Digital Grassroots (DIGRA) is a youth and female led initiative aimed at promoting internet governance awareness in order to promote digital inclusion in underserved communities. We work with young people between the ages of 14 and 29 through the Digital Grassroots Ambassadors program. The program enables young people to learn about digital rights and Internet governance issues and how they can be part of the solution. THE AMBASSADORS PROGRAM In 2018, we hosted three cohorts of the DIGRA Ambassadors program. The third cohort was hosted in French to reach to the Francophone youth. In 2018 alone, we reached over 1000 people in 40 communities, trained over 300 youth in digital literacy, mentored at least 100 young people by matching them to experts in Internet Governance. Through capacity building from our program, our ambassadors hosted at least 10 Internet Governance workshops/trainings with support from partners. COMMUNITY LEADERS In 2019, we created a Community Leaders program to train our Ambassadors on Community Leadership in Internet Governance. In our pilot cohort, we focused on countries where young people are facing digital rights abuses. This June, we are training more Ambassadors in cohort 4 of our program, where we received more than 800 applications for 100 slots. OBJECTIVES Digital grassroots responds to the existing gap of youth participation in issues related to Internet Governance. Through our Ambassadors program, we build the capacity of youth to be internet leaders in their communities. ACTIVITIES Our activities include:-  Digital Grassroots Ambassadors program (4 weeks internet literacy training. 4 weeks mentorship)  Community Leaders program (4 weeks leadership study and community engagement. 4 week mentorship.)  Research and reports including Communique: Youth Resolutions In Internet Governance  Edutainment Games including Digital Rights Monopoly  Youth in Internet Governance events including Schools of Internet Governance, and Youth Coalitions in Internet Governance

https://www.digitalgrassroots.org

• Africa

• Youth
• Women

Digital Grassroots offers the Ambassadors program in English. This course was fully replicated in French for the Francophone youth across the globe – this included translation of the Internet Literacy Course, training and mentorship in French. Our ambassadors have replicated the Digital Grassroots Internet Literacy trainings through workshops in their university in Ghana and Congo DR respectively. Two of our ambassadors also joined Digital Grassroots board as we work open, our ambassadors also take ownership of the project.

All our programs are gender responsive and we ensure 50-50 gender disparity is achieved in all our activities. Our aim is to:-  Build the capacity of youth leaders serving their communities in internet related spaces  Create a strong support network of young people working towards influencing healthier internet policies, research, and community engagement in internet issues  Create effective programs to introduce young people to the space of internet governance  Build more youth leaders in the internet space

• Common good • Ethics • Preventing abusive uses of ICTs • Values • Basic literacy • E-literacy • Gender • Training ICT professionals • Youth