Ethnic minority women learn to access information via smartphones

Nowadays, many ethnic minority women have equipped themselves with smartphones, and from here they often learn and guide each other on how to access information to apply in many areas of life.

For Ms. Tan Thi Duyen, in Ban Trang village, Coc My commune (Bat Xat district, Lao Cai ), a Smartphone is an indispensable item in daily life, because it is not only a means of communication, but also a tool for her to learn and exploit information to apply in daily life.

Ms. Duyen shared: “As a habit, when I want to buy or sell something, I open my phone to find out information, from price, type, in addition, I can find out and compare different items. For example, when I buy seedlings, animals, fertilizers, I find out where to find good prices and good quality.”

In Ban Trang village, many Dao ethnic women are quite proficient in using smartphones like Ms. Duyen, however, not everyone knows how to use applications to search for and exploit information. Therefore, women often guide each other on how to use them, thereby improving each person's ability.

Ms. Ly Thi Van, in Ban Trang village, said: "Not everyone knows how to use smartphone features in daily life, and it is not easy to grasp. So we often share instructions on how to use them. For example, installing an application to read text documents whenever there is a technical training program in the locality. They provide QR codes to scan documents, and we have to install the software application on our phones to be able to read them. When the staff instructs us on how to do it, then the person who knows first instructs the next person, so I think it is very reasonable."

Update information via smartphone

For ethnic minority women today, smartphones are also a convenient means of conducting business transactions. They can sell directly through connections with social networking platforms and e-commerce platforms, so their market scope is no longer limited to a small area, even cross-border transactions.

Ms. Giang Thi Cha, in Sin Cheng commune, Si Ma Cai district, Lao Cai province, said: "Since using a smartphone to connect to the internet, I have learned how to participate in the online market, from which I often sell online to the United States, Laos, and the Philippines, very conveniently. When I can do it, I am also willing to share with other women to develop together, because the market is very large, there are many opportunities for development."

Currently, the Lao Cai Provincial Women's Union also pays great attention to the application of social networks in developing the work of the Union. All levels of the Women's Union in Lao Cai province have established hundreds of groups on social networking platforms such as Zalo and Facebook. These groups not only promote the activities of the Union, the policies and guidelines of the Party and the State, but also actively encourage and guide women to participate in applying the utilities from smart electronic devices to apply in life as well as in production.

Nowadays, electronic devices have become familiar to ethnic minority women in the highlands.

Ms. Duong Thu Thuy, Head of the Propaganda - Legal Policy Department, Lao Cai Provincial Women's Union, shared: "The Provincial Women's Union has proactively applied information technology in implementing tasks, including propaganda work for women to actively apply technology to update information on digital platforms. Up to now, 100% of the Women's Unions in districts in Lao Cai province have built and developed news pages on social networking platforms. The provincial Women's Unions are maintaining 138 Facebook pages/groups/accounts of the Unions at all levels and over 400 Zalo groups, which are very convenient and timely information sharing bases for all female members in the province."

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/phu-nu-dan-toc-thieu-so-hoc-cach-tiep-can-thong-tin-qua-smartphone-20250525185355876.htm