Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC)
Oreoluwa Somolu is Executive Director of W.TEC. Prior to this, she was Project Manager of Youth Empowerment & Restoration Initiative, an organisation working to increase local content in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry by raising awareness of Oil and Gas careers among students.
Ore you were one of the early Nigerian bloggers and one of the few who has remained consistent over the years. What made you decide to blog and how has your blogging developed over the years?
I first set-up a blog in 2004, however, I was not a very consistent blogger. In 2005, I was moving from the US back home to Nigeria and decided to set-up a blog primarily to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. The blog, Ore's Notes, was aimed at keeping friends updated with what I was up to - primarily my new adventures settling into the country. Overtime, it evolved into an online space where I wrote about my interests - primarily books and the arts, information technology, feminism and women's rights, and travelling.
Engaging
with other people is an essential part of blogging and initially, I
didn't feel that I had that. Well, as a new blogger it takes
time to find an audience and build a community of readers. The good
part of feeling that no one was reading my blog was that I felt a lot
more uninhibited to say whatever I wanted to. Now, that more people
know who I am, I definitely am more cautious in what I choose to
share.
What changes have you noticed in the African
blogosphere generally and amongst Nigerians especially women over the
years?
Since 2005, when I started seriously blogging, I've noticed a rise in the number of blogs by Nigerian men and women; so much so that we had the Nigerian Blogs Aggregator. Being able to write and connect with potentially the whole world - or at least the cyberspace world - is hugely exciting; however to me it felt that there was also an element of trend-following. I remember a few years earlier when creating free personal web pages with services like Tripod and Geocities was the in-thing. And with trends, there comes a time when people move on to the next thing.
I think it's been the same thing with blogging; some people have stuck with it and some others have moved on. The upside is that there are some really good quality blogs in the African blogosphere. More importantly, blogs - along with other social networking tools - have emerged as potent tools for campaigning, organising, education and advocacy. This has been particularly notable in raising awareness of issues pertaining to disadvantaged groups.
As you know many people start blogging but soon fall by the wayside. Why do you think so many give up? Are the particular reasons for Nigerian bloggers stopping?
Sometimes
the fascination is in exploring something new and when it ceases to
be a novelty, the interest fades away. The other reality is that
blogging is expensive and time-consuming. To be a well-rounded
blogger, you not only have to post to your blog(s), but also to
respond to comments on your blog and also visit other blogs and
ideally leave comments there. If you are following a number of blogs,
all this takes time. Anywhere in the world, making time for your
interests is hard enough, but in Nigeria you also have to content
with never-ending traffic, poor power supply and limited Internet
bandwidths, which discourage many from blogging. The costs of
Internet access are also another prohibitive factor.
We
worked together on the first BAWo project in 2006 which took place in
Lagos. Despite many difficulties with internet access and the
young age of the girls I believe the project was a success in that
you were able to learn from it and secondly it led to the forming of
W.TEC. What were the lessons you learned from the BAWO
project?
Firstly, that you need to have belief in your dreams, because if you don't then why should anyone else? Another is that you'll always find people who tell you that your idea is silly and it can be easy to be swayed if you lack deep convictions about why this idea is important. I had a few discouraging reactions to the BAWo project, but over the last couple of years, blogs and some other social networking tools have emerged as a credible way to promote and advocate for social change.
On a more practical level, I learnt that it's important to consider the practical realities of your working environment. While there was Internet access at the school, where we had to BAWo project, the room with the computers was usually locked up and in order to get online, the girls would have to get the key from the principal's office. I was very idealistic at the start of the BAWo project and didn't fully factor how this arrangement would affect the ability of the girls to blog.
Now, I take all factors into consideration when planning W.TEC's programmes. I've also realised the importance of getting buy-in from the community where the beneficiaries live or work. While all these sound very obvious, it's one thing to be vaguely aware of them, and an entirely different thing to fully understand their importance.
How did you get from BAWo to W.TEC? Could you explain what the project is and who are the recipients?
Well, the idea of W.TEC had been with me for a long time, even before BAWo. However, organising BAWo with you was really the point at which I realised that I had the ability to establish W.TEC. Dealing with challenges we had on BAWo also gave me experience and the confidence that I could address other challenges that would come with setting-up and managing an organisation.
