However, from our one-on-one sessions and by arranging small gatherings at our place and pitching our idea we have been able to grab the interest of several women who will be helping us in the arrangement of a community gathering through the mohalla network.

CHALLENGES THAT HINDERED OUR PROGRESS

Who is not aware of the fact that when you plan to create a difference in the society or try to work on an idea there are lots of challenges that come your way and you have to fight them. Similarly, we also came across a lot of challenges that hindered our path to effective progress that we planned earlier.

1. SOP’S OF COVID-19

As this year there was a COVID outbreak, the gathering was banned as per precautionary measures. So, the idea of awareness regarding women empowerment in technology through gathering and social events was not possible.

2. BUSY SCHEDULE OF TARGETED AUDIENCE

The females at home sometimes cannot get the time from their schedule to use the internet and related technology. For this purpose, we list down the advantages of technology like online shopping, access to all over the world, online banking and ATM, etc.,

3. CHALLENGING THE MINDSET GAME

Due to the lack of awareness, most of our target audience believes that technology is a wastage of time. This is the era of technology. Everything is going online but due to bad impact on the society, they think that all type of technical knowledge is the waste of time. There is a fear of technology in some women that it is not good. Sometimes they face the issues regarding account hacks of WhatsApp, Facebook account, etc.,

5. SEVERE TRUST ISSUES

Some have a bad experience with online shopping. The product sale online is not as the quality is shown on site. Several stories about the hacking of WhatsApp accounts and Facebook account etc. have created several trust issues in most of the women of Pakistan.

NEXT STEP

We have got big plans for the success of our idea and a few of the things that I would love to add here about what we have planned for the coming weeks is as follows:

1. Alter the curriculum according to the response that we get from our targeted audience and upload videos on the topics that they wish to get trained on.
2. Create a series of videos on how to do online shopping on our youtube channel. This whole topic involves many things because we can train them on how to shop for clothes online from their favorite brands and how to do grocery shopping online etc.
3. Plan small community gatherings or small meetups where we can pitch about their idea.

4. We plan on making a series of videos on how to do Freelancing and train them how they can earn money online by staying at home. However, this is a vast topic and we are still working on what areas to target in this domain but this is the utmost goal that we are thriving to achieve.

AUTHORS

1. HAFSA QAMAR
2. SAMEER ASLAM
3. ANAM KHAN
4. FARHAN AKHTAR
5. MEESAM MATLOOB