Congratulations to our first cohort of graduates in Nairobi, Kenya!

Excitement was in the air last week at RefuSHE’s leafy campus on Gitanga Road in Nairobi, Kenya. As 52 young women prepared to graduate from Konexio’s freelancing training course, they could all agree on one thing:  they did many excel exercices to prepare for the test. After six months of hard work, they were officially done with the Digital Inclusion Program, and over 75% had already earned a paycheck through online freelancing.

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We asked Lancha, a program graduate, to tell us about her experience. Lancha’s favorite part of the program was interacting with the program facilitators, who are “well-skilled, patient, and create a fun environment for students to learn.” Lancha also told us about the skills she learned: “I have learned quite a number of skills, including: transcription, data entry and scraping, image annotation, Word and Excel. The skills I have gained in the program will assist me in my freelance journey, enabling me to work on different platforms and better myself."

Cliford, RefuSHE’s IT trainer, also shared his experience with us. “Seeing the young women I am training gain the skills they need to earn a decent wage in the digital space [makes me proud. This work] enables someone to get opportunities online that are not fully taken advantage of,” he said, referring to the rapid pace of digital development in Kenya. In addition, Cliford feels that his work contributes to greater gender equality by enabling women to safely access job opportunities. “These young, talented women are getting jobs that allow them to work from the comfort and safety of their homes.”