After BAWo, I felt encouraged to apply for a small grant to take the project further. The small grant facility of the Harambee initiative was the first grant I had ever applied for and getting it was another source of encouragement. By end of 2007, I felt ready to take the step to set-up W.TEC.
The Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation working for the economic and social empowerment of girls and women, using information and communication technologies (ICTs). Our alumni will be women and girls who are well-equipped for working and living in an increasingly technology-driven world.
W.TEC's work is carried out through projects and workshops, which help to build technology skills and literacy among women. W.TEC also aims to research and publish works that examine pivotal issues concerning the ways African women use information and communication technology, the barriers preventing or limiting technology use, and strategies for more efficient and effective use of ICTs.
The organisation targets Nigerian girls and women in the following categories: girls aged 11 to 17; young women in higher education or who graduated within the last 4 years; and older women with little or no technical skills.
W.TEC presently runs two projects: Networking for Success and the Girls Technology Camp. Can you explain the difference between the two projects.
The Networking for Success project (http://w-teconline.org/nfsblog), funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), trained women to use web 2.0 technologies (or social media) to facilitate knowledge gathering and sharing in their work. This project was primarily aimed at women working for NGOs and other social and economic development programmes, but was later opened up to include women working in other fields, recent graduates, and stay-at-home mothers.
The W.TEC Girls Technology Camp was a 1-week residential camp aimed at introducing Nigerian female secondary school students to ICTs; as well as highlighting the relevance of ICTs to academic and professional pursuits, and giving them fundamental knowledge of technology-related careers. Through a mix of classes, workshops, presentations, excursions and leadership exercises, we endeavour to build strong, intelligent and focused young women, well-prepared for living and working in an increasingly technology-driven world. The camp is targeted at secondary (high) school girls between the ages of 11 and 17.
How do you go about recruiting women and girls to attend W.TEC sessions and what reasons do they give for wanting to participate?
We contact the target beneficiaries directly, where we can. For instance, for the camp we wrote to secondary schools and invited them to nominate their students.
We also publicise our programmes through word of mouth, through friends, family and colleagues. We also use our website, social networking site, blog and mailing list to spread the word even further.
Each programme has its own outcomes, but developing ICT awareness and skills and understanding how to apply them to aspects of our lives as women is the ultimate goal for the women who participate in our programmes.
Women typically want to learn more about ICTs in general; or sometimes about a specific tool, which they want to use for work. Sometimes, they want to develop skills that can increase their marketability to potential employers. Some girls and women are just curious about technology and have a strong belief that unlocking the seeming mystery that is technology will empower them.
Do you think there are any specific barriers to women and girls in Nigeria having access to the internet?
Inadequate access to the technology; high costs of access to the equipment - including to the Internet; restrictive cultural stereotypes that discourage women from engaging with the technology; and very few female technology-savvy role models and mentors.
W.TEC teaches how to use "Web 2.0 tools and other internet technologies". Which tools do you personally use to enhance your own internet usage and to promote and develop W.TEC?
Web 2.0 tools and other internet technologies are the tools we focus on in the Networking for Success project; however, other programmes explore other tools. In the coming year we are looking at expanding our programmes.
Personally, I use blogs a lot (for leisure reading, keeping up to date with specific interests of mine, networking and participating in a social movement). I also use Facebook; initially it was just to keep in touch with friends. However, now W.TEC has a Facebook group called "Women & Technology in Africa", which we use to share information about African's women's use of ICTs. We also use it disseminate information about W.TEC's activities.
What future plans do you have for expanding W.TEC
Where do I start from? This year served as our ‘test' year and all the programmes were kept small and within Lagos. In the future, we want to expand the programme capacity so that we reach more girls and women. We also want to run programmes in other parts of the country, so that this is not just a ‘Lagos affair.' At the moment, we conduct our training in donated space. In the future, we would like to set-up a training centre, from which we can run our programmes. Having a permanent space also means that W.TEC alumni have somewhere that they can return to practice their newly-acquired skills.
Research is an important component of what we seek to do, because we believe that having accurate information is a tool with which we can use to develop more effective programmes and interventions. Information can also be used to provide a compelling explanation of why women's lack of participation in the ICT sphere is an important issue; as well as to help identify examples of best practices in applying technology to advocating for women's rights.