CROWD-SOURCING PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING AND BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE THROUGH SOCIAL CAPITAL CREDITS

 

Young girls in extremely neglected communities across the world face significant challenges accessing a quality education. Barriers to education include gender discrimination, under resourced schools, access to digital devices, early marriage, and expectations that school-aged girls will assist with household chores or care for younger siblings. It is nearly impossible to overcome these barriers without proper incentive, a support system, and access to services like mentorship and tutoring. Adolescent young girls from underserved communities in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra who do not have access to education and opportunities to develop employable skills. Asia Initiatives, therefore developed and implemented Cascades of Learning program to bridge this gap by introducing Social Capital Credits. In this program, adolescent young girls who are enrolled, earn SoCCs by mentoring or tutoring two younger children, thrice a week that they can redeem for Kids Who Kode Digital Literacy classes. This is achieved through the learning centers that we have helped set up, that are equipped with laptops and low-cost tech solutions such as the Raspberry Pi, libraries and digital literacy trainers. Each learning center runs weekly sessions in batches where the children can access and learn from digital devices. In this way, Asia Initiatives is striving to bridge the digital divide and empower adolescent girls in all communities.