Nook: Bulawayo
Learner Name: Mduduzi Brian Nqwababa
Month & Year of Story: October 2021
“I think a Nook is a place where people can experiment and experience life through trial and error.” This is how 20 years old Brian describes his experience at the Bulawayo Nook in Zimbabwe. Brian comes to the Nook since it opened its doors to the local community in April 2021. Having a space to experiment, discover new interests and try out new skills is what he likes most about the Nook. As such, Brian has already explored a broad variety of different skill areas ranging from website design to arts & crafts, cooking and carpentry. He says that “the desire to learn triggered my interest to come to the Nook and I was interested in the different projects we worked on during the induction program me for new learners. l keep on coming here because l want to expand my skills base.”
Brian, who left school after the secondary level, currently works on manufacturing a sofa that can also be converted into a bed. He hopes that the carpentry skills he gains through pursuing this goal will help him to earn an additional income and start his own business.
Nook: Whitefield
Learner Name: Vaishali KD ( Name Changed)
Month & Year of Story: February 2020
12-years old Vaishali attends the 5th grade at St. Joseph’s Convent School. His father works as a security guard while his mother is employed as a maid in six households.
The young boy started coming to the Nook in March 2019 to have free access to laptops, the internet, and other technology. He says that “I was really surprised to find such a space here. In our school, I used to see only broken computers in the school lab but here we get laptops, new tools, electronics and other materials for project-making.”
Gaining digital literacy skills and democratizing access to technology is a key aspect across all of Project DEFY’s Nooks. By providing access to laptops, internet, tools, and materials, the Learners are able to find and work on projects that follow their own interests, aspirations, and needs. As Vaishali says, “I had never used a laptop before but after coming to the Nook I have learned how to use a computer, how to do documentation, how to use the internet to find information and identify new projects using YouTube and online learning courses.”
After learning the basics of computers and the internet, Vaishali started to work on electronic and mechanical projects and currently learns carpentry by building a skateboard from scratch. What the boy loves about learning in the Nook is the practical nature of the projects: “in school, we only study theoretical knowledge. The Nook is a place where we can learn by building concrete projects. Even when we fail, it is an important learning for us but in school, we get punished for making mistakes. Here we learn by doing experiments, asking questions, using computers and the internet and with the help of our friends.”
(name changed to protect minor)
Nook: Avalahalli, JP Nagar
Learner Name: Zahair ( Name Changed)
Month & Year of Story: February 2020
14-years old Zahair lives in Avalahalli, a small community on the outskirts of Bangalore. His father does welding work at a local hardware shop while his mother takes care of him and his three siblings.
Zahair has been a Nook Learner since December 2019. After hearing from a friend about the self-designed learning space in his community, the 9th-grade student at Kannada Public School started coming to the Nook in order to learn more about computers and gain some practical skills: “I never used a laptop before. My friend told me that in the Nook we can work with laptops, create our own projects and acquire new knowledge. I want to learn carpentry so I came here to do this,” the boy says.
For Zahair, the biggest difference to a school is that in the Nook, he can pursue his own interests and aspirations. Learning becomes relevant and rewarding on the individual level, which is what it should always be but what the centralized schooling system can’t deliver: “I get bored a lot in school, most things we learn are just not interesting and useful. But in the Nook I can do whatever I want and I can learn practical things,” he says.
After only a few months at the Nook, Zahair learned, for example, how to use a computer, how to access online resources and find information, and how to work in a team. He says that “I have learned to work together with a team. When we set a goal for ourselves, we identify projects to achieve the goal and use online tutorials and YouTube to learn the skills we need.”
Zahair also gained some important carpentry skills such as iron soldering, using the drilling machine, working with the multimeter as well as doing 3D design. He adds that “at the Nook I am able to use many carpentry tools and I have learned many technical skills.”
