The digital skilling initiative by Facebook will train and mentor tribal girls from five states including Odisha to become digital young leaders for their respective communities.
Bhubaneswar: In its mission to empower and educate women, social networking giant Facebook, Wednesday, launched a digital skilling and mentorship initiative across five states in India that would encourage tribal girls to become village-level digital young leaders for their respective communities.
Named GOAL (Going Online As Leaders), the initiative aims to train young tribal girls from Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in digital literacy, life skills, leadership and entrepreneurship for a duration of one year.
The programme will have on-ground trainers impart digital literacy to the selected girls through a dedicated digital skilling curriculum. A set of 25 women leaders from different fields would also mentor them on a fortnightly basis via Facebook or WhatsApp.
Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, Facebook -India, South and Central Asia said, as “The Internet, especially social media, over the past few years, has emerged as one of the most powerful tools for empowering women from across India’s diverse social economic backgrounds and varied cultural roots.”
They believe that the learners would utilize the skills learnt at the programme for social and economic elevation and also drive change in their respective communities.
As per the reports, the programme will focus on girls who have dropped out of school due to financial constraints but reside near the skilling centre to ensure regular participation.
To be a part of this digital skilling programme, applicants will be required to be over 18 years of age and of tribal origin.
