Terms & Conditions of Participation in the EQUALS Tech4Girls e-Mentorship Program
& Use of the EQUALS Tech4Girls e-Mentorship Platform

W4, WITH A REGISTERED OFFICE AT 77 RUE DE TURBIGO, PARIS, FRANCE, A NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION REGISTERED IN FRANCE, WELCOMES YOU TO THE EQUALS TECH4GIRLS SOFT SKILLS E-MENTORING PROGRAM (THE "PROGRAM"), VIA URL, (THE “WEBSITE”) HOSTED ON THE PLATFORM (THE “PLATFORM”) OPERATED BY EDUKADU. W4 AND ITS PARTNERS PROVIDE THE PROGRAM TO YOU, (COLLECTIVELY "YOU" OR THE “REGISTRANT”), SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING PARTICIPANT TERMS & CONDITIONS ("TERMS"). THESE TERMS ARE ENTERED INTO BY AND BETWEEN W4 AND YOU, AND YOU ACCEPT THEM AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THEM BY CLICKING A BOX DURING REGISTRATION ON THIS PLATFORM INDICATING YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE OF THE PLATFORM AND PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM.

These terms and conditions aim to ensure a mutually beneficial mentoring environment for mentors and mentees that provides the greatest opportunity for learning and development for mentees and a rewarding experience for mentors.

Eligibility

If You are registering on behalf of yourself, your employer or a third party, You represent and warrant that You are at least 18 years old and are authorized to accept these Terms on behalf of each person that You register, and that each person You register agrees to be bound by these Terms and agrees to indemnify W4 for violation of these Terms. You also represent and warrant that You have registered to participate in the Program having only used a registration code that you are actually authorized to use.  

Registration

All Participants must register for the Program via the registration page on this platform (“Registration”). Confirmation (or rejection) of your Registration will be sent to you by email after our receipt of Your Registration request.

Rejection will only occur where You have not met registration requirements as detailed on the Program registration page or in these Terms & Conditions of Participation in the Program. A registrant pass code issued for use to log onto this platform is valid for the named Registrant only and cannot be transferred or shared.

In addition, You are responsible for obtaining access to this Website and that access may involve third party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). You are responsible for those fees, including those fees associated with the display or delivery of advertisements. In addition, You must provide, and are responsible for, all equipment necessary to access this Website.

Commitment to the 8-week e-mentoring program

You commit to dedicate enough time to the e-mentoring program: approximately 1 hour per week maximum over an 8-week period, to read your mentee’s/mentor’s letters and respond in writing to your mentee/mentor, in accordance with the e-mentoring program syllabus.

You will make every effort to send your weekly letter to your mentee/mentor in a timely manner.

In the event that You are unable to send the weekly letter to your mentee/mentor in a timely manner, You will make every effort to i) inform the e-mentoring program coordinators in advance, and ii) write and send the weekly letter to your mentee/mentor at the earliest opportunity following the due submission date.

In the event that You are obliged, for whatever reason, to stop participating in the e-mentoring program before the end of the 8-week program, You will immediately inform the e-mentoring program coordination team.

In the event that You do not send a weekly letter to your mentee/mentor on 3 occasions, the e-Mentorship Program Team reserves the right to terminate your participation in the Program.

Competence – management of boundaries
For mentors:

The mentor agrees to communicate at all times in their capacity as a mentor and within the limits of their own competence and recognize where that competence may be exceeded in the event that the mentee requests support/advice in a domain in which the mentor is not competent.

Where necessary, the mentor will inform the e-mentoring program coordination team if such a situation arises, so that the e-mentoring team may take appropriate action and refer the mentee to another competent professional (counsellor, doctor/psychotherapist/financial/legal advisor).

Medical, mental health, or financial/legal advice should only be provided to mentees by qualified professionals.

Even if the mentor is coincidentally a qualified professional (in one of these domains), the mentor shall refrain from providing medical, mental health, or legal advice to the mentee. In the event that the mentee requests such advice, the mentor should notify the e-mentoring coordination team.

