Women at Web Tanzania is implementing a three months intensive program that intends to build capacity, nurture and turn into safe online space diplomats (SOS Diplomats) twenty (20) young women who will act as ambassadors during and right after the program. This mentorship program has been programed in a way that enhances your knowledge, skills and personal brand The Women at Web network wants to ensure that women, especially in urban and semi-urban areas, can navigate the internet more competently and securely while accessing available opportunities. The mentorship program is an ongoing initiative that started with the Jeshi la Dada as the first group. The SOS Diplomats are the second group of the initiative of creating a number of young women who are ambassadors of enhancing women participation online. From the lessons learned from the first group, we have enhanced and improved the group for more impact, value and effectiveness to the cause.
Approach of selection
The approach of selection was through a call for applications through an online ad and application process that run for 6 days and we got 88 applications where we selected 20 participants with three dropouts, having failed to report. The attributes were dependent on their social media presence and etiquettes. We need an active group of Diplomats who would truly play their role as ambassadors by being reliably active online.
The Mentorship Goal
The aim is to increase the overall digital literacy among women and empower them to remain in online spaces and access available online opportunities through,
- Equipping the young women with the knowledge about Digital Skills, Basic laws and regulations affecting the cyberspace.
- Equipping the young women with the knowledge of dealing and overcoming online gender-based violence.
- Assist in branding and re-branding them by sharing their journey through storytelling, sharing their insights and experiences as well as voice out what is to be done to enhance women participation online so that at the end of the training they will be able to have myriad of opportunities offered by the internet.
- Nurturing and creating a strong network of protective sister-hood in support of each other.
Mentorship Program Approach
The program will comprise extensive group discussions, Brown Bag Conversations and experience sharing by participants. Pre- and post- workshop evaluations will be conducted by both participants and trainers. The program outline will encompass rebranding, career growth and development of all the participants. With internal trainers and a collaboration of external trainers in the space, the program will involve the following.
- 3 day of Focus Group Discussion (Online and Offline)
- 6 days of Intensive Training (Online and Offline)
- Rotation of participating on a monthly recorded discussion on thematic topic. Each participant will get at least an opportunity to be part of the recorded discussion.
- Digital Story-telling of the participants
- Monthly follow-up virtual meetings
Final Remarks
Tech & Media Convergency believes in being part of the solution especially with anything that in anyway promotes the Digital Economy of the country. To embrace and really achieve that, there has to be equal access to the internet for it has been identified as one of the human rights. While we know that Digital-Divide is a huge problem, Tech & Media Convergency through the Women at Web project has chosen to focus and work on the Gender-Digital Divide. With an alarming number of women and young girls dropping of the online space speared by a variety of reasons, we believe that through the SOS Diplomats Mentorship program, we could reach to a bigger number of young women and thus play a role in decreasing the number of the Gender-digital divide. At the end of the training, we intent that all participants will have added so much value at and individual and career level and be great ambassadors of advocating for safe spaces and against online gender-based violence.
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