Background of the project

Plan International Nepal, along with its consortium partners (Women in STEAM (WiSTEAM), Open Learning Exchange Nepal (OLE), and Social Awareness Centre Nepal (SAC)), is implementing a project titled &ldquo;STEAM Ahead: Showing Talent, Equality &amp; Ambition of Marginalised children in Karnali&rdquo; in Dolpa district of Karnali Province. It is funded by&nbsp;European Union.&nbsp;Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 of &ldquo;Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all&rdquo; and Article 31 of Nepal&rsquo;s 2015 Constitution, &ldquo;all children have the right to access free and compulsory basic education as well as free education up to secondary level&rdquo;. The main objectives of the project are to contribute to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities in two ways: systemic change in the way basic education is delivered and strengthens civil society&#39;s ability to shape the education system. A key focusing will be on inclusion and gender transformative programming in order to strengthen local governance and inclusive quality education delivery. 

<img alt="" height="287" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830155321-4.png" width="464" />

Note: the data is based on 2018/19 Flash Report of Education

Through this project, we will be supporting the project in STEAM and digital aspect to reduce the existing inequalities in access to education and gender stereotypes about STEAM fields for girls and women in the Dolpa district.&nbsp;We are reaching out to 6000+ children in six rural municipalities of Dolpa district that includes Chharka Tangsong Gaunpalika, Dolpo Buddha Gaunpalika, Kaike Gaunpalika, Shey Phoksundo Gaunpalika, Shey Phoksundo Gaunpalika, and Tripurasundari Nagarpalika and cover about 86&nbsp;schools together with the partner organizations while 6 maker spaces will be supported by Women in STEAM organization during the 3-years long project started from&nbsp;January 2021 to April 2024.

This will be achieved through working closely with schools and local authorities to plan and implement child-centric, inclusive, and gender-responsive teaching-learning methodologies that are rooted in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) principles and that leverage digital tools and technologies. We want to create a successful model that other local municipalities would be interested in replicating.

<img alt="" height="278" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830160724-1.png" width="452" />

Note: the primary grade data is based on the 2018/19 Flash Report of Education

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="264" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830154058-1.png" width="427" />

Note: the lower secondary data is based on the 2018/19 Flash Report of Education

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Our Roles, duties, and responsibilities of WiSTEAM as implementing partner:&nbsp;WiSTEAM is responsible for providing technical inputs on digital education and STEAM in the project along with the consortium partner OLE. WiSTEAM will closely work in coordination with other stakeholders to meet the objectives and outputs set by the project. To achieves the objectives set by the project, WiSTEAM will be responsible for implanting following action (activities):

<ol>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Capacity development training on STEAM and digital learning to local government officials and elected leaders together with CSOs representatives
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Establish maker space at 6 schools with STEAM materials
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Provide basic and follow-up training on the use of maker space with STEAM materials
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Develop training manual on STEAM materials and STEAM approach
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Teacher training on material development and STEAM learning approach
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">
	Orientation on International Quality Education (IQE) and STEAM to SMC / PTA members
	</li>
</ol>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="264" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830154813-3.png" width="427" />

Note: the secondary data is based on the 2018/19 Flash Report of Education

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="268" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830154639-2.png" width="433" />

Note: the higher secondary data is based on the 2018/19 Flash Report of Education

&nbsp;

More details are provided at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wisteamnepal.org/resources/page/a-gap-analysis-for-the-implementation-of-project-titled-steam-ahead-showing-talent-equality-ambition-of-marginalized-children-in-karnali">https://www.wisteamnepal.org/resources/page/a-gap-analysis-for-the-implementation-of-project-titled-steam-ahead-showing-talent-equality-ambition-of-marginalized-children-in-karnali</a>&nbsp;

STEAM Ahead

The one-day training workshop training was conducted by Women in STEM Nepal in partnership with Open knowledge Nepal at Simta, Surkhet, Karnali Province for youth with the local coordination with Social Awareness Nepal (SAC) Nepal and Simta Rural Municipality targeting the youths of Simta rural municipality on the occasion of Open data global celebrations. It was funded by The Asia Foundation along with Data for development, Development Initiatives in Nepal, and UKAID.

