[Ict4ruralwomeninafrica] Introduction

[Maren Landschulze]

Dear all,

my name is Maren and I specialize in Gender/new ICTs/agriculture & 
resources management.

For a couple of month I worked as a volunteer computer trainer / gender 
trainer in an ICTs project in a small rural community in the Domincan 
Republic. People there set up a small hydroelectric turbine and a computer 
center with an Internet connection.

The computers and the Internet are mainly used by the children and youth of 
the village (for educational purposes and for communication with peers in 
other regions or countries) and a few adults use the Internet for 
retrieving agricultural and other rural development related information, 
for communication by e-mail etc.

At a certain age, young women seem to drop out of the computer lessons 
because of early marriage and increasing family work, while their male 
peers acquire more computer skills and chat with friends.
Many adults are semi-literate or even illiterate which is of course a major 
barrier to accessing the new technology. Again, women are less likely to 
attend e.g. computer classes a) because of their time constraints and b) a 
lack of content and discussion forums etc.  that meets local needs. There 
is little incentive for both men and women to learn how to use the Internet 
if there is no content that makes it worth the effort.

I am now investigating on information and communication needs in the 
community (focusing on agriculture and environmental issues) and 
possibilities of making the Internet work for these needs in a 
gender-sensitive way.

Challenges are e.g.
- the generally low educational level
- womens time constraints
- no efforts on the regional or country level to use the Internet for 
development purposes - although the telecommunication infrastructure in the 
Dominican Republic is improving and more communities receive hardware as 
virtual aulas, containers with computers and Internet connection
- therefore no websites or  discussion spaces for rural women.
- To the best of my knowledge no attempts to combine Internet with rural 
radio.

I feel this is already a long intro but I could send some more information 
on first results if needed. I am looking forward to sharing experiences and 
ideas here.

Warm regards

Maren Landschulze