My initiative to teach computer skills

By Sabnam Shrestha

C4N14 Fellow

It is my privilege to be a part of Code for Nepal. I have learned so many things being a fellow of Code for Nepal. And the most crucial for me being a #C4N14 Fellow is my final project. As part of the Digital Empowerment training, we, all fellows, were asked to make a final project on any social issues in Nepal.

Initially I had no idea what to do. Then one day during Digital Empowerment training, Ravi Kumar, the co-founder for Code for Nepal, asked us what bothered us. At that instance, street children came in my mind. Then I thought why not to make a project to teach the street girls computer skills.

Although I decided to do this project, it was not easy. Oscillating between organizations was exhausting. After nearly two months, I was able to conduct my project with Child Watabaran Center.

This September I taught 10 girls of Child Watabaran Center basic computer skills. For them, Google and YouTube were completely strange.

When I went for the first day to teach, I clearly remember, one student came to me and requested me to teach them how to use Google. She had heard about Google and Facebook but she did not know how it appeared in computer screen. I attempted to teach them my best and hope that I could meet their expectations.

I conducted training for 4 days. During that tenure, they learned basic computer skills like creating new user account, setting password, making new folders and how to turn on and off computer, to use MS Word and PowerPoint . They were able to do research on Google, create new email address.

During the training, I was impressed by their enthusiasm. They always wanted to learn more and asked me whether I could teach more new things.

The satisfaction when they said they learned new thing with sweet smile was indescribable. I want to thank Code for Nepal for providing me this opportunity to help others.