Goals

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	Aware the local youths regarding the benefits and use of evidence-based data and digital technology and decision making processes;
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To enhance the data and digital literacy capacity of the youths of Simta rural municipality;
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To brainstorm the prevailing social issues around their community;
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To generate potential data-driven and digital solutions to those existing social issues;
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To create networks of youths who can potentially further advocate open data in their community.
	</li>
</ul>

<img alt="" height="300" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830164558-2.png" width="485" />

Fig: Representation of age group

Objectives

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To conduct three hours long data and digital technology workshop for the youths of Simta rural municipality;
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	To map existing social problems by conducting brainstorming activities using to find out the potential data-driven and digital solutions in a team.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="273" src="/media/uploads/2021/08/30/image-20210830164511-1.png" width="441" />

Fig: Total participation by sex

&nbsp;

Simta&rsquo;s Rural Municipality Chairman Remarks

Mr. Kabindra Kumar K.C,&nbsp; President of Simta Rural Municipality joined the training and he gave the remarks that &ldquo; As a naive user to Smartphones and devices, analog devices are handy for me. But I have to bear many drawbacks if I limit my use of Smartphones. Today&#39;s era is a digital world and data-driven, one has to learn it in order to excel in the workspace. I am therefore in the process of shifting myself and encourage everyone to do that.&quot;

He further added to engage the participants in the data collection in the upcoming census.

He thanked the organizers&#39; contribution to this project since&nbsp;the rural municipality found the youths lagging in digital literacy. Even 40 % of participants, girls who haven&#39;t even seen a computer, have not learned the basics of computers, they have not learned how to use applications like MS Word, MS Paint, etc. They have not been taught how to use the internet, how to search for information on the internet. So I requested that you continue the second phase of the training.

<img alt="" height="234" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/G8gmKDG6PZJYFIDU7VMCx1YcUNIrl2ZkOGsBBSOdPG3FXtRNcJgmVkQSA71qW7pTZMA5iZASpdciEBYuVxfSRwH4AbFYip4FpnMmNDl9bTfj6AXY40vvP9yJ_4K3SY2ZbKh2OKpI=s0" width="468" />

<img alt="" height="236" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9ep4G8I0fUZl205-ivV_S5MZg4F0YWqcJSt7osWYFr-ZT2aKiMeQoCBlZdlQv8RhchcM557WJQvLmcT2lYLJiyTO-XzFZkH3T73uHKsQw1YtiKhZEOfGXUQZP6Z2-ESGkDb7moJ2=s0" width="471" />

<img alt="" height="239" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/RRI9V2KNvcGhv1O8axicGpuLGuQOFX0jeA_T9nVKnvQFm2NJwBFtpiBvsTR0hui5wfr_j2fqdSU3bzUyxMhHyUAh_2N_oGNspU-iBKGoHBJemu0PP3P6kVCNrqO94QqVGldZSPGF=s0" width="478" />

<img alt="" height="251" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/vDAkosAmt6U2viJW7pLworrp0Vj24fleKM3H593vrlhosh1gkBLCS8LZ8HVQCPp2GB6qOA3G0-MMWttJSpoDyKZbK1GI30OyW9CwpvWVtIzwynmYxLIRMAjRCloRV-rgNlNyPNq2=s0" width="501" />

<img alt="" height="251" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nb2wtI7jlHNobakXAhIf_0NYnp2HzF_WZOT1QI6Z2qoYPUljJGr3tXGWuin_2VfpsSrwMy67QnhjKYXYEnejEZ9yFsEsETmoSYhuJ5Y7ww9vkdr6Lurt8kNcmwoCiOgsP_i1xCPp=s0" width="502" />

More updates on the link:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wisteamnepal.org/resources/page/open-data-and-digital-literacy-trainings-for-the-youths-of-simta-rural-municipality-by-women-in-steam">https://www.wisteamnepal.org/resources/page/open-data-and-digital-literacy-trainings-for-the-youths-of-simta-rural-municipality-by-women-in-steam</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Open data and Digital Literacy workshop

Women in STEM Nepal jointly leading the project with the partnership of Open Knowledge Nepal (OKN), Women Leaders in Technology (WLiT), and Girls in Tech Nepal. The project audience is the 300 young women entrepreneurs of age group 20-50 years who are running various kinds of medium-sized enterprises from 5 provinces (Province 1, Province 2, Bagmati Pradesh, Gandaki Pradesh, Province 5) of Nepal covering 20 districts for the entrepreneurial capacity building and skills enhancement through online and in-person boot camps.