Cancellations

W4 reserves the right to cancel Your registration without notice if You fail to provide all information required in the relevant registration form, or You are in violation of these Terms. W4 is not responsible for any direct or indirect damages, expenditures, or losses, resulting from any cancellation. W4 may move, modify or cancel the Program for any reason. W4 is not responsible for any direct or indirect damages, expenditures, or losses, resulting from any cancellation.

W4 is not liable to You for any issues or failures related to internet strength/connection or bandwidth, any issues with the world wide web that disrupt the Program, or any other technical issues outside of W4’s control.

For the avoidance of doubt, W4 is not liable to you or any third party for any direct or indirect damages, expenses, or losses, nor any consequential, punitive, incidental, special or general damages resulting from postponement, cancellation or termination of the Program.

Program Changes

W4 reserves the right to change the Program structure, format, content, and timing without notice. If such a situation should occur, W4 is not liable to You for any direct or indirect costs, damages or expenses, nor any consequential, punitive, incidental, special or general damages resulting from such changes.

Term and Termination

These Terms are effective until terminated by W4. You agree that W4 may terminate these Terms in W4’s sole discretion at any time without prior notice. In the event of termination, You are no longer authorized to participate in the Program or access the Website. You agree that W4 is not liable to You or any third party for any termination of your access to the Program or the Website, unless otherwise stated herein.

Program Content

The Program will include a combination of content that W4 creates and content that other third parties create. In addition to the content created by third parties, some Website features will provide users with an opportunity to submit, post, display, transmit and/or exchange information, ideas, opinions, photographs, images, creative works or other information, messages, transmissions or material to W4 or others on or through the Website (collectively, the "Content").

You understand that the Content is provided by W4 "AS IS" and that W4 does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of any Content. In this regard, You acknowledge that You may not rely on any of this Content, whether created by or submitted to W4 including, Content that is transmitted via email via the mailbox functionality of the Website.

You further understand and agree that the Website may include certain communications from W4 (such as administrative messages and email responses to registrations made by users), and that these communications are considered part of the Program and You may not be able to opt out of receiving them.

NOTE: Some of the Program Content is available on mobile devices. You should not use such Content in a way that distracts You and prevents You from obeying traffic or safety laws.

Participant Communication

Communication by Program participants do not reflect the views of W4 and W4 does not endorse or vouch for any such content. We do, however, enforce these Terms, and if we determine in our sole discretion that any communication does or may violate these Terms, we reserve the right, at any time, without prior notice and without limiting any and all other rights we may have, at law or in equity, to (a) modify, refuse or remove the communication; (b) revoke Your right to use the Website; and/or (c) use any technological, legal, operational or other means available to enforce the provisions of these Terms, including, without limitation, blocking specific IP addresses or deactivating Your registration.

Program Materials

You may receive access to W4 and third-party licensed content (collectively, the “Program Materials”). W4 is not liable for the information in the Program materials. You may use these Program Materials where available solely for Your own internal, non-commercial purposes. Unauthorized distribution (via sales, copying, posting on intranet/internet) is expressly forbidden. Excerpting or quoting is permitted with the prior written approval from W4.

Privacy and Data Protection

In general, W4 collects and uses information about You in connection with the provision of the Services and for account administration. If you complete any Registration Activities for the Program, W4 will collect certain information about You and use it to provide You with information and services associated with the Program. We process this information to fulfil the offer You have made to receive Services. The data we process as part of the event administration may include: name and last name, age, email, phone, address, city/country/zip code.

Your data is used for the administration and management of the Program, including the following:

All third parties are required to respect the security of Your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use Your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process Your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. Our suppliers will receive selected information to assist with the delivery of the Program and shall only retain this information for the duration of the Program. Those suppliers include: Sonline LLC - Event Platform and registration system.

You may contact us at any time with Your views about our privacy practices, or with any enquiry relating to Your personal information, or to exercise Your data subject rights by writing to contact@W4.org

Participant Data & Confidentiality

You may receive personal and contact information from other Participants that is voluntarily provided to You or otherwise obtained in accordance with applicable law. You (i) cannot sell any Participant personal data, and (ii) must comply with any restrictions placed on the use of such information.

You will respect the confidential nature of your email exchanges with your mentee/mentor and will not disclose information about your mentee/mentor, your exchanges with your mentee/mentor, unless otherwise explicitly agreed to by the mentee/mentor.

