Konexio
Job training and digital skills instruction for refugees
Location: Kenya
Sponsor: Joey Gutierrez
Konexio: Grantee in 2021, 2022-23 and 2024
Konexio was founded in 2016 to help immigrants in/around Paris, France, master key digital skills needed to gain employment in today’s technology-based job marketplace. The organization’s mission specifically targets some of society’s most vulnerable and often overlooked, populations – immigrants, refugees, migrants, and other disadvantaged people such as unemployed youth and vulnerable women. Its programs seek to prepare them for the job market.
With success in Paris neighborhoods, Konexio has expanded across France and into other countries. A team of educators, IT professionals, and community volunteers have collaborated to create a streamlined path to employment called the ‘Digital Inclusion Program.’ The program addresses three key barriers to self-reliance: lack of skills, poor local economic conditions, and lack of access to the job market. DIP trains trainers and supports the initial set-up for on-the-ground organizations, building local capacity and creating a lasting community resource.
Through a series of training programs that focus on both tech learning and community building, Konexio facilitates the social and professional integration of these marginalized populations.
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GRANT SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
2021: $30,000 to support the development of a Digital Inclusion Program for refugees in the Kakuma Camp in Kenya. The program, already proven successful in France and Malawi, will provide digital skills instruction and mentoring as well as access to jobs for these student refugees with no existing skills to be job-market-ready within six months.
2022-23: $30,000 to support the expansion of the Digital Inclusion Program in Malawi to refugees in the Dzelaka camp. In addition, a grant of $2,883 in unrestricted funding has been awarded to support this mission.
2024: $40,000 to provide 60 young women in the Kakuma Refugee camp with digital and entrepreneurial skills tailored to the evolving demands of the global digital economy. The Digital Inclusion Program focuses on bringing untrained refugees into gainful employment within 6 months with the goals of enabling income of $100 per student per month after graduation and ultimately preparing students to be fully independent freelancers.
GOAL
Konexio facilitates and provides, through proven partnerships, the skills, facilities, computer access, and employment opportunities for members of marginalized populations, including refugee camps. Students are taught how to be independent freelancers and are provided access to the job market so that they can earn wages that will substantially improve their standard of living.
