WIDnet celebrates 4th anniversary with open day and new booklet

Taking place on Thursday June 26th at the WIDnet resource centre in Lusaka, the day will allow people to hear from the management and staff about the project’s background, its current ongoing activities as well as find out how they can get involved and benefit from their resources and training programmes. They day will include formal speeches from WIDnet and IICD staff, as well as chance to talk to the whole team on a more informal basis during the second half of the programme.

Empowering women with ICT

The day will also mark the official launch of WIDnet’s first booklet, Changing lives through basic IT training for the underprivileged – a collection of short accounts about women who have enrolled on their IT training programme. The booklet explains how and why the organisation was founded, as well as looking into the first-hand experiences of woman who have used the centre to improve their IT skills.

Run by the Zambian Association for Research and Development (ZARD), the essence of the WIDNet project is to contribute to the livelihoods of women and their dependants. The project uses the internet to increase awareness of the necessity for sharing information; to support and solidarity on women's rights; and to raise awareness of gender issues and their importance to development. The project aims to help enable women to tackle social injustices through the opportunities offered by modern information and communication technologies.

Through a basic training programme, WIDnet also helps to build the ICT skills of women in the women's movement, which includes targeting underprivileged girls. It focuses on enabling them to use different ICT tools to access new knowledge and education materials, seek out job opportunities and establish new business contacts. It also helps to support and strengthen civil and political participation.