South Asian women take up computers together for the first time

Summary

A group of keen South Asian women learners enrolled in a series of six basic computer and internet sessions held by EverybodyOnline Gorgie Dalry Project at Fountainbridge Library, in Edinburgh. Having already attended six sessions delivered by EverybodyOnline the group have now started another tailor-made series of 6 more advanced sessions as they learn about creating word documents, file management and get more advanced experiences of digital photography, online shopping and auction sites.

What Happened?

The ladies all attend a local group called Nari Kallyan Shangho (NKS); a Health and Welfare project for South Asian Women and Children. Although at times they struggled with English, they managed to complete the lessons and have all received their certificates of completion. Some are busy practicing their emailing, sending attachments and getting started with digital photography, others are supplementing their English lessons by watching language learning podcasts on YouTube, and of course everyone is getting well stuck into the online shopping.

NKS are hungry for more, not only are the Bengali Women’s group moving up to more advanced materials, but EverybodyOnline has been asked to run a session for the Pakistani Women who attend the NKS project. Even the husbands are now getting involved as EverybodyOnline meets the demand for a men’s group.

Shamsad and Rohina, two of the NKS coordinators attended the training as well. Rohina, who leads the Pakistani Ladies group said,”We are really learning useful things like emailing and online shopping”. Shamsad from the Bengali ladies group added: "This project is bringing out the Bangladeshi community - it is very important”.

One of the younger ladies attending said “I like using the computers for email and I can now do job searching.” Another learner, added,"I am getting more confident to use computer technology”.