Nook: Rwanda Nook Hub
Location: Gahanga, Kigali, Rwanda
Learner Name: Samuel Manishimwe
Month & Year of Story: January 2020
Ever since he was a young boy, 19-years old Samuel Manishimwe from Gatovu village, Rwanda, had a passion for music and dance. His dream is to become a successful musician and follow in the footsteps of his idols P-Square and Davido, two popular R&B artists from Nigeria.
In June 2019, Samuel set out on an on-going journey to pursue his dream by joining the Nook Hub in Gahanga: “I heard that the Nook offers opportunities to the community to gain skills in various aspects. When I came here, I saw that the Nook really is a place where I can follow my own interests and aspirations by learning music production,” he says. Having access to laptops, internet and various software programs at the Gahanga Nook, Samuel learns the necessary skills for music production by using software such as Ableton Live for sound editing and Fruit Loops, a digital audio workstation that allows for the production of music and audio through virtual instruments. Using these and other programs, the young artist creates his own Afro-pop music style.
Moreover, Samuel often practices and rehearses his ideas with fellow learners and friends at the Nook and gets valuable feedback from them. This learning, sharing and growing together is also an important aspect of daily life at the Nook for Samuel. He says that more than just acquiring skills for music production, he made new friends and learned to be more social and how to solve conflicts peacefully.
While the Nook is a learning space to acquire new skills and knowledge and follow one’s interests and passion, it is also an inclusive community space where everyone can come together, interact with each other and support each other. Having such a space and platform is important everywhere, but especially so in Rwanda, a country still healing from the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Therefore, Samuel highlights how the Nook “is not only a learning space for us but also a safe space for the whole community.”
Nook: Kaggalipura
Learner Name: Muskan
Month & Year of Story: February 2020
19-years old Muskan joined the Kaggalipura Nook in 2018. For about two years, the young woman comes to the Nook on a regular basis to access computers and the internet and learn new, relevant skills: “there is no other place which allows me to access laptops and the internet for free. Here for the first time in my life, I can do this, and through this, I can acquire new knowledge and skills across different areas according to my own interests,” she says.
Leaving school after 11th grade as she lost interest in learning about things that seemed far away and irrelevant to her own life, Muskan joined the Nook to use the internet as a tool to explore many different areas and skills ranging from cooking to singing, dancing, arts and crafts, and tailoring. She is also particularly interested in recycling waste materials to create decorative household items.
Currently, the young woman is engaged in making bottle art – reusing empty bottles for creative arts design – and tailoring. As her rather conservative community does not accept women working outside the home, Muskan aims to learn professional tailoring skills in order to start a home-based business to earn her own money and to gradually become more independent.
For Muskan, the Nook serves as a platform to explore her own interests and acquire skills and knowledge relevant to her own life. She says that “the Nook is providing me all the necessary things to learn. Here I can enhance my knowledge in many different areas. For me, the Nook is the place where we can explore our inner talent.”
Nook: Whitefield
Learner Name: Monisha (Not real name)
Month & Year of Story: January 2020
13-years old Monisha attends the 7th grade at St. Joseph’s Convent School in Whitefield. Her father is a day laborer working mostly for construction projects while her mother is employed as a maid across several households in the community. Both parents are working hard every day to feed their family of four so that Monisha is often necessarily left on her own. After school, there are no spaces to go for children in the local community and no activities offered. This changed with the establishment of the Whitefield Nook.
Now, coming to the Whitefield Nook on a daily basis after school, Monisha explores a wide range of new areas and acquires many skills and new knowledge in the process: “I’ve never seen or been to a space like the Nook before which contains so many tools and materials that we all can use. I never used a computer before in my life, but after coming to the Nook I have learned how to work on a laptop and access information online to find new projects. I have improved my typing skills, knowledge of computers, how to browse the internet and learned how to make electronic projects,” the girl says.
