Project factsheet information

Project Title NextGen Girls – Internet Security Ambassadors Project
Full name and acronym Shilpa Sayura Foundation
Address

Shilpa Sayura Foundation, No 131, Daulagala Road, PilImatalawa

Phone +94777466346
Fax
Website http://www.shilpasayura.org/
Dates covered by this report: 01-10-2018 – 31-10-2019 –
Report submission date 11-11-2019
Country where project was implemented Sri Lanka
Project leader name Poornima Meegammana
Email
Project Team Poornima Meegammana [email protected]
Rameela Azeez [email protected]
Samanmalee Swarnalatha [email protected]
Yamuna Rathnayake [email protected]

Partner organization ISOC Sri Lanka Chapter, Dialog Ideamart, Computer Society of Sri Lanka
Total budget approved USD 32,764
Project summary

The NextGen Girls initiative included creating an IoT and Security Curriculum including Internet governance, Privacy, IPV6, IoT, Networking, Information Security and open web technologies and training 40 female University students to become Internet Security Educators. They in turn, trained 160 of their peers, and make awareness to 800 high school girls in IoT safety. The training was delivered through 8 workshops at 4 universities, 24 live online training sessions, 2 meetups and an IoT hackathon among girls.

The main outcome of the NextGen Girls project is the development of a sustainable network of women specializing in IoT and security, advocating IoT safety and enable support for victims while increasing women participation in IoT and Security field. In the long term, the NextGen Girls community will support women to show leadership in the emerging IoT industry, increase safety and advancement of women.

Shilpa Sayura Partners AlgoHack community, Google education, Computer Society and ISOC Sri Lanka worked together to implement NextGen Girls initiative.

NextGen Girls aims to scale up the project "Respect Girls on Internet" which was awarded the ISOC 25 Under 25 Award and received an ISOC Beyond The Net Community Grant. The project developed a network of university and high school girls studying ICT. The goal of the project is to support young women professional development to pursue emerging IoT security careers, that in turn will help build safer and secure IoT environment at homes, workplaces and communities.


The emergence of pocket-sized computing devices, capable of electronic switching, sensing, controlling equipment, video, and audio has created a new paradigm shift in home automation, business, agriculture, transport, environmental technologies. IoT systems use internet to interconnect. Unsecure home uses of IoT can endanger safety and breach privacy of individuals and families. Women are particularly vulnerable as IoT misuse has facilitated revenge porn incidents, harassment, data breach, as well as scams. Online safety activitists recommend that women seek suppor from other women in the event of IoT breach, as seeking support from a male technician can pose additional risks. The project proposed approach is to develop IoT and security skills among women to safeguard their homes, workplaces, and community from IoT breaches. Women becoming IoT security experts immensely contributes to gender equality, diversity, and growth in female participation in the IoT economy.

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