You are responsible for maintaining, storing, and disposing of any exchange of correspondence, including electronic files and communications, created during the mentoring relationship in a manner that promotes confidentiality, security, and privacy, and complies with all relevant laws and agreements that exist in your country regarding data protection and privacy.

You will only communicate with your mentee/mentor via the Tech4Girls website: You will refrain from any direct contact with your mentee/mentor outside the framework of the Tech4Girls e-mentoring program and the Tech4Girls e-mentoring platform, for the duration of the Tech4Girls e-mentoring program.

You acknowledge that i) the e-mentoring program coordination team has the right to screen mentor-mentee communication, and ii) the e-mentoring program coordination team will not disclose any communication from mentors to their mentees, and vice versa, and/or share such communication with external parties, unless the content is in breach of the present terms and conditions of participation.

You agree to immediately notify the Tech4Girls e-mentoring program coordination team, in the event of an ethical dilemma or potential or actual breach of the terms and conditions of participation in the Tech4Girls e-mentoring program by your mentee/mentor.

Anti-Harassment Policy

W4 is dedicated to providing a positive, harassment-free Program experience for all participants and staff, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, age or religion. W4 does not tolerate harassment of Program participants or staff in any form. The use of harassing language and imagery (including that of a sexualized nature) is not appropriate in the Program. Any Program participant found to be violating this policy may be sanctioned or expelled from the Program at W4’s sole discretion.

Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct outlines our expectations of You and all participants who participate in the Program and of those who utilize the Platform to post Content or interact with other Program participants. W4 will enforce this Code of Conduct and expects cooperation from all Participants to help promote a safe environment and a productive Program experience for everyone.

For mentors:

Mentors recognize their responsibility to communicate professionally and positively with their mentees. The mentor will seek to communicate and create a relationship whereby the mentor and mentee are focused on and have optimal opportunity for learning and development. The mentor is responsible for maintaining the focus of his/her/their communication on the learning and development of the mentee: the mentor will respond to the mentee’s communication and learning and development needs as defined by the e-mentoring program upon which the mentoring relationship is based. The mentor commits to do his/her/their best to ensure that the content of the mentors’ email exchanges is relevant to the topics covered by the e-mentoring syllabus and that the mentee has maximum opportunity to learn the skills and knowledge outlined in the learning outcomes in the e-mentoring program syllabus.

Mentors will do their best to establish and maintain clear, appropriate and culturally sensitive communication, and boundaries, in their email exchanges with their mentees. Mentors will seek to ensure that they adopt a respectful and inclusive outlook in their communication, which embraces and explores individual difference and will monitor their written communication for inadvertent discrimination.

For mentors and mentees:

When participating in the Program, You must adhere to the Code of Conduct below at all times:

When messaging or communicating with other Program participants please:

When accessing and using the Website and participating in the Program you are prohibited from:

W4 reserves the right to terminate or restrict your use of the Platform, or participation in the Program, if you violate these Terms or are engaged in illegal or fraudulent conduct.

Intellectual Property Rights

All intellectual property rights in and to the Program, the Program Content, and all materials made available in connection with the Program are owned by us and our Program partners. You agree not to reproduce, modify, distribute, license, perform, publish, create derivative works from or use (except as authorized and in accordance with these Terms) the Program or Website services for any reason.

Nothing in these Terms shall vest in you any legal or beneficial right in or to any intellectual property rights owned or used under license by W4 or our Program partners or grant to you any right or license to any other intellectual property rights of W4. All such intellectual property rights shall remain the exclusive property of W4 and our Program partners. It is strictly forbidden for any company, organization, or person to attempt to host or organize any program/event in conjunction with, contiguous to or purporting to be related to the Program without the express prior permission and cooperation of W4.

We reserve our right to take such action (legal or otherwise), including a claim for damages as we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate in the circumstances.

No Warranty

THE SERVICES ORDERED THROUGH THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS". W4 GIVES NO EXPRESS WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES, OR CONDITIONS. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, W4 EXCLUDES THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM REMAINS WITH YOU. W4 EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR USAGE OF, IMPLEMENTATION OF, IMPACT FROM, OR COMMUNICATIONS OF THE IDEAS OR DISCUSSIONS PRESENTED BY ANY PARTICIPANT IN THE PROGRAM.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold W4, its partners in this Program, the Host, and third-party service providers harmless from all claims, liability, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including legal fees, that arise out of or are related to any breach of the Terms by You or any other liabilities incurred by us arising out of Your participation in the Program and use of the Platform.

