Digital Education for Youth with Disabilities

Dora is 25, she lives in the Villa Hermosa, one of the biggest slums in the mountains of Medellín, Colombia. Dora has a visual dissability and suffers from epilepsy, which has prevented her from studying and getting a good job. For a few year now, she has being receiving  trainning and counseling at a local NGO Fundación Amigos con Calor Humano, and we met her there when we took our digital education trainning to the NGO.

Dora is a fighter, and her dissabilities have never stop her, as she says herself " I always find a way not seeing has never stop me I know I can do anything if I work hard enough, right now I am selling clothes door to door with a catalogue, and I can pay for my food, clothes and have money to take the bus to go to counceling and keep going to the workshops and trainning they have "

She is a dreamer and hardworker, right know she is taking a course in entrepenurship and her dream is to open a hotel for people with dissabilities, about her dream she says "it has not been easy, I have sent proposal to organizations that support small business and banks and they had all said no, but I persisit someone somewhere will believe my idea is great ".

Dora loves to study and learn, that why she is always the first to sign up when the NGO she get her counceling from offers  new courses, when she heard abou the technology course MAKAIA was providing for people with dissabilities, thanks to the resources from our Global Giving project, she signed up imediately.

She told us she had attended other courses on the basic use of computers before, but MAKAIA's has been the only one that had truly empower her to use technology to make her dream a reality, on her experience she said "Our teacher Sofía, was incredible she also has a dissability and has come to previous workshops as a student, if she knows so much, maybe one day I can be a teacher too and help others, one of my favorite parts of the trainning was being able to help others that had never used a computer before, since I had a little trainning I became like her teaching assistant!"

"The course was great" Dora said "it  was very clear and explained everything step by step, and is it not only about using a computer but using that knowledge and apply it in other courses like the one I am doing now on how to create a business, it was easier to see the ideas more clearly in other lessons and do our homework, I still see my teacher Sofía from time to time, and we encourage others from the group we see around to review" Dora also shared that the course allowed her to learn how to use the internet in the specially adapted computers the NGO has. The knowledge you help us give TO Dora and her friends allow them not only she to find new opportunities, but to feel useful and empowered.

Dora uses a magnifying glass to use computers and mobile phone but this never stops her from using technology to the fullest, she told us since she attended the course she has learn how to use Facebook to talk to her friends, and twitter to get the news, she has even began looking at potos on Instagram, she says she is not yet brave enough to post lost of things but she loves how tecnology has made her life better, allow her to dream big and keep in touch with family and friends. 

Your support has been invaluable to make stories like Dora's a reality everyday, people like her are our inspiration and their bravery and streght motivate us to continue giving trainning programs so more and more people can get better oportunities, create businesses and improve their livelyhood. And more importantly be empowered and feel unstoppable.