Mercy

For women who lack family or community support, digital platforms can fill that gap and improve care but only when women have the skills and confidence to search, judge, and apply what they find. Access alone is not enough. 

How She Uses the Phone 

After becoming estranged from her family, Mercy has been raising her child on her own in Nairobi. With no one at home to guide her, she depends heavily on digital platforms for day-to-day childcare. Google is her first stop whenever she notices a new symptom or behaviour. ​“I search first,” she says, ​“then I decide if I need to go to the clinic.”

TikTok offers short demonstrations on feeding routines, calming techniques, sleep practices shared by other mothers, which she saves and tries with her child. YouTube helps her with more detailed care tasks, such as preparing nutritious meals or understanding developmental signs. Facebook groups give her access to large communities of mothers whose questions, comments, and experiences provide reassurance.

At the same time, Mercy’s phone use is closely monitored by her sponsor, who is paying for the diploma in Sales and Marketing that she is currently pursuing. Although he does not live with her, he visits occasionally and checks her phone.

Despite this surveillance, she continues to rely on digital platforms to learn how to care for her child. She often returns to saved videos late at night, after her baby has fallen asleep. ​“He doesn’t like how much I’m online,” she says. ​“But I still go back to those groups. That’s where I learn how to take care of my child.”

Her Ecosystem of Learning and Facilitation 

Mercy’s comfort with digital tools began early. Growing up, her family shared a single household phone used mostly for schoolwork. Watching her older siblings navigate apps, browse the internet, and switch between tools, made phones feel familiar long before she owned one herself.

As an adult, she has developed a strong learning style shaped by observation, and trial and error. At work, she notices colleagues using shortcuts or new tools and pays attention. When someone introduces her to apps such as Trello for task tracking or Google Photos for organising field documentation, she tries it immediately. ​“I just click and see what happens,” she says. ​“That’s how I learn.” She explores menus, experiments with features, and decides whether the tool fits into her routine.

Not everything sticks. A colleague once recommended a complex sales-tracking app, which she tried for a week before deleting it because it slowed her down. Another suggested Google Sheets instead. After a few attempts, she learned how to format tables and sort client lists and has used it ever since. She also tested different navigation apps including Waze but eventually settled on Google Maps because it ​“made more sense” to her.

These small cycles of testing, adjusting, and adopting reflect how Mercy learns: she is self-driven, willing to experiment, quick to discard what doesn’t work, and confident once a tool proves useful.