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Bashaer Madhi Gawad
As a wife, mother, student, and art teacher, 28-year-old
Bashaaer knows how important it is to make the most of her time—and
she’s good at thinking of creative ways to do it.
Bashaaer has been a certified teacher at Belad
Elementary School for the past eight years, where she teaches
courses in drawing, sewing, and handicrafts. On the side, she
sets up specialty galleries to showcase drawings, etchings, and
handicrafts—for which she has received several honorary certifications.
Within her career, however, Bashaaer sees room for improvement,
which she is making into a reality by learning IT and professional
development skills through the WIT training program.
Bashaaer isn’t the only member of her family interested
in computers; her husband and two brothers also work in computer
communications and engineering. But Bashaaer will use her newly-acquired
skills from the WIT training program in an entirely different
way: She wants to use computer technology to improve various aspects
of her art lessons. PowerPoint, she says, is extremely useful
for “teaching that sustains the students’ attention and draws
them into the lessons.” And on an administrative level, she’ll
use her new database skills to track classroom attendance, grades,
and student information; and to manage education syllabi on the
computer. Bashaaer is now one of two teachers at the school trained
in computer and database skills, and she hopes this number will
increase.
In the meantime, Bashaaer is continuing her own
education as a second-level student in the College of Open Education.
In her artistic and professional pursuits, she is prepared to
use her new computer skills to open doors for herself and her
students.
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Zayna, Zeena and Hashemeya
In Iraq, three women from three different backgrounds are
completing the WIT training program —and each of them looks forward
to using their new IT and computer skills to make positive changes
in their lives….
Zayna is 24 years old and originally from Baghdad. Recently she
moved to Karbala to escape sectarian tensions in her area. Despite
earning an English degree in 2007, Zayna has been unable to secure
a job since graduation. She blames bureaucratic processes and
red tape for the difficulties in finding employment—and wonders
if sectarian issues may be working against her in Karbala, as
well. To improve her job options, she signed up for WIT training,
where she finds herself surrounded by other women looking to advance
their careers in the face of various obstacles.
Meanwhile her WIT classmate, Zeena, has faced a different set
of challenges—how to convince her husband and family that she
can improve her career options by taking a computer training course.
A 22-year-old housewife with a high school degree, Zeena met initial
resistance from her husband to the idea of participating in the
WIT program. He insisted that the course was unnecessary for her,
pointing out that she does not have a degree that will enable
her to find a job, and reminding her of her duties to take care
of the house and children. Participating in the training, he said,
would take time and energy that would distract her from her responsibilities
at home.
“Before the training there was a fear of not being able to continue,”
Zeena says, due to her husband’s skepticism. But as she progressed
through the course, Zeena found that she gained not only computer
and IT knowledge, but a new sense of self-confidence “and a desire
to improve myself and to gain skills that could have an effect
on my future social and professional life.” She is now well on
her way to completing the training, and she looks forward to continuing
to take classes in the future—this time “with the support of my
family.”
Hashemeya, age 45, holds a BA in Mathematics and works as an
assistant professor at the Teachers Prep Institute. Lack of training
in computers has made it difficult for her to apply technology
in her work—which led her to register for the WIT program. As
she progresses through the training, Hashemeya is coming up with
specific plans for how she would like to use her new skills at
work. In addition to managing administrative orders on the computer
and constructing a student database of grades and averages, Hashemeya
would like to coordinate and implement the WIT training for her
students at the Institute. She hopes to see her students prepared
to use and benefit from the latest computer technology. For herself
and her students, technology represents a means to “get rid of
the old ways of doing things”—and to make education more efficient
and more effective in a rapidly changing country.
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