SiDo

“Si do” means “Sew it” in Urdu. Our goal is to empower women to take part in social and working life through traditional skills.

We belive that lifelong learning can help promote gender equality, ensure equal access to employment, and to include a larger part of the society within the benefits of ITC.

Intro

• Problem

• Solution
  • How
• Why not use apps that already exist
• Why Pakistan
• Impact

Problem

Young girls and women residing in different areas in Pakistan are facing poverty and unemployment where they do not have access to basic necessities nor education facility. Many drop out from schools to provide support at home (Wasif, Sehrish 2018). When it comes to employment, the minority of the employed are women, this shows that there is absence of gender equality (The Global Economy).

What

SiDo is a mobile application that gives the opportunity for women in Pakistan to learn how to sew. SiDo is educational, social and a hub for women in Pakistan. SiDo has a simple interface for that is easy to use by people with low levels of literacy and digital skills. It has three main features:

• learning platform divided into three levels; for beginners, intermediate and advanced.
• social platform where user can ask questions and communicate with others.
• integrated hub for trading and exchanging materials, patterns and selling finished products.

How

the Si Do application gives women the opportunity to develop their digital skills, discover new patterns, learn how to sell finished products, and be a source of inspiration and be inspired by other women, who shares the same interest.

With Si Do, women can learn, communicate, collaborate, and help build a community of women from distant cultures and from right next door. These relationships help them support one another and work together to create new businesses in the communities.

Why not use apps that already exist?

Apps that already exist aren’t fit for purpose. For example:

• Social networking applications it’s where people go to get their news ad hear what their friends are doing. It’s not a learning platform.

• Shopping platforms doesn’t have a place where people can network and exchange knowledge.

• Learning platforms like courses are likely to not provide a shopping platform.

So why create a new platform? It’s the mashup of the three functions of the SiDo app that makes it valuable and that also gives you the opportunity to make it responsive to the user’s needs.

Why Pakistan?

We chose to focus on Pakistan, because we have a strong connection to communities throughout this country. However, we acknowledge that Si Do can create value for women in other countries.

We believe that Si Do can help both government and non-government organizations that aim to promote, lifelong learning, gender equality and social inclusion. Although Si Do is a social innovation, we also understand that it has commercial potential. Social investors or industry partners can use Si Do for advertising, selling fabrics to the community, or generating revenue from purchases on the platform.

Si Do provides the means for learning more about the passion for sewing, for becoming an entrepreneur, and for connecting with the next generation to learn digital skills.

Impact

With SiDo, women can network and create a community where they use their ability to share creations, connect collectively to do some creative empowerment. Apart from learning sewing, SiDo empower the communities to keep old traditional crafts alive. With SiDo, learning can be enchanced through skills development and families can benefit from the additional income of their female members.