<img alt="" height="158" src="/media/uploads/2021/09/01/download-3.png" width="319" />

This project aims to make the data related to women entrepreneurs of Nepal easily accessible such that it supports new entrepreneurs and other existing stakeholders with resources for evidence-based decision-making. This will eliminate the costly need for market analysis and will act as a support mechanism. The project activities include the collection of all publicly available data on women entrepreneurship and policies, preparation of a report of findings stating the current status for women entrepreneurship (in terms of product/services and operating domain), underlying policies, and the factors affecting those, development of a web portal to disseminate these findings and data publically in an interactive fashion, hosting online/in-person boot camps and events to use the tools and resources created to uplift the activities in the region and releasing the results to stakeholders and to a general audience through multi-tiered in-person meetings, public announcements using social media and the internet, encouraging the data and evidence-based decision making for policies, and resource allocation.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Program Methods and Design

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="318.54235613090424" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5VP7cF8X5nEHP0GRBTCP4-UVrrLK4ZaNF8VEWEFZlt5jRUacR0E2SzpdGiSdonaTSKBKVTe2bYzevrMrJd7aMOFu8ONJrYuFZO0rZKAAGT8onx3CwEmxvtiXrsTQqQBHapfk9M21=s0" width="718.7200598802395" />

&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Feasibility Study: Study of national and international policies and resources that are somehow interlinked with women entrepreneurship of Nepal. Reach out to domain experts and civil societies organizations working in the field of consultation.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Development of resources and harvesting of existing data: Harvest and localize the existing data and resources related to women entrepreneurship, which can be presented through web portals and can also be used for the skill enhancement boot camps.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Organize online and in-person boot camps: Develop the skill enhancement Bootcamp module to train women entrepreneurship with data-driven decision-making skills to grow their business and organize both online and in-person boot camps in various parts of the country, especially targeting social minorities.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Create a support mechanism: Create a network of all reached stakeholders and participants for idea sharing and long-term support mechanisms.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Development of WEData Nepa portal: Aggregate all the information, data, and resources via a comprehensive WEData Nepal portal and circulate if openly, and encourage everyone to reuse the available resources to grow their business.</li>
</ul>

<img alt="" height="300" src="/media/uploads/2021/09/10/image-20210910171114-1.png" width="485" />

&nbsp;

Future Funding or Sustainability

We will be focusing on these four approaches to guarantee the long term sustainability of this initiative:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Partnership with government: The various levels of partnerships will be done with local governments, civil society organizations, and supporters to ensure the sustainability of the web portal and resources developed during the project.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Ownership: The project beneficiaries can take ownership of the project to continue the engagement by sharing the knowledge and reusing the resources for other activities.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Service and support mechanism: Organizations and local entrepreneurs can be charged a certain minimum amount for training and resources.&nbsp;</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Seeking further funding: Additional funding from grant-making organizations will be sought simultaneously by researching potential grant sources, and staying updated from key partners for funding opportunities.</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

References:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.d4dnepal.org/2021/04/02/keeping-girls-in-steam-to-become-women-in-data/">http://www.d4dnepal.org/2021/04/02/keeping-girls-in-steam-to-become-women-in-data/</a>&nbsp;

Women Entrepreneurship Data

STEAM शिक्षा programs&nbsp;are introduced to problem solve the existing social issues with STEAM and digital education by inspiring, educating, and engaging adolescent girls through our skill-based hands-on training, workshops, mentorships, and digital learning contents. Currently, we have developed learning digital content on connecting STEAM शिक्षा with Education and Employability Skills to empower by equipping young girls with required digital and transferable skills.&nbsp;We have already worked in districts including Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Walling, Palpa, Sindupalchowk, Kavrepalanchowk, and Surkhet through our short term digital training, workshops, and mentorships reaching 1000+ youths.

