Bridging HIV Awareness and Technology

In a program led by LINKAGES Indonesia, a consortium of FHI360 and PACT, TechSoup Asia-Pacific and our Indonesia partner NGO Kitabisa  are currently managing a program dedicated to strengthening of the digital outreach capacities of working in HIV prevention.

The program includes a 16-module ICT training that has been divided into four workshops held across a three-month period. The 16-module course was specifically designed to focus on utilizing popular online communication tools, resources and methodologies that outreach workers can use to communicate with key populations.

Partaking in the 3-month training program are 20 local grassroots non-profit organizations within and outside of Jakarta. In preparation for the program, TechSoup and Kitabisa rolled out an ICT Assessment survey, a comprehensive set of questions to determine the organizational ICT capacities, from hardware, gadgets and servers, usage of software licenses, data protection, to their digital outreach capacities. The surveys also measured capacities on two accounts – on an organizational level,  and as individuals from the organization.

Using results from the ICT assessment as a baseline indicator of each NGO’s knowledge and skill sets, TechSoup and implementing partner Kitabisa were able to design a digital outreach curriculum to help the NGOs improve their digital outreach methods.

Through these assessments, results showed:

  • Among the 20 organizations, the pre-assessment shows 80% of the organizations identifying themselves as having low knowledge in digital security measures. Although many of the respondents were aware of their vulnerability to digital attacks,the majority of them do not perform backups on their devices.
  • Around 70% of the NGOs responded positively to social media usage, knowledge and capacity in relation to their digital outreach work. However, despite their familiarity with social media platforms and instant messaging, the biggest challenge for them was a lack of a structured digital outreach plan.

As HIV outreach campaigns primarily deal with sensitive information, this also shows how ensuring proper understanding and employment of digital security measures should also be considered as a top priority – one that is as important as improving digital outreach methods.

Outside of the trainings, participating organizations also received a tailored package of software via TechSoup’s technology donations program. These packages are inclusive of organizational essentials such as operating systems and productivity suites, along with antivirus licenses to help boost their current digital security measures, and Boost Training and Support packages to continuously feed them with learning content even after the workshops have ended.

Overall, while the collaboration in itself seeks to only empower 20 local organizations, the long-term impact of these organizations’ online visibility, and subsequently, outreachto the key HIV populations is very promising.

Bridging the divide

In many emerging economies, digital gaps exist because communities at large have no access to computers.

Accessibility to technology is crucial. However, of equally importance for these societies, is being digitally literate.

A core focus area of TechSoup Asia Pacific is understanding these gaps in the non-profit sector, and developing capacity building programs for them. By equipping these communities with knowledge on how to best utilise available products, it will empower them and allow them to address social issues.

Recently, Yayasan Salam and Kitabisa.com, our partner NGOs in Malaysia and Indonesia respectively, conducted free f2f trainings for non-profits.

In total, approximately 120 participants from 85 organisations attended the half-day workshops, which covered popular topics, such as external marketing tools, internal communication software, and ways that non-profits could maximise social media.

Concurrently, the Asia Pacific team continues to run webinars open for all. The recent 1-hour webinar on MailChimp received registration of more than 140 participants.

Click here for the MailChimp webinar.

#LetsGetSocial @ Bandung

At the end of August, we co-organized #LetsGetSocial! with our Indonesia partner Kitabisa in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. 148 participants representing 87 organizations from across the Java province – Bandung, Tasikmalaya, Garut, and Semarang attended the session.

Kitabisa shared tips on how to raise money online, how to be a digital-friendly organization, and ways that nonprofits could utilize tech.

Read more about Kitabisa’s online fundraising work here.

Indonesia – Kitabisa.com

Kitabisa literally translates to “We can” in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Kitabisa.com is Indonesia’s most popular online fundraising platform, harnessing the power of the masses through crowdfunding.

Kitabisa.com works closely with many nonprofits, providing resources, such as workshops and training sessions that specifically address digital technology for nonprofits.

Since its launch in 2013, Kitabisa has collected over 8.46 billion rupiah in crowdfunding to support more than 785 initiatives.