Activities – acode

Digital Literacy Workshop with Community Members and Youth of Govandi
“Chal chal, saanp seedi khelte hain (come come let’s play snakes and ladders)” said Saleem (name changed), an 8-year-old to his friend. They both proceeded to the Makerspace stall of the Digital Empowerment Foundation. Pankaj, DEF’s project officer for the makerspace project, was surrounded by 15 children, all expressing their excitement over the activities he was curating for them.
The saanp seedi Saleem mentioned was the snakes and ladders game with a twist. One gets to climb up the ladder on answering certain questions correctly. “Should you make your name your password?” Saleem looked up at Pankaj and said “nahi na? (No right?)” and Pankaj smiled. Saleem proceeded up the ladder. As his friend struggled with the next one “should you share your password with your friend?” Saleem exclaimed “nahi yaar! (No man!)” and with that his friend too proceeded up the ladder. These questions ignited a sense of curiosity amongst all those watching and everyone would scream the right answer when the players would reach a question.

Tomorrow they will disappear
Disappearing acts are quite popular among the magicians, but when the act is heading towards becoming quite literal, threatening an end to the long standing art form among street performers, they go looking for much more than just an applause.

One such street performer with an international exposure, Ishamuddin, from the Madari community, an A-CODE fellow, is trying to get enough attention to the community of street magicians so that he can revive the art form conforming to the present status quo.

Mesmerizing the audience
Various artists came together on one platform where they were able to present their skills in front of the audience in Triveni Kala. They also used puppet shows, poetry and skits to talk about their dying art and the reason the younger generation is not continuing this art form. The program started on the 25th of March and went on till the 28th of March and it was a life changing experience for many, as the concerns of the artists were understood by the audience. This was the main focus of the colourful 4-day festival, as the majority of people were not aware of the difficulties faced by the various artists in India. Read More

Importance of Digital Inclusion and Data Rights
Digital Empowerment Foundation, in collaboration with Barefoot College, organized training to introduce 52 participants on topics such as Digital Inclusion and Data Rights. The vast majority of pupils belong to the age group of 20 to 45, and are the community representatives of their districts located in Rajasthan. Before initiating the training, a baseline survey was conducted to know how much the participants knew about the topics. This surely was beneficial for both the students and the trainer, as it gave them a platform to interact with each other. Further, we engaged the pupils in a Focused Group Discussion, where we tried to know their knowledge of the training topics by engaging them in group discussions on how Digital Literacy would impact their lives and do they understand the need to protect their valuable personal details.

Digital Inclusion of 10 Women Artisans in Palgarh, Maharashtra
Digital Empowerment Foundation in collaboration with DigiKargha conducted a 2 days’ workshop with 10 Women Artisans in Palgarh, Maharashtra. The purpose of the workshop was to impart digital literacy so that the artisans could benefit from the reach of the digital world. In those two days, they were introduced to topics such as Data Rights, Microsoft Office, Digital Designing, and various Social Media platforms to sell their products.

Bazm-E-Sukhan
The Bazm e Sukhan (An assembly celebrating Poetry) is a weekly gathering of a diverse group united by its love for Urdu poetry and prose. The Bazm started in December 2018 and was held every Wednesday at Hyderabad’s iconic cultural sake, Lamakaan, through the year and till March 2020. When COVID 19 closed down public spaces, the Bazm moved online. Since then, the weekly session has been held every Tuesday at 10 pm IST. A group that now consists of about 150 people spread worldwide tunes every week to listen to and share their favourite Urdu poetry pieces.

DEFDialogue- Regular Dialogue on Rights based issues with people who matter
It is a platform through which experts are able to share their views on social issues and how efforts can be made towards finding a sustainable solution.

52 Parindey- Fellowship for creating a network of 52 social innovators
52 Parindey is a project dedicated to identifying and documenting the lives of 52 innovators who are making a conscious living for themselves and their planet through alternate careers in Indian towns.

Voices of Rural India
Voices of Rural India is an effort to turn unprecedented crises into an opportunity to create alternate livelihoods by upgrading digital skills in rural India, while also preserving grassroots knowledge that is slowly disappearing.

TypeRight- Digital Rights Weekly Newsletter
The Digital Nukkad, is a weekly conversational bulletin curated through the news and discussions on social media as well as what’s happening on the ground. Through the eyes and ears of Digital Empowerment Foundation across rural India and global south, TypeRight aspires to focus on bringing the contextual relevance of digital technologies and developments to the society – both connected and unconnected.

CNX- Community Network Xchange is an annual event of digital rights & access for marginalised
Focusing on bringing together community network practitioners and enthusiasts of community-driven Internet connectivity to exchange ideas and serve as catalysts for the grassroots connectivity movement

Digital Swaraj Fellowship- A digital rights fellowship
Is a year experiential leadership journey to bring about a digital transformation at the grassroots. It is an opportunity for India’s youth to contribute to society as a digital change leader. The fellows will have hands-on exposure to the rural digital landscape and work on innovative solutions to bring digital access to the underserved, unconnected and marginalised communities.

Monthly Articles
FII will publish 12 articles on exploring how gender-based violence, hate speech and disinformation are used online to suppress women’s freedom of expression.

Research
CSDD will develop a research study on “violation of human rights due to digital imposition”

Prevalent social and cultural challenges
Community Design Agency will identify 40 young activists from urban slums and develop modern art form deliverables in the form of reels and short films on prevalent social and cultural challenges

Digital Youth Writers Fellowship
Youth Ki Awaaz as a fellow member is running a digital youth writers fellowship and will publish 100 essays on topics based around digital inclusion and data rights. Further, they will use their online platform to spread awareness through the voice of the young people on topics around Digital inclusion and Data Rights.