Women's Group Aids Computer Literacy

By BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD

This article originally ran in the New Jersy Courier-Post on Friday, October 18, 2002.

When a group of women put their heads together for a cause dear to their hearts, things usually get done.

So it is with the women of eLIT, a 2-year-old organization of Indian and Pakistani Americans, many of whom live in South Jersey. The group has established computer literacy centers for women and children in India, Pakistan and West Philadelphia and now plans to open one in Afghanistan.

"In any part of the world you go, the economically disadvantaged are women. Those of us who come from that background know what it is like," said Rubina Ahmad of Voorhees, who heads eLIT's India Project. Ahmad, a native of Pakistan, is vice president for computer systems at a large bank.

Despite the political differences between India and Pakistan that have led the nations to the brink of war a number of times in the past half-century — most recently this past summer — the women of eLIT, Muslims and Hindus, are united in a common goal.

"We are holding our hands together to make a difference. The cultural and religious boundaries don't make a bit of difference to us. With so many bigger problems in the world such as poverty and the lack of education, political differences are not important," Ahmad said.

The idea for eLIT - empowerment through Learning Information Technology — came from Philadelphian Safia Rizvi, a biomedical researcher with a Ph.D. who is now working toward an advanced business degree at Penn's Wharton School.

Rizvi, who grew up in both India and Pakistan, presented her concept to other women from similar backgrounds and then launched the program in 2000.

"What I conceived was a baby then, but it's now a growing child. The idea is to provide access to information. The world is becoming very small," Rizvi said.

"Coming from a medical background, I use this analogy: You can give over-the-counter drugs to suppress the symptoms of a disease, or you can use antibiotics to cure a disease," Rizvi said. "You can look at terrorism in the world, but it is only a symptom. The real disease is ignorance."
Rizvi quickly recruited other women from India and Pakistan, including Ahmad, who in turn got neighbors to join. Today, there is a core group of 20 members and another 50 — men as well as women — who help further the organization's aims.

"This basically empowers the women we help. That is the best feeling and the best way to help their children," said Naz Hashmi, a law firm accountant who grew up in India and now lives in Voorhees.

First and foremost, the women of eLIT are donating their time and skills. Designs for the group's brochures and publicity are being created by Shehnaz Patel, a graphics designer from Voorhees who is originally from India.

With a grant from Rizvi's employer, pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline, eLIT opened two centers: one in West Philadelphia to serve the needs of inner-city women and children and one in Karachi to serve women and children in southern Pakistan. The Karachi center has about 35 enrollees and 31 graduates, while Philadelphia has 15 enrollees and 20 graduates.
A grant from the Eugene Garfield Foundation in Philadelphia was responsible for opening a center in Kukatpally, a town in the southern Indian state of Hyderabad. That center recently held its first graduation for 21 women out of 51 women and 111 children enrolled.

An individual donation matched by a grant from the global financial firm J.P. Morgan enabled the establishment earlier this year of a fourth center in Mansehra in northern Pakistan, which also serves Afghan refugees.

In March, eLIT sent member Saroja Hanasoge, a Tabernacle resident of Indian origin, to Afghanistan to see if the time was right to place a center there.

"The truth is that women there know about computers and want to communicate with other women in the world. Giving them a means to communicate means giving them a voice. They can tell us what they need, instead of others speaking for them," Rizvi said.

While donations from corporate sponsors and individuals have paid for opening the other centers and operating them for a year, it will cost up to four times as much to establish one within Afghanistan.

"Because of the war, there is no infrastructure. What they have there is a bare room with broken chairs," Hashmi said.

The women estimated the cost of repairing a building, making it computer-ready and running it for a year to be $ 40,000.

To raise money for the center and to help keep the others going, eLIT is holding its first benefit Saturday night at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology.

Asian American Quilt is an evening of entertainment in three acts.

"Threads" depicts the journey of an Indian sari from the labor market to the global market, as presented by the Courtyard Dancers led by anthropologist Pallabi Chakrabarti. "Asian Misbehavin'" is a mix of stand-up comedy, skits and monologues by a group of Asian-Americans from Philadelphia. "Burka" is an emotional look at the world through the eyes of a woman covered in the Afghan garb once described as the "public tarring and feathering of female sexuality."

There will also be an auction of clothing and jewelry crafted by women in India and Pakistan.
"These women make pennies. If a woman can work so hard to make something for so little money, maybe others could benefit from it," Ahmad said.

Rizvi said the group hopes to raise at least $50,000 at the benefit. "We are very ambitious. But more than money, we are hoping to raise awareness," Rizvi said.

There is no charge for women and children to attend eLIT centers, which have paid and volunteer staff. Each eLIT center has a local director and two teachers who not only teach computer skills but also help students with any literacy problems. In the Asian centers, the teachers must be women.

"In those cultures, men have an easier time of allowing their wives or daughters to go to the program if the teacher is a woman," Hashmi said.

Having grown up in countries where violence against women is often part of the culture, members of eLIT are uniquely suited to tackling the problem of educating those in the countries they left behind.

"We use our own cultural training to help women. They need the confidence that having access to information can give them," said Ahmad, who also draws on her experience as a mother and a manager.

Added Rizvi: "We are proud of our heritage, but not limited by it."

If you go, "Asian American Quilt," a benefit to aid educational programs for women in Afghanistan, is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Harrison Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology, 33rd and Spruce streets, Philadelphia. Tickets are available at door and in advance for $50 (VIP), $25 (regular seating), $15 (students). For more information, to reserve tickets or to join eLIT, call 856.982.4969 or 215.474.0169.

© 2002 Courier-Post

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