World Connect

Dada Ventures

Year: 2017

Country: Kenya

Project Status: Funded

Impact Sector: Education

Project Investment: $509.00

Project Launch: 9-20-17

Young women and their children in Nairobi's slums face exceedingly difficult odds. Featuring high rates of teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, school abandonment, and a lack of financial investment, the slums are characterized by chronic poverty, deprivation, and lack of opportunity.

Footsteps Organization has developed an innovative project, Dada Ventures, to break the cycle. Dada Ventures is a financial literacy training program that aims at improving the livelihoods of young women from the urban slums of Nairobi. This program targets girls and young women who have dropped out of school -- generally aged 15-24. It will offer 4-month vocational basic certificate training to young women in cooking, baking, and small business management. In the first 3 months, the participants will be involved in learning both practical skills and business theory. In the last month, the young women who participate in the program will work for 20 hours in a two week apprenticeship in Footsteps' canteen, enabling them to put their business skills to work and will ultimately facilitate their eventual transition to focusing on their own independent enterprises.

Project Update: 3-28-18

At the beginning of the project, 16 young women were recruited for the vocational training in cooking, baking, and small business management. 56 sessions for the certificate course have been conducted and 8 sessions remain for the young women to graduate. Participants took part in a two-day learning educational exchange hosted by Regional Centre of Management, a training institute for business and hospitality courses that gives advanced training through diploma and higher diploma courses.

Final Report: 9-12-18

30 participants were trained in the four-month vocational training program. The young women participated in educational exchanges and to enhance the skills they learned in class and also obtain an opportunity to learn from other young women and men doing the same course in other institutions. 5 local companies in Nairobi helped young women advance their skills in cooking, baking, and small business management.