A key focus for Khoj has been to continue its sustained and consistent engagement with the Khirkee community through its programs. Khirkee’s central location has always attracted a variety of residents – migrant workers, refugees, students and artists. More recently, political instability in Afghanistan has added a large number of Afghans to Khirkee’s ever changing and shifting population.

Khoj has always been agile and quick to respond to changing situations and altering its community programs according to the need of the hour. A short window, after the brutal Covid Delta wave, gave Khoj the opportunity to collaborate with Ideosync for their Free/Dem Media Training Program to empower women and young girls from the Afghan community through digital media literacy.

The program enabled the participants to reclaim online media spaces by taking cognisance of the digital inequality among different sections of society, especially women and those marginalised by socio-economic disparities. The aim of the program was to create an environment which supports women and girls to resist patriarchal hierarchies that prevent them from online expression and presence. It simultaneously educated them to safely engage with the digital platform while ensuring their privacy in the digital space.

Khoj x Ideosync Digital Media Literacy was a 15 week certificate course which was held at Khoj . Over 35 Afghan girls participated in the media training sessions at Khoj, which were led by Ideosync program coordinators Hafsa Naaz and Nishi Kumari.