ProjectASHA, Global Shapers Community partners; empower youths with digital literacy skills

Innovation – especially associated with ICTs—has often been reckoned as a tool to close the socio-digital literacy gaps. Viewed from this perspective, ProjectASHA is actively increasing access to digital literacy skills for youths in rural communities.

Launched in August 2022, Project Digiterate III provided basic ICT empowerment to 100 underserved youths in Isolo and Ojota communities in Lagos State through the partnership of ProjectASHA(Implementing partner) with Global Shapers Lagos Hub and its partners, HP Life. The aim of this innovative effort is to support youths in low-income communities to gain basic ICT skills.

First phase

The first phase commenced in August of 2022 at the Vweta Chadwick ICT Hub Isolo (under the administration of Kindle Africa Initiative). It opened with the train-the-trainer phase led by Microsoft Certified Cloud Advocate, Mr. Solomon Olodun of The Bulb Africa, who trained fifteen youths on basic to advanced training on MS Word packages and Cloud Computing. The aim is to equip them to train their peers. In four weeks, they transferred knowledge to 47 learners aged 14 - 25 y/o.

In an earlier visit, Babajide Oluwase, curator for Lagos Shapers, highlighted the need for youths to be digitally informed, connect globally, and leverage the internet’s possibilities and the benefits of the Lagos Hub community.

Second phase

With the aim to reach more in-need youths, in February 2023, the second phase of Project Digiterate extended to the Olusosun community in Ojota area. With the technical support of Global Shapers in terms of laptop devices, and additional laptops through volunteer efforts, Project Digiterate reached an additional 47 youths in two weeks.

A range of 100 beneficiaries of Project Digiterate are prepared to take on job responsibilities to improve their skills. ProjectASHA calls on organizations to recruit from these learners as a stride toward decent employment and economic growth (SDG 8).

According to Joseph Waribugo, the project partnership lead and the National Volunteer Coordinator for ProjectASHA, "ProjectASHA is committed to supporting rural communities gain digital skills and know-how that enables them to equally thrive in the digital space".

Our action

ProjectASHA believes in actionable steps toward a future of uniform digital opportunities, especially for women in ICT. ASHA’s core competency, among other areas, is expanding ICT know-how and internships for rural communities, hence the need for an advanced training curriculum and deeper partnerships.

We ask that you support our work and efforts in communities across Nigeria. With as little as N1,000 ($2), you can give hope to a rural girl. Donate here