Smartstainable

Increase interest and support for women and girls to take active roles on committees that are responsible for community-owned technology programs that empower rural and under-served communities.
Improve access to technology for women and girls, especially in rural and under-served communities.
Increase the opportunities for women and girls to participate in technical training and mentorship roles, especially to further advance computer literacy in rural and under-served communities.
Make computer literacy accessible to women and girls in rural and under-served communities.
Improve rural women and girls discernment of information accuracy discovered through internet use and research.
Increase rural women's and girls' knowledge of digital safety when they participate in social media platforms.
Encourage educated girls from rural and underserved communities to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Create community-owned technology programs that provide opportunities to empower women, girls, and their rural and under-served communities. To achieve this, we develop a strong relationship with recognized community representatives to mobilize community leaders to sensitize their community on technology programs that meet the community needs. They then create a committee with at least 50% of women. Using a Smartstainable supplied template, the committee defines the problem, program goals, benefits, measurements, and budget. Smartstainable will support each approved program through the following:
Fundraise for this program;
Purchase the equipment at the best possible price;
Deliver equipment to the program site;
Provide necessary training and educational resources;
Provide the budgeted stipend to the women coordinators;
Recruit volunteers to mentor the coordinators and participants;
Provide feedback and recommended adjustments;
Govern the measurement techniques;
Communicate results to the committee and the public.

Smartstainable's co-founder was a medical superintendent and district health officer and has positive relationships with the Gombe community in Uganda, who currently implement our programs.
Smartstainable's co-founder is a community leader with the Gombe community.
Smartstainable's co-founders have expertise in both implementing community initiatives and delivering technology programs.
Current volunteers manage specific fundraisers through social media, specific marketing strategies recommended by volunteers finance each program.
Professors seek to raise awareness at the university and college level and help spread our message.
YouTube videos help educate our constituents.
Volunteer technical advisors develop cost-effective technology programs.

Our progress so far:
We completed an adult women's computer training program with 16 participants. Three women are now community technical evangelists. Three women started small businesses. One woman helped manage her supermarket; one woman went to nursing school with new computer knowledge. Unfortunately, approximately 50% of the women left the program because of pressure from their husbands. We expect much lower incidents now that we mobilize leaders to sensitize the community.
We completed an introduction to computer usage for hospital staff.
We also completed a pilot program that helped 12 rural teenage women learn computer usage before attending university, college, or technical school.
Moving forward, we continue to develop both community-owned programs to solve specific community needs and Smartstainable driven pilot programs to explore additional opportunities in the community.