Posted in Mongolia with her wildlife biologist husband five years ago, attorney Lisa Herb decided to find a way to make herself useful to the women in the Central Asian country.

Herb, who lives in Upstate New York, founded Alliance for International Women's Rights, a U.S. non-profit organisation aimed at supporting women leaders and future women leaders in developing countries with an initial focus on Central Asia.

Based on conversations with the women in the region, Herb concluded that what they wanted and needed--after funding--was lessons in English, the international language.

She explained: "In order to learn what the rest of the world is doing and in order to share their situation and their endeavors, they need to be able to speak English. This is true in Mongolia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"They need to speak English to reach out to the international community for funding, for research, for information about what women in other countries are doing about similar problems, for example domestic violence, what legislation exists in other countries. All of that is done in English."

Herb, who works remotely for a Seattle law firm, and her husband Peter Zahler, who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, were early Skype adopters.

She said: "My husband is all over the world with his work as an international wildlife biologist. He frequently travels and when we're apart, we use Skype for our personal communications to stay in close touch."

She came up with the idea of using Skype to connect the women in Central Asia--initially in Mongolia, then Kazakhstan, and most recently Afghanistan-- in "Armchair Volunteer Programs" to learn English and to connect with colleagues in other countries.

The program has taken off in Afghanistan, where 20 to 35 Afghan women twice a week go on Skype for the Armchair ESL (English as a Second Language) Program to meet with English teachers elsewhere in the world. The program launched there in February 2007.
Classes are one-on-one with Afghan women leaders and future leaders who work with trained ESL teachers. Most teachers are based in the United States.

The Alliance also uses Skype for its Mentor Program, matching talented Afghan professional women with American mentors in their fields. For example, an Afghan woman senator has been matched with a team of American women attorneys for live classes on legal and political terminology, via Skype.

Conditions are tough in Afghanistan. Electricity is not always available to power up computers let alone for the needs of daily life. UNIFEM, a United Nations Development fund for Women, and U.S. Agency for International Development have been partners with the Alliance. The agencies have electrical generators--along with computers and satellite Internet connections to help the program.

Herb said the women have taken easily to Skype after less than two hours of training. For many, this is the first time they have used a computer. "Practicing typing in and of itself is a huge thing and then practicing using the English language on a keyboard is another new skill and stringing it all together to write coherent sentences and paragraphs is yet another."

Teachers use IM as a white board to teach words that are hard to understand and for grammar exercises.

How much English do students learn in three months on Skype?

Herb said: "It's as individual as each woman. Some of the women in our program have just basic English because they have lived in Afghanistan all their lives and during the Taliban years, they couldn't leave their homes, much less have access to education. Their English is quite minimal and they progress depending on how much they study on their own in between classes. Some of them have made very significant progress in the three months because they study so much on their own.

"Others have just basically increased their vocabulary. They feel much more comfortable using the technology and much more comfortable communicating in English, but they still have a very long way to go.

"On the other end of the spectrum, there are many women in Afghanistan who left during the Taliban years and after 2001 they returned and they studied and learned English in other countries. Their level of English is quite advanced."