Chandana Das from Margram, Murshidabad is a weaver who has been involved in the weaving business for the last 10 years. She used to take raw material from the moneylender, make sarees from it and then give those sarees back to the moneylender, for which she got paid a nominal amount with the help of…
A weaver and seller, Ravi R hails from Kollegal, Karnataka and is working to preserve his community’s art of designing silk sarees with zari work and intricate designs. Ravi with the help of his son is now trying to expand his customer base through Digital Entrepreneurial Skill training given by Digital Empowerment Foundation. He was…
Tabassum joined CSC in 2019. She noticed how her village people are facing challenges to avail digital services. They had to commute to cities to access these. She made their life easier by opening her centre and providing services like money transaction, registration of various government and non- government schemes, Pan Card & Aadhar Card application…
Mongra Bareth’s journey as a VLE started when she became part of CSC in 2014. Before that, she used to teach Hindi Literature at a local college. It is during that time she noticed that people are not getting full access of digital services in her area. She then decided to open up a center…
This is a story of a girl named Ramya. She is studying in 9th class in ZPHS, Thoguta. She has faced numerous challenges in the school which she could not even speak of with her family and friends. She had stage fear and can’t speak with her teachers and classmates. She is quite ambitious but…
One of my students’ parents of Banswada School has called me on September 21, 2020, after the completion of gender session. Geetha said that she felt very happy that her daughter has participated in the sessions and learned about gender and menstruation. Even she herself doesn’t know the exact facts and myths about menstruation but…
Vidya is a woman farmer and belongs to a poor family. She lives with her husband and three daughters. Both she and her husband are above 60 years of age and due to their age they are unable to do labour to earn wages. Since they do not have their own land, it was getting…
“Why aren’t you marrying off your daughter yet? Do you want us to approach the people who will bring rishtas for your daughter?” These questions were bombarded at Arun Mahto, the moment his daughter Priya completed her 11th Standard. It took a long time for Priya to fight against the society and convince her parents…
Jibbi Parween, a home-maker, became an Internet Saathi and credits the initiative for her growth. She says, “I received a lot of encouragement from everyone. Participating in Internet Saathi was a wonderful experience!” She started a coaching centre at her home. In order to teach the students, she takes help from the internet. Teaching her…
I am Jyoti from Umedpur village in district Buxar. Initially when I joined the Internet saathi programme, I used to be really nervous especially while talking to new people. How will I explain them? Will I be able to do this work well or not? But as the training progressed, I overcame my fears and…
I am Somo, an Internet Saathi from past two years. I began by educating women about smartphones, internet and awareness about cyber security. Being an Internet Saathi hasn’t just given me a means of livelihood, but also the satisfaction of serving my community. After receiving a printer, the villagers in need of photocopies, scanned documents,…
I am Jyoti from Umedpur in Buxar district. When I joined the Internet Saathi programme I used to be really nervous, especially while talking to new people. But as the training progressed, I was able to help other rural women also. I was able to teach them how to operate a smartphone, the internet and…
Vijayalakshmi, who is 65 years old is a resident of Kuruvimalai and has two sons namely Sivaraj and Karthick. Her eldest son got married and started staying separately while the other son stays with her and works for a private company. Since her husband is no more, Sivaraj supports the family from his small income. …
The Covid-19 crisis is expected to have a lasting economic effect on many low-income communities across the country, especially in rural India. The lockdown led to a halt in the main source of livelihood for many families in villages, making survival tough. Most people struggled to find an alternate source of income and lack of…
The entrepreneurs of Smartpur are becoming the new age digital change makers with most of them having initiated a small scale social intervention at their local village levels. The women of Smartpur Chinna Konduru village, Telangana, participated in multiple livelihood trainings on the themes that women of the village were seeking – tailoring, beautician and…
Pushpalatha is from a remote village of Wanaparthy called Srirangapur. The connectivity to this area is also next to negligible. Pushpalatha got to know about Digital Empowerment Foundation and Commonwealth of Learning’s Barefoot Wireless Engineer course from a friend and jumped at the first opportunity. While she helps her family in the handicrafts business but…
Ameena is an integral part of the Awaaz Wanaparthy Radio run by Vanitha Jyothi Mahila Sangam. While the community radio has an independent infrastructure but it was getting difficult to sustain it. Through Digital Empowerment Foundation and Commonwealth of Learning’s Barefoot Wireless Engineer programme, Ameena was able to establish a community wireless network at the…
