# W4P JaM stories end-of-year 2020

## Work 4 Progress: Year-End Reflection

From 2020, what are the top three most significant or remarkable stories of change of an entrepreneur / systemic prototype / process that you directly observed or contributed to?

### Story 1:

What happened? How? What really changed?

Lockdown prevented us from being physically available at Mirzapur. Setting up a wifi mesh became a distant dream and working on our ideas of an inclusive-first communication models had to be reimagined.

1) What worked well here? Why?

Retrospectively, "students" were available for online engagement, as there were no classes during the lockdown. We started off by engaging them over regular phones of girls' friends and family. Medha manifested 25 phones and a few laptops. Also they were in nearby locations and physically reached the devices to the "Garima girls" which helped start off a regular online engagement with Garima Girls.

3) What did not work well here ? Why?

"Garima girls" were not to be the preferred 1st choice for engagement as they were already comfortable and confident in communication - thanks to the earlier W4P efforts. However, Medha distributed the devices to them and started off with a set curriculum of training them to use phones, laptops and some social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram. Having phones as individual devices is a pride and joy. It's not that it did not work well with Garima Girls - it did work very well, but they may not be a representative group of girls for the project.

When Girls had to recharge their SIM cards, having individual recharges done led to the association of class as a way of getting the mobile phones recharged. Individual sim recharges take a lot of time and energy. Girls individually in their own comfort and boundaries started attending classes rather than breaking and negotiating the boundaries.

4) Did we take any action to tackle this? If yes, how?

Our effort was to get data-dongles and/or routers so as to initiate a shared resource that can be recharged and available for group needs. However, provisioning local SIMs independent of the Medha recharge became another hurdle.

5) What should the next steps be? Are there opportunities we can leverage to multiply this?

We are envisioning engaging a local young man or a girl who is mobile and enterprising in such aspects of these and other tech support. We also hope that such an initiative will help trigger a longer term support as an entrepreneurship activity.  

### Story 2:

What happened? How? What really changed?

Aamne Saamne Pi: As we (Janastu) could not be physically present at the site, we imagined putting together the devices with local partners which did not gain much traction. We had to switch to a "product mode" and develop devices that can be shipped ready to deploy. This is the beginning of "Aamne Saamne Pi" (ASPi). A slew of issues, mostly related to manufacturing defects unknown/unspoken for the configuration we needed, came to light and delayed delivery by two months. (We are blogging these issues so the maker and other users know of these.)

1) What worked well here? Why?

A small device to call their own something which will remain with them, using it for their own means. ASPi has the potential to be turned into community owned devices for everyone to use. It's also modular which leads to use cases of changing parts and understanding about them. Because of the speaker and the screen it was used for entertainment purposes, for playing songs and pulling in crowds of people. As the camera is independent of screen, it is useful for online workshop sessions.

2) What did not work well here? Why?

Two ASPi between three groups created a sort of tension. Looking back, we could have either sent more ASPi or handled the handing out to the girls more sentitively. The interface of the ASPi - mainly the small size of the screen used, reduced the ease to operate and thereby increased the learning curve.

3) Did we take any action to tackle this? If yes, how?

We tried circulating the ASPi, and will do so in the future. try and get a place to set up ASPi. We hoped/wished to have local help in procuring larger screens which we have not given up yet.

4) What should the next steps be? Are there opportunities we can leverage to multiply this?

ASPi can have bigger screens, be situated in context and its use also be encouraged. Mostly, we need to get into creative collaborative activities where the girls engage (include) the community around them, once we go beyond the device and initiation hiccups.

### Story 3:

What happened? How? What really changed?

Daily Classes

1) What worked well here? Why?

Remote classes started off well, and also kind of gave the girls a preview of what could be possible with an ASPi in addition to the phones they were familiar with by now. They were interested and curious to learn about new things and excited to use them. Applications like InShot and Canva were widely accepted and used for storytelling, designing expressive flyers and invitations for friends and family.

2) What did not work well here ? Why?

Being not physically present there added to the burden of guiding them to use laptops and phones for the first time remotely. It was difficult for them to get comfortable with Pi/Laptop. Something as simple as scrolling and right and left clicks are not intuitive. Since the phones and laptops were surprise elements girls had to bear the brunt of installing new software which might not be a good place to start, makes the task seem more daunting. Keeping the same energy in class seems difficult after a while and the attendance dwindled.

3) Did we take any action to tackle this? If yes, how?

Trying out different models of engagement which are sustainable: Tried out with different mentors and guest sessions to break the monotonicity. Had In between sessions (breaks) to understand where the girls are coming from.

4) What should the next steps be? Are there opportunities we can leverage to multiply this?

Building the connection with the girls so that they are able to reach to us in times of need. This being a sustained lifelong thing rather than just a quick glitch in between. From daily classes to DIY classes, how they can turn this into an opportunity for them and their village would be interesting to see.

Now that the girls are busy with classes again, its a good time to relook at the curriculum with ASPi as a first class device. On the downside, the release of funds issue (FCRA related) has been twarting production for some time and we are keeping our fingers crossed so as to jump this hurdle too.