With its focus on using technology in all its endeavours
PFI conceived the idea of a mobile training unit which
moves from village to village directly interacting
with everyone in the institution and with the beneficiaries
in the rural communities and also conducting interactive
training sessions. From this vision was born roughIT:
training on the go. Essential features of a roughIT
mission are: Inform MFIs of the training mission and
provide dates. Only requirement from them is training
room with a table in the centre large enough to place
five computer terminals and a power connection.
Two member training team travels to a location and
then moves from village to village, conducting focussed
tailored training sessions for the microfinance institutions
which all the employees can participate in. The idea
is also to experiment with conducting an IT&C
exposure session for the communities to gather data
useful for designing further interventions.
The mobile training unit is contained in two backpacks
and consists of 5 networked computer terminals, LCD
projector, digital camera, 10/100 Ethernet Switch,
Projection Screen, Network Cables, Webcam and other
peripherals. Setting up the training lab requires
40-50 minutes.
Depending on the number of participants the training
session at an MFI can last one or two days.
The team uses its time in the village to meet people
and documents their stories of their lives and their
relationship and its benefits with the institution.
PFI plans to augment the training equipment with a
digital video camera to record footage to later use
to produce a short movie. Presently a digital still
camera is used for capture images.
A typical mission lasts 10-12 days, depending on
the terrain covers between three and five MFIs and
villages.
roughIT addresses the problems stated above in the
following manner:
-
Low Cost: The costs of the training
mission are minimized due to just a two member team
travelling and living with in the village. This
also provides an opportunity for the team to better
understand the market for which interventions are
to be designed.
-
Training @ Work: The trainees
do not need to be away from the organization, hence
learning is optimized as the participants feel comfortable
in their environs and their work does not suffer
due to their absence.
-
Wider Dissemination: Since the
cost of the training is negligible for the microfinance
institution, potentially all members of staff can
benefit from it, which favours effective dissemination
of knowledge and building of shared values.
-
Interactivity: PFI is able to
gather pertinent scale and outreach data, design
better interventions to address the issues in the
local context and directly measure the impact and
effectiveness of their endeavours.
-
Assessment: Impact at the beneficiary
level can be estimated though the direct discussions
with them
-
Flexibility: The methodology
can provide training on both microfinance and IT&C.
-
Impact: All of the above leads
to optimal utilization of resources and maximizes
impact on a long term perspective and provides excellent
value to the sponsoring entity.
In a typical roughIT mission 3-5 MFIs/villages are
covered, 60-100 practitioners are capacitated, 25
cases are documented and at least 150 rural inhabitants
are exposed to the IT&C thereby sparking a desire
to learn more. PFI ultimately aims at developing two-way
information hubs in each village of its activity in
India sharing information with the rest of the world
through a village website.
For an organization funding the mission, roughIT
brings the following advantages:
-
High Impact, High Visibility
Social Development intervention generating awareness
about the organization and enhancement of the brand
image.
-
Measured Impact through a professional
mission report along with photographs, feedbacks
and achievement map.
At a more conceptual level, funding
roughIT would give strength to the idea that IT&C
can play a powerful role in poverty alleviation and
empowerment of the poor and marginalized, if the flow
of information is democratized in a climate of mutual
respect, favouring a real exchange of knowledge instead
of a more conservative transfer from one party to another.
The Bonfiglioli roughIT tour in India will include
3 roughIT missions in 3 regions of India selected
by considering the added value that will constitute
the brought of IT in areas counted among the poorest
of the country: Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu in
the South, West Bengal & Orissa in the East and
Assam & Nagaland in the North East of India.
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