Building on Digital

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics, and Design students. 

Job opportunities in Kenya are hard to come by for the most educated in Kenya and twice as hard for those from informal communities. Finding a decent job is an uphill task due to a lack of quality information on mentorship programs or quality networks coupled with literacy level. Douglas Mwangi knows the struggle of acquiring basic skills for employment. The last born in the family of 8 was raised in Mathare slums, Nairobi. Douglas was unable to join the high school after his mother could not raise his school fees. 

“I started hustling, but with a different meaning. My hustle involved criminal activities, and after an incident that almost left me dead, I decided to turn my life around. I started working as an intern at a barbershop and later was employed.” says Douglas. 

After two years of working as a barber, Douglas was able to raise enough money for his high school education. Later he was given a scholarship to study for a diploma in web development at a Nairobi, Multimedia design school. “After the web development online course, my life completely changed. I got a lot of job opportunities. This made me very conscious of the challenges young people in Mathare slum face; even the most talented youngsters/teenagers lack that first opportunity to help them make ends meet.” Douglas says. 

The African Union’s (AU) African Youth Charter states that Africa's youth is its biggest resource and Africa’s growing youth population offers enormous potential. According to the Mo Ibrahim 2019 Forum Report, almost 60% of the African population is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent. However, 16 million young Africans are currently facing unemployment. The average match between education and the skills needed by employers is worse in Africa than in the rest of the world. 

In 2013, Douglas started working as a community leader and digital champion with Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT). The organization trains young men and women on entrepreneurship and basic digital skills and later deploys them back into their communities, where DOT has several centers. “I was deployed in Eastleigh and Mathare. In 2014, Oasis Mathare was born.” He says.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics, and Design students. Douglas guiding them. 

Oasis Mathare was the first digital community hub in Mathare. A few computers, wireless Internet, and a quiet room, where young people who are normally stuck in cramped, noisy quarters can study, focus and think. The center also empowers marginalized youths and children with Library service. They can come and do their studies away from home where they face challenges such as electricity and inadequate safe space.

According to Douglas, having worked in Kibera, Kakuma, and Mathare, there is always the notion that everyone living in the slums needs help. Indeed there are numerous gaps in the slum communities that need to be filled. But the main question should always be what kind of help is needed? “For me, growing up in Mathare, I didn’t have a safe place to study. Also, going to the library in town was impossible because I didn’t have transport money, and the only community library that served Mathare was always full. Studying in the house was not an option due to the limited space, lack of electricity, and noise from neighbors. So, starting Oasis Mathare for me was an answer to the issues youngsters of this slum faced because I had suffered these problems myself”, he adds. 

Their programs include Economic empowerment that targets youths and young mothers without any meaningful income. They introduce them to basic business skills, social entrepreneurship, identifying opportunities around them, and design thinking. They also teach them software engineering and graphic design, which empowers them to become more competitive for employment or business ventures. 

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics, and Design (STEAMD) aims to build young girls' confidence through coding and robotics. It also helps unemployed youths come up with solutions to the problem they are facing in the community. “The basic ICT skills are free because DOT covers that, but for all students that need advanced skills like Mobile development, Mobile App, and Web development, a student has to pay Ksh 5,000”, says Douglas. 

Safe Spaces for Early Child Development and Literacy where children can come to play with toys for free. According to Anastacia Adiambo, an ECD teacher at Oasis Mathare, they also run ECD playgroup classes, playing educational computer games that develop their critical thinking and other forms of games that encourage learning at an early age. The classes run from 8:00 am to 2.00 pm. “Our major target for the ECD program is young single mothers who desire to go back to school or find work. This is a safe place where they can leave their kids. The parents pay a commitment fee of Ksh. 1,000 per year to ensure the parent's consistency in bringing the child. We offer children porridge during break time. We also offer them lunch if there are celebrations like someone's birthday. I hope we can replicate these impactful programs in other slums because most informal communities have similar gaps.” She says.

Anastacia Adhiambo, an ECD teacher at Oasis Mathare, teaching an ECD playgroup classes. 

Oasis Mathare has partnered with several organizations like Digital Divide Data, Ajira Digital, Nebu Cafe, and Techno Brain to absorb the students for employment after successful completion of basic ICT skills. Since it was started, the center has given more than 500 young people access to digital opportunities like online courses and networking. It has also offered over 1,000 children a safe place to study. 

“Currently, most of our students are in primary schools because we have realized setting a good foundation at an early age makes it easy in the future to get them interested in taking the ICT field as a career. We can track their progress over some time,” says Douglas.

Being an organization that works closely with people, the coronavirus restrictions forced them to new opportunities. Oasis Mathare understood that not everyone can access the Internet, so they created the TextSchool project. This is an innovative mobile application that targets students with limited internet and hardware accessibility to access unlimited content using SMS. TextSchool can be accessed via any phone (smart or feature phones) as long as the phone can send and receive text messages. It can also be accessed by any learner residing in remote areas in Kenya since it rides on Safaricom, which has good network coverage in Kenya. TextSchool was selected as Top 10 Innovative Education in Africa by the African Union.

According to Douglas, the future of everything will be ICT. Businesses are being run online, online schools, basically everything can be found online. However, most youths, especially in Africa who are always online, fail to utilize the Internet for their good. 

“You can monetize Facebook, YouTube, study online, but most young people go there to watch music. You can start an online business, nothing complicated, just a Facebook page, really simple. You can study a whole new career on YouTube”, he adds.   

On 26th June 2018, Douglas received a Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London, England. The award celebrates and supports exceptional young people from across the Commonwealth. “Winning the Young Leaders Award was just amazing, out of this world. This award gave me hope. I see the future is bright. We have been working with a group in Githurai and Kibera to replicate this program”, says Douglas.