By APCNews NEW YORK, United States,
Published onPage last updated on
LaNeta is one of APC’s members that is firmly investing in providing information and communication technology (ICT) training. One of its most recent successful experiences had women as the protagonists. Through its MUJEMTIC women empowered by ICTs initiative, LaNeta is providing a response to the “need for common spaces for women to participate, reflect, and raise awareness on ICT and gender issues,” as Olinca Marino, general coordinator of the Mexican organisation stated to APCNews.
Since August 2005, fourteen workshops have been carried out in the nation’s capitol and in other states (Morelos, Chiapas y Michoacán) and the participants thereof were quick to make their enthusiasm known. In LaNeta “there was a special interest for developing women’s programmes […] This is how we responded to a call of ‘Inmujeres’, the federal governments’ National Institute for Women,” recounts Olinca.
Thinking about things together
“This is a special methodology generated among the female colleagues that work at the radio with us,” she continued. Until the fifth workshop, new tools were explored, put to the test and modified. The objective: “to develop an open participation methodology on the use of ICTs by women. [They were designed this way] with dynamics that facilitate reflecting on their experiences, their position as women, vis-à-vis technology,” she explains.
The workshops are supposed to be “for women to practice and think about communication and using the internet”. Reflecting, in particular, although always from a collective perspective, occupied a fundamental role. The women that often frequent these events in order to come closer to technology “wind up constituting a group, identified and aware of their capacity to draw attention to the use of ICTs in organisations and their personal lives,” adds Olinca.
Calling on women to participate in the workshops was not difficult. These types of meeting and reflection spaces are, in fact, very valuable to them. Through the radio programme of SIPAM (Integral health for women -Salud integral para la mujer – www.sipam.org.mx), a LaNeta user organisation that works on sexual and reproductive health issues, made the first announcement. “With a half hour programme we got a group together,” she recounts.
Time to take stock
At the end of June 2006, the moment arrived to take stock. LaNeta collaborator Sylvia Baringer shared the experience of the closing conference -workshop and the MUJEMTIC evaluation that took place at the LaNeta premises in Mexico City.
“The participants [of these events] were very happy to see their colleagues again or meet women from other workshops, and to exchange their experiences in the use of ICTs and share what they had learned,” tells Sylvia.
She compiled various eloquent testimonies on what participating in the workshops meant for them. “Before we were afraid and had many doubts, now we are more confident in the technical management of a computer, and because of that, we are more confident in ourselves, we feel more secure with computers and have more experience,” noted one of the participants.
Free software awoke the interest of many of them who proposed putting together a support network for users. “During the workshop we became familiar with more and better tools like Mozilla and with more possibilities that we had never heard before,” highlighted one of the attendees. They expressed their interest in participating in graphic design courses, web design and databases, always using free software tools.
The meeting was a valuable opportunity to explore the possibilities for information and expression that internet radio offers. A member of SIPAM offered a chat about radio-related activities that are being carried out for women.
“During this information block, the participants became aware of how they can listen to the radio via internet (as well as other types of audio files). They also completed an activity to produce a capsule with their own voices. The women listened to the segment on radio projects, women and internet in Latin America with great interest,” concluded Sylvia.
From the discussion and problematisation of the image of women that the network offers, to using navigators and search engines, these workshops demonstrated, once again, that women have a lot to say and to tell each other about subjects related to information and communication technologies.
