Re-Skilling Refugees & Connecting them to Opportunities that Pay

We learn from many, we get inspired by a few but there’s only one or two that stir us from within and propel us to act.

This 90 seconds from a refugee who has never stepped out of his refugee camp at Kakuma was one such inspiring moment.

Inspired by this, some of us stepped up & made contact with UNHCR at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Listen to Mohamed Hassan's story at the camp.

We agree... No one needs to beg .

Together with UNHCR leaders at Kakuma, we decided to pilot the idea of reskilling refugees on a marketable skill that will pay. UNHCR Head of Camp (2019) UNHCR Head of Protection UNHCR Head of Education Sukru Cansizoglu Seda Kuzucu Mohamed Hure

We selected five refugees to be our pilot team. Now we needed to find a marketable skill to train them on.

He was asking for 1. Access to Marketable skills 2. Access to Opportunities 3. Access to Identity 4. Access to Livelihood

Finding the right marketable skill was not easy given the dire circumstances in the refugee camps. Everything we take for granted, right from electricity to internet to computers to bandwidth, was a challenge for them.

This report from Samuel Hall helped us to understand the ground realities of the camp and helped us build solutions that empathise with them

We decided to reskill the refugees on "Social Media Marketing", given the exploding "gig economy" and "anytime-anywhere" work culture.

for orchestrating posts, client approvals and analysis for robots and automation for creating videos for logos and posts for client project management First, we trained and certified the refugees on five top social media toolkits

Secondly, we trained them to unleash their creativity across the top five social media platforms for creating your presence and locating your business for telling your visual stories for making an impact on your professional career ( B2B ) for finding the right communities to have the right conversations (B2C) for creating the impact with your messages

Finally, we trained them to execute on the client's brief using the right tools on the right platform 1 2 5 6 4 3 KYC & Baseline Determine Influencers Connect with Audience Likes & Shares Comments & Tags Creating Videos

We practised these new skills by creating websites and social media pages for Kakuma Schools

Thank you to all our clients who have put their trust in our team by hiring them to be their social media managers. Ryan was our first client and he continues to be one after nearly 16 months gave us their enterprise platform for free and hired our refugees for over 6 months Kristine visited the refugees in the camp and trained them on soft skills as well as being a client for 6 months Amit has been a client for over 12 months

There is a spring in their steps

They are going places... Nhial is a Global Changemaker Joelle is a WEF agenda contributor and has spoken at an Oxford University event

Pushing their boundaries... Bahana is a WEF Global Shaper Paul has launched himself into photography

They have done their part They've taken the challenge They've stepped up

Will you Step Up by giving them an opportunity? Hire them