Code for Nepal launches digital empowerment training for women today

22 Jul 2014 - codefornepal

For Immediate Release: 21 July 2014

Contact: Mia Mitchell

Cell Phone: 9818751154

Code for Nepal Launches Digital Empowerment Training for Women Today

Non-profit initiative trains women in digital skills to expand their professional opportunities

Kathmandu, NEPAL: Code for Nepal, a U.S.-based initiative working to increase open data and digital skills in Nepal, especially for women, began a Digital Empowerment Training for women today in Kathmandu. The training will run for the next two weeks in partnership with Subisu Cablenet, the Internet service provider, and Wigan and Leigh College. Subisu has provided participants with wifi to support their learning throughout the training. Wigan and Leigh College has provided a classroom space for the 21 students to meet daily and learn from leading journalists, social media strategists, and entrepreneurs in Nepal.

Guest lecturers to the program include: Amit Agrawal, CEO of Janaki Technology Pvt. Ltd; Rajneesh Bhandari, multimedia journalist; Jemima Sherpa, blogger; and Pranika Koya, writer and activist, among others. Students will gain valuable digital skills during the program, including social media management, blogging, and coding. Twenty-one young women are attending the training in order to boost their digital skills. One woman wrote for her application that she was “keen to bring forward the female part of population to contribute to the development of the nation.”

The training was designed based on a nationwide survey that Code for Nepal conducted in June and July of this year to better understand what women are interested in learning about computers and the Internet. More than 200 women took the survey, which was conducted online and offline. The Digital Empowerment Training in Kathmandu this month incorporates their input and comes at a key time for women in Nepal. As Ravi Kumar, Code for Nepal Co-Founder, puts it: “Digitally empowering young women will be key to tackling challenges such as gender-based violence and slow economic growth in Nepal.”

About Code for Nepal: Code for Nepal (www.codefornepal.org) is a U.S.-based organization that works to inform, inspire, and equip Nepalis, especially women, to use technology and social media to improve their lives and help tackle challenges in their communities. It was founded in 2014 by Ravi Kumar, a Nepali living and working in the U.S., and Mia Mitchell, a graduate student at Harvard University.

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For more information, you can reach Mia Mitchell at 9818751154, or codefornepal@gmail.com