<img alt="" height="254" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mHI0dbT7-hT2M3YCVOUDe5CYL7uEFbpg6VOtjlp995k-ewcwmJxzJVlQR6e4iNVf4S4sF1KAy33e1ivTxjYlPrnjBX3y28cPgcJa8ti5I1hzvBaLmSTAxZurGEh7atlD24z0j3ak=s0" width="451" />

&nbsp;

The sessions are specially targeted to the&nbsp;middle schools and at Maker-space of&nbsp;WiSTEAM physical space or constructed by WiSTEAM&nbsp;to impact the mindset of root causes of the existing gender gap in STEM fields. We aim to connect education with STEM hands-on learning experiences to the age group of 10-19 years in coding, cybersecurity, and electronics to decrease the prevailing gender gap in STEM and encourage young girls to think critically, design their imaginations, problem-solving and get exposure to STEM from an early age. We reached nearly 205&nbsp;young students with this program.&nbsp;The targeted locations were Godawori (Life Vision Academy ), Tokha (Nag Kathmandu and Triyog School), Suryabinayak (Mount Everest School), and Lalitpur(Gems School), Syangja, Walling, <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Waling+33801/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x3995c54b85798d13:0x4720664fba067678?sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjx1aOU9ZDtAhU7qksFHXiFCBsQ8gEwHHoECCAQAQ">Ranabir Higher Secondary School</a>,&nbsp;&nbsp;Butwal, Milan Chowk, <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Janajagriti+Higher+Secondary+School/@27.9381226,83.3755199,8.42z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x3994e63e46f22f35:0x71c5ce8fd761ed86!2sJanajagriti+Higher+Secondary+School!8m2!3d27.6498856!4d84.5446607!3m4!1s0x3994e63e46f22f35:0x71c5ce8fd761ed86!8m2!3d27.6498856!4d84.5446607">Jana Jagriti Secondary School</a>, Palpa, Tansen, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=all%20girls%20school%20palpa&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enNP913NP913&amp;oq=all+girls+school+palpa&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.6191j0j9&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;safe=active&amp;tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:2&amp;tbm=lcl&amp;sxsrf=ALeKk008dDJYfmZF494m7UwsdDMagozRtw:1605854791389&amp;rflfq=1&amp;num=10&amp;rldimm=13755493250894861168&amp;lqi=ChZhbGwgZ2lybHMgc2Nob29sIHBhbHBhWiIKDGdpcmxzIHNjaG9vbCISZ2lybHMgc2Nob29sIHBhbHBhmgEkQ2hkRFNVaE5NRzluUzBWSlEwRm5TVU5STUUxUFIzTlJSUkFC&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiV55qjw5DtAhW0wjgGHU0RDwgQvS4wAHoECAMQIw&amp;rlst=f#rlfi=hd:;si:13755493250894861168,l,ChZhbGwgZ2lybHMgc2Nob29sIHBhbHBhWiIKDGdpcmxzIHNjaG9vbCISZ2lybHMgc2Nob29sIHBhbHBhmgEkQ2hkRFNVaE5NRzluUzBWSlEwRm5TVU5STUUxUFIzTlJSUkFC;mv:%5B%5B27.9827692,83.70447899999999%5D,%5B27.2098932,83.0762261%5D%5D;tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!1m4!1u16!2m2!16m1!1e1!1m4!1u16!2m2!16m1!1e2!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e16!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2">MohanKanya School</a>, Kavre, Shree Kalika Primary School, Janaki Higher Secondary School,&nbsp;and WiSTEAM physical space.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="330" src="/media/uploads/2021/09/01/image-20210901171301-1.png" width="534" />

Fig: Total Reach from STEAM&nbsp;शिक्षा programs

SERIES OF EVENTS:

