Take space, make space. These young women from Sajhe Sapne in Himachal Pradesh often nudge each other gently with these words. It is their reminder to own their place in the world, that they should speak up, that they should make it easier for the quieter ones to have a voice. And this is an incredible thing to witness.
Starting October 21, aikyam space has been playing host for an all-women cohort of our tech residency program. There are six girls who are still coding students at Sajhe Sapne, and four more who are Sajhe alumni and co-founders of Udyami Tech. They are in Kochi for a 5-day residency to learn FOSS tools that could enable them to amplify social impact with the organisations they work with. "We didn't think we could create a website with little to no coding," says a beaming Meenu Yadav, one of the co-founders of Udyami Tech. She and her co-founders at Udyami Tech–Simran, Pallavi Thakur and Neha–are excited about how this new skill could help them build better websites.
For Preeti, Muskan, Sabnam, Savita, Khushboo and Kriti, the workshop is as much about learning to take up space as it is about learning new tools. These students from Sajhe Sapne are curious and eager to try new things. And they take to learning with enthusiasm. "This was so easy for me to understand. I'm excited to see what I can create with this," says Preeti, as she figures out how to make a new page for a website on Ghost. The cohort will learn other tools like BookStack and KoboToolbox at the residency. And while in Kochi, they are the most excited about getting to see the sea!
Watch this space for more updates from this cohort of brilliant young women!
Megha
Read more, and sign up for our residencies at aikyam space
