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Young Syrian woman designs mLearning app to teach coding
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Leen Darwish takes the adage about life, lemons, and lemonade to the next level. Displaced by the ongoing Syrian civil war and completing her undergraduate degree in computer science, Darwish sought a way to empower youth through tech-based training.
Her solution? Remmaz, an Arabic language mobile learning app she created to help youth learn how to code. The ultimate goal is to help prepare youth for potential entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. The first two courses available to the more than 500 users, most of whom are Moroccan, are ones which help develop users’ skills in Jquery, HTML and CSS. As Remmaz evolves, Darwish hopes to establish a mobiMOOC with funding support from the UNFPA and an entrepreneurship competition.
Read more about Leen’s incredible work here. |
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Zantel commits to reducing mobile gender gap
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Zantel, Zanzibar’s leading mobile operator, has announced a commitment to close the mobile gender gap through mobile money. Announced at the Mobile 360 Africa conference in Dar es Salaaam, they intend to train 2000 women on the user of Zantel’s mobile money platform Ezypesa, by partnering with the Zanzibar Social Security Fund.
The commitment is part of the GSMA Connected Women Commitment Initiative, which focuses on reducing the gender gap in mobile internet and mobile money services.
Read more.
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Making periods normal: menstruation app in India
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This guest article was written by Céline Herbiet of Butterfly Works.
In Bihar, India, menstruation is a silenced subject. This means many girls and women don’t have enough information to live healthy lives while menstruating. To break this taboo, Butterfly Works, Simavi and Bihar Voluntary Health Association are co-creating an mHealth application, part of the programme 'Making Periods Normal'.
The aim of the app is to provide practical information on menstruation and answer basic questions as; what is menstruation? Why do women menstruate? Can I cook or go to school when menstruating? The mHealth app will also provide information on how to use menstrual products, how much they cost and where to buy them, as well as map health services in the area. The app is mainly targeted at girls and women, but also caters for men who want to support their wives, daughters and mothers, but do not know enough about menstruation to support them.
Find the paper prototype of the app here.
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Birth control on demand - through an app
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A number of apps and websites now make it possible for women in the US to get prescription birth control without going to a doctor – opening up new possibilities for women’s reproductive rights.
Websites such as Virtuwell or apps such as Planned Parenthood Care provide prescriptions written by clinicians, after female users answer questions about their health online.
They can prescribe birth control pills, patches, rings and morning after bills. Some also accept insurance for women on low incomes.
Read more.
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How rural women use phones in Sri Lanka and Indonesia - new research report
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FAO, IDRC and LIRNEAsia have released a new research study, looking at perceptions of mobile phone access and use amongst rural men and women in Indonesia and Sri Lanka,
The study, which uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies, looked in detail for reasons behind the mobile gender gap in these countries, and found that gender has an impact not only on how phones are used, but also how they are viewed in terms of usefulness.
You can find the full study here.
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Mapping mobile map health services in Tanzania
Simavi and TTC have launched a mobile mapping initiative to identify under-resourced health facilities and gaps, to help. the government make more informed decisions about basic healthcare provision for women.
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Female scientist? Now there’s an emoji for that!
For every woman or girl who has ever lamented the poor selection of emojis available on mobile phones, no longer will you only have to choose between being a bride, princess, or hairstylist. Now there will be 11 new male and female profession emojis added, and with all the skin tones.
Read more here.
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Everyday life under Boko Haram – on Instagram
A Nigerian woman is documenting everyday life under Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. She posts them to Instagram at @bitsofborno, and is inspired by Humans of New York.
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