ORANGE BOTSWANA LAUNCHES WOMEN’S DIGITAL CENTRE
Orange Botswana launched the Women’s Digital Centre (WDC) in Selebi-Phikwe to deliver literacy, micro-entrepreneurial skills and training modules to women in disadvantaged situations.
Through the centre, Orange aims to teach women basic management and promote digital inclusion by providing them with technical equipment such as computers, laptops, projectors, tablets, printers and USBs; teaching them to use these digital tools as well as basic software familiarity.
Launching the centre last week, Orange Botswana Chief Executive Officer, Néné Maïga said the overarching goal of the Women’s Digital Centres is to give women a platform to gain knowledge and even own businesses, thus creating employment for other women. “This is a core initiative under Orange Foundation and it aims to improve the employability of women as well as their financial independence. This program is designed to deliver ICT literacy, micro-entrepreneurial skills training modules to women in disadvantaged situations. It further aims to teach women basic business management and promote digital inclusion by providing them with technical equipment to help them become financially independent, thus owning businesses that create employment for other women.”
Orange Botswana donated 30 tablets, 30 headsets, 10 laptops, 1 printer with 4 additional cartridges, Projector and projector screen, 2 servers and 100 USBs.
The Women’s Digital Centre project was launched in 2018 in partnership with Humana People to People (HPP) in Ghanzi. The following year in 2019, an additional centre was opened in Molepolole in partnership with Project Concern International (PCI). The third centre was opened in 2020 in Mabele village in the Chobe area in partnership with Project Concern International. Maïga said Orange Botswana is a passionate advocate for the full participation of women in the economy of the country. “That is why we have made the commitment to leverage the women of SelebiPhikwe to meet their community’s needs, as a way to add to the efforts of addressing the pressing challenges of economic inequality. These commitments shape a progressive and transformative blueprint for advancing gender equality, human rights and the overall empowerment of women,” said Maïga.
She emphasized that as Orange Botswana, they believe that lack of resources should not be a barrier to communities to develop themselves. “Our aim, through our foundation, is to build role models for communities such as Selebi-Phikwe. We aim to amplify the voices of women through innovation and technology, to combat gender and socio-economic inequality.”