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| Technology Empowers Women, Economic – Argomall.com |
SPARK’s Maica Teves, 40 years old, sat down with Argomall to tell her story – and of course, to empower other women. Teves explained that she joined SPARK by accident. She was so down at that time, but fate brought her to SPARK to discover the value of doing service for others.
“I spend nine years in Congress as a project coordinator and as a chief of staff. I worked for a fast food chain, then, went to the Senate. Then, I decided to take law. The plan was that there was a job waiting for me in a law firm. While waiting to take the bar, I was part of a presidential campaign. It was where I met my boss today, and to be honest, I didn’t think I’d fail the bar. I failed the bar. I was at a loss when Vicky Garchitorena offered me a job. I decided to come on board as her operations manager,” Teves reminisced.
Teves also claimed that with SPARK, she learned to take care of other people’s well-being, allowing her to change the way she saw life.
“You see all these women in their homes, and they’re so lost because all they know is to stay at home, take care of the children, wait for the husband to come home, and they don’t even hold a single Peso. It changed the way I saw life, because I didn’t see all the other issues that other women were going through. All I knew was I failed the bar, and I was pretty miserable. Seeing that brought a whole new perspective,” Teves added.
SPARK uses technology to power up their advocacy, as well. “You have your website, social media. One of our biggest funders for this year actually found SPARK through Twitter.”
Teves revealed that their funder even noted that he was so impressed with their Twitter account.
“We use technology with the women we work with,” she told Argomall. “It’s really a lot of hand-holding, so we really count on Facebook Messenger, Viber—it’s kamustahan. How are they? What do they need? Do they need additional funding?”
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For Teves, a good phone is needed for her goals. “It really needs to be a good camera. We have to document our seminars and trainings and, most of the time, we don’t have the luxury of bringing a camera. So we use our mobile phones for it.”
Moreover, she said that she often go online to purchase her smartphones because it’s faster.
See Also: Argomall Shares 2019 Smartphone Predictions
“Read up first. Go online. See all the specifications before purchasing. I take my time. That’s why I do a lot of shopping online. Online you’ll see the price difference. You can even Google this brand versus this brand, which one is better?”
Argomall.com, on the other hand, features Add to Compare button where it allows customers to compare devices from one to another.
Teves also explained that her smartphone helps her to connect digitally. “It is vital for victim-survivors reaching out to us via the #RespetoNaman campaign.” She added that social media has helped them bring the Don’t Tell Me How to Dress exhibit to different areas of the Philippines, too.
“I didn’t know what women empowerment was three years ago,” Teves said. “I have been able to achieve many of the things I am doing because of my mentors—not just women, but men as well. I think I will be remembered by the mentorship I’ve done. I’ve worked with many young women and that’s one of my favorite things, why I like being with SPARK.”
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