1. Hour of Code Series:&nbsp;The workshop was designed to support a network of girls and supported other girls to equip them with digital skills and was a huge accomplishment as a community model in 2018. In the session, we used to conduct a series of Hour of code programming sessions and reached nearly&nbsp;650 girls from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur districts. This is a programming workshop program initiated by CODE.org that focuses on an introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics in an hour. We customized the workshop to educate and aware young girls targeted especially of the age group 15-25 years from Kathmandu valley.&nbsp;In today&#39;s world, technology has become a prime force for development and economic growth. This coding workshop has motivated many&nbsp;young girls to get inspired as well as be capable of using a new era of technological advances. The main purpose of this program is to make one feel technology is a more approachable domain rather than an isolated notion, and give them a peek at what wonders can be done using basic coding. And they could do something within an hour, then they can do a lot if they invest some months in digital/STEAM careers.

<img alt="" height="301" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d1UMwY7saOEmZg7SP_XzFbS8gE3IwoCSD39JF0gjUtj8IFULpE9c4gJi8e3IoqAXBnaXIznY7OgqNqLGtX7IJbuwr5fh6Ey4_8DU6hhBQF_CbdVXeDpqvMNogapbjttlO_Xo0cRK=s0" width="452" />

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" height="204" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DDoY-BNGGSCBBktmVkXvsQ_eyPWmvz1CCGnNnTvpT6TwFyS75eiPJtueuLdx_9Cd1sj4geDFbu-oTeNe_qso8RC3_NRhlzSR8Kbz-wZfUZ752lfAThcBfA7Io18FBXs_Vg1q70JN=s0" width="307" /><img alt="" height="202" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/pYFg9rdFY4c5hw8z5YnUtAIm5eJSK48NoUwz-9lhRb9hHPEXFYdcGcLbmcOzJz2NMwN7ZlX44fbCzDvHnHpbcQxQtHdcj1V_E2_mr1I1lPCTj3GxB1dFxouttGEX6pG0vK_ccpQg=s0" width="301" />

2. International Girls in ICT Day Series:&nbsp;International Girls in ICT Day is the global movement, an initiative backed by all ITU Member States in ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (Rev. Busan, 2014), aims to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in April every year.​​​​​ Nepal has been a part of this global movement for many years now. Every year new ideas and approaches were made to maximize the participation of girls in ICT from Nepal.&nbsp;In 2018 NTA came with initiatives of bringing local communities together to achieve bigger goals and shape the impact bigger together. The Stakeholders for Girls in ICT Day 2018 were WiSTEM, WLIT, RAN, and more, and successfully running every year.

Women in STEAM&nbsp;have been actively working with Nepal Telecommunication Authority, the main organizer of Nepal since 2015. In 2017/18, we did Technical Assistant for International Girls in ICT Day to celebrate and engage young girls in ICT fields reaching seven provinces of Nepal. We assist NTA with guidelines for different proposals and programs for ICT day. There were about 104 proposals received which was 4 times more than the previous years. The shortlisted proposal and teams were called for a negotiation process and later based on their possible impacts and outputs, participatory approach, girls engagement, budget the selected programs were taken to seven provinces of Nepal to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day 2018.

STEAM शिक्षा Programs

The workshop was designed to support a network of girls and supported other girls to equip them with digital skills and was a huge accomplishment as a community model in 2018. In the session, we used to conduct a series of Hour of code programming sessions and reached nearly&nbsp;650 girls from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur districts. This is a programming workshop program initiated by CODE.org that focuses on an introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics in an hour. We customized the workshop to educate and aware young girls targeted especially of the age group 15-25 years from Kathmandu valley.

In today&#39;s world, technology has become a prime force for development and economic growth. This coding workshop has motivated many&nbsp;young girls to get inspired as well as be capable of using a new era of technological advances. The main purpose of this program is to make one feel technology as a more approachable domain rather than an isolated notion and give them a peek at what wonders can be done using basic coding. And they could do something within an hour, then they can do a lot if they invest some months in digital/STEAM careers.

ALL PROJECTS
FROM THE BEGINNING

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ALL PROJECTSFROM THE BEGINNING

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ALL PROJECTS
FROM THE BEGINNING