As opposed to school which severely limits the choice of what one can learn and how to learn it, Monisha particularly enjoys the freedom of finding and working on her own projects, based on her own needs, interests, and dreams: “In school, we only study books and never apply what we learn, but in the Nook we can explore and build any kinds of projects which we are interested in. The Nook is a good place to improve our skills and it will help you to learn whatever you want,” she argues. Another aspect Monisha mentions is that in the Nook, people learn together and with each other rather than having to compete against each other for grades and recognition. “I enjoy working in a team and in the Nook I am getting that opportunity. That’s also what makes me come to the Nook every day. It’s nice to work together and have fun at the same time,” she adds.
Nook: Avalahalli, JP Nagar
Learner Name: Niah (not real name)
Month & Year of Story: January 2020
Avalahalli village, a part of JP Nagar, is a rather marginalized community that developed out of a former slum area. Many residents struggle to make ends meet through precarious labour and low-paying jobs as the only employment opportunities while increasing unemployment is an ever-bigger problem. Added to this is a very conservative ethos in the local community which often relegates women to a life in the confines of the family home and where domestic violence is unfortunately not uncommon.
This is the context in which 33-years old Nook Learner Niah fights to determine her own future. Leaving school after 12th Standard and getting married early in life, she moved to Avalahalli where she now lives with her husband, a truck driver, her two sons, and her father- and mother-in-law. “my husband and in-laws are very strict. They said that I should be at home doing household work only. At the same time, they call me ‘useless.’ When they restrict me from doing anything and call me useless at the same time, I feel very bad about myself and it’s not fair,” the brave woman says.
When Niah came to the Nook for the first time, she did not think that she herself would become an active Learner at the Nook and an important part of the growing Nook Community: “actually, I was taking my sons to the Nook. When I was there, I realized that it’s not only a place for children. I can do something for myself here again. That’s why I keep on coming to the Nook. I have finally found a place that allows me to explore the options of what I want to do in life rather than telling me what all I can’t do,” she says.
For Niah, this means to explore many new areas and skills she could not pursue and learn before. Learning basic computer skills and how to navigate online and find information and ideas gave her a whole new perspective on life. Learning how to create and access an email account also helped Niah to connect with her family: “I am surprised about what the laptop and internet can do in this world. Now I can send emails to my relatives who live outside the country,” she says.
Realising her own potential and that she is able to achieve whatever she wants to do in life, Niah
now comes almost daily to the Nook in order to learn English language, how to use Excel and the basics of accounting in order to find a job and become more independent – and this all against the continuing restrictions and resistance of her family-in-law: “I started to speak English, learn how to use different software and gained confidence in speaking with other people. The Nook opens my mind and changes the way how I think. It is the place where I can express my identity and be myself. Now I can figure out for myself what I want to do in life. I experienced a different world from being a housewife. I am curious and excited about many things.”
This shows the immense meaning and importance that the Avalahalli Nook holds for Niah and many more women like her.
Please Note: We used a different name to protect the learner from any lash back that comes from sharing her story.
Our first Nook outside India. This Nook is in partnership and is supported by SINA (Social Innovation
Academy). The Nook itself is made by the community, made out of plastic bottles filled with mud and cemented
together, with a wood upper half and tin-sheet roofing. 50 odd people started to use the Nook, using the computers,
cutting wood, checking up motors, trying out the soldering iron, etc. In a few days they made a regular large table, a
bench and a foldable table for laptops to be mounted against the wall and a casing for a projector to be mounted.
They have now begun making sandals out of unused clothes and tyres, furniture, bracelets out of paper. They are
also taking courses in music production and electronics on the Internet. All of this in just one month of starting up.
Space has also become a repair centre for radios, mobile phones, headphones etc.,
Our second Nook is in a small village called Muranagar, in Bajpe, about one hour from Mangalore
city. It is run in a house, with about 2500 sq feet of built-up space and some open land for agriculture and gardening.
The community has been working hard to turn the house into a space of creativity.
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