Force Majeure

It is possible that the Website and/or some of the Services may not be available at any given time for any reason.

We will take reasonable efforts to provide you with notice of interruption to the Website or Service where known. However, where the Website or Services are unavailable for any reason beyond the reasonable control of W4 or Host, we shall have no liability to You.

We are not liable if the Program is, in whole or in part, cancelled, rescheduled or postponed, or for any failure or delay to perform our obligations under these Terms, if such event results from anything beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to (a) power or server outages or issues (b) update or maintenance periods (c) as a result of a war, acts of God, flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster; (d) disease, epidemic or pandemic; (e) terrorist attack, civil war, civil commotion or riots, war, threat of or preparation for war, armed conflict, imposition of sanctions, embargo, or breaking off of diplomatic relations; (f) nuclear, chemical or biological contamination or sonic boom; (g) any law or any action taken by a government or public authority; (h) collapse of buildings, fire, explosion or accident; (i) any labor or trade dispute, strikes, industrial action or lockouts; (j) non-performance by suppliers or subcontractors; and (k) interruption or failure of utility service , (l) electronic or communications failure (m) or anything else that renders performance of the Program, in whole or in part, impracticable, illegal or impossible.

Modifications to the Terms

The Terms are subject to change without notice, and may be revised or updated from time to time in W4’s sole discretion. All amended terms shall automatically be effective immediately when posted on this Website, and apply to all access to the Program and use of the website and services in relation to the Program thereafter. You agree that You are responsible for periodically returning to this Website and reviewing these Terms to understand the current Terms and Conditions applicable to this Program. W4 does not and will not assume any obligation to notify You of changes to the Terms. Your continued use of any websites, apps, or services, or participation in the Program, means that You accept and agree to the changes. Except as outlined herein, the Terms may not be otherwise amended except in writing signed by You and us. The following Sections survive any termination of the Terms: W4 and W4 Program partner Logos, Privacy and Data Protection, Voluntary Participation, Your Collection of Participant Data, Eligibility, No Warranty, Limitation of Liability, and Indemnity.

Entire Terms

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between W4 and You with respect to the Program, and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral, or written, between You and W4 with respect to the Program.

However, there may be legal notices on other areas of this Website that relate to the ordering of goods and services, all of which will, together with these Terms govern your ordering of Services. A printed version of the Terms and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to the Terms to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of the Terms or portion thereof to be unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to affect the intent of the Terms, and the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.

Electronic Communications and Electronic Signatures

You agree to be bound by any affirmation, assent, or agreement You transmit through this Website or an App associated with the Program, including but not limited to any consent You give to receive communications from W4 solely through electronic transmission. You agree that when in the future You click on an “I agree,” “I consent,” or other similarly worded “button” or entry field with Your mouse, keystroke, or other computer device, Your agreement or consent will be legally binding and enforceable and the legal equivalent of Your handwritten signature.

General

W4’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision unless acknowledged and agreed to by W4 in writing. The section titles in these Terms are solely used for the convenience of the parties and have no legal or contractual significance. W4 reserves the right at any time to make changes or corrections and to alter, suspend or discontinue any aspect of any of the Program or Services for which You have registered. If W4 exercises its right to withdraw, W4 may at our option offer You broadly equivalent replacement Services which shall constitute a final settlement of any dispute between You and W4 and shall discharge any and all liability of W4 to You. Notices to You may be made via either e-mail or regular mail. Information sent to You pertaining to the Program and Services may also provide notices of changes to the Terms or other matters, by displaying such notices or by providing links to such notices.

W4 reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to limit or deny access to the Website and Program to any entity or individual.

These Terms may be translated into one or more languages other than English. In the event of any deviation or conflict between the English version and any version translated into another language, the English version shall prevail and be binding on You.

Governing Law

These Terms and all matters arising out of or relating to these Terms, whether in contract, tort, by statute or otherwise, are governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of France. The parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Paris, France.