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About W.TEC

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Background

W.TEC started operations in January 2008, while its legal registration was completed in March 2008. The idea for the organisation was born when Founder/Executive Director Oreoluwa Somolu was conducting research for her Masters degree thesis on how technology use by women in developing countries could contribute to development. The research showed that technology had significant contributions to make to the development and growth of a country. However, women - a significant proportion of the population - were severely lagging behind in their knowledge and use of technology.

In 2008, W.TEC ran the following projects:

  1. Networking for Success:
    2. The project, which ran from May to July 2008, was aimed at facilitating collaboration between women using a combination of technologies primarily blogs, wikis and podcasts. Originally targeted at women working in the non-profit sector and social development fields, due to demand, the project was also opened up to other groups of women. Participants on the Networking for Success project learnt how to use web 2.0 tools to collaborate on projects, gather and build knowledge, share information. After the project ended, we have discovered that many of the participants are using tools learnt from the project in their professional or personal lives. For instance, one participant set-up a group on a popular social networking site to promote her businesses; another participant created and manages a blog on behalf of her employer – a youth-focused NGO – which is used to gather feedback from their stakeholders. Another participant combined a blog and a social networking group to set- up a discussion group for young mothers. Many more participants are using the tools in a variety of ways to promote issues of particular interest to them. The project was certainly successful in achieving its goals. During the project, participants took part in online discussions with mentors, who were people with experience in applying web 2.0 tools to development work, networking and entrepreneurial ventures. These discussions are recorded on the project blog (http://www.w-teconline.org/nfsblog/), which serves as a resource for people interested in practical applications of web 2.0 and social media.
W.TEC's first project will be the Networking for Success project, which will run from May to August 2008. Networking for Success is aimed at facilitating collaboration between women from the non profit and social development fields using a combination of technologies primarily blogs, wikis and podcasts. Participants on the Networking for Success project will learn how to use web 2.0 tools to collaborate on projects. This work is supported by a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), as part of the Harambee Project.

Networking for Success builds-up on the work of a pilot project, Blogs for African Women (BAWo), which was conducted from May to July 2006, in partnership with Fahamu and Pambazuka News and which instructed a group of young ladies (aged 11 to 13) in the use of blogs.

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