Last week our Founding Director Julia Lynch spoke at the Unite 2030 Youth SDG Summit alongside Global Girl Graduates Isata George (from Sierra Leone) and Sajeda Alheet (from Jordan). Julia, Isata, and Sajeda explored the important links between leadership, social change, and technology. In case you missed it, we are sharing some of the key insights from the session here:
For many, the shift online that has happened as a result of Covid-19 has been an opportunity for more inclusion, because it’s enabled people to get involved in things outside of their immediate location. However, for the girls we work with, it has often served to exclude because technology can be challenging to use and to access. For example, the platform the Summit was through had 11 steps to register. If you are digitally literate it might feel like 3 or 4, but for our girls, this can be overwhelming and incredibly challenging.
The challenges marginalised girls face might not be what you think. Access to a phone or internet is important, but often the barrier can be practice and confidence in using technology. As a result, we are continuing to adapt our programs to find more ways that girls can get experience and practice with technology through our programs. For example, Sajeda said that "If I hadn't done the leadership learning online, I wouldn't have felt confident to do this panel today". This is why exposure to technology, and opportunities to practice with it, are so important.
We are a small organisation and so need the big tech players to get involved and hear from our girls the challenges they face so we can solve these.
We are looking at how we can reach communities who are even more isolated, and being online presents an amazing opportunity here. Our work in Afghanistan is one example of this as we are looking at how we can deliver completely online in a way that is safe for the girls.
Sajeda and Isata were so keen to connect after Global Girl Project - they knew they were missing out by not being connected, and it’s so important we give them the opportunity to be. We know marginalised girls have important things to say, and we need to make sure they are able to share it.
2020 has taught us that we cannot divorce leadership learning from digital literacy, and we need to continue to work to enable girls to feel confident online. Only by doing this can we ensure the inclusion that Covid-19 has brought to some, is felt by everyone.
