In a partnership bringing together diverse organisations, trainees will undergo a five-week intensive programme followed by assistance to get employment opportunities
Collaboration between the Memusi Hope Foundation and various organisations is giving hope to young men and women in Kajiado through a new training programme in information technology.
Beginning with an initial cohort of 34 software engineering trainees who started their sessions in July and are expected to graduate in September, the programme is expected to train up to four cohorts every year. This being the first year, only one more cohort will be trained before the end of the year.
The Entaisere e Kenya Project, which loosely translates to “the future of Kenya”, is an ICT project being undertaken in collaboration with the Moringa School, OSTA Technology, the Kenya Network Information Centre (Kenic), and Huawei.
Empowerment
Memusi Foundation is a charitable organization that was founded by Kajiado Central Member of Parliament Memusi Kanchory and registered in 2009, way before he was first elected. With time, the demands on the foundation became too heavy for the family to handle, forcing them to look for partners.
“We focus on empowering the community through four main agenda: Education, agriculture, climate issues, and health,” said Memusi Hope Foundation Chief Executive Officer Lillian Memusi (in picture). The software engineering programme falls under the education focus of the foundation’s work. The foundation seeks different partners for each focus area.
In the software engineering training programme, Moringa School is responsible for the training and it has facilitated the 34 students on the programme with laptops. OSTA TECH is providing the Internet connectivity to enable provision of the training in Kajiado. This is because it would not have been feasible for the learners to commute for training in Nairobi, where Moringa is based.
Employment
Huawei, on its part, will ensure sustainability and employment for the programme’s graduates after their intensive five-week training. “Definitely, this will not be direct employment,” said Mrs Memusi. “We are also going to call on potential employers to invite our graduates for interviews when recruiting.”
The domain has been provided by Kenic, who have also promised 80 per cent employment for the programme’s graduates. Christopher Waweru, who spoke to the Kajiado Star on behalf of Kenic, said the organisation will secure the online presence for the collaboration. “We are going to do a website for the project, and on that website we will put profiles of all the trainees. The digital support will also be used to seek funding support for further training.”
The five-week course is introductory, and those who wish to study further will be encouraged to proceed to more advanced courses. Nevertheless, Waweru is confident of the competence of the programme’s graduates. “This particular course is going to be based on programming. This is more of a skill than a learned course, like driving. Many people are unable to get meaningful employment because of seeking papers rather than refining their skills. Moringa have picked the important elements of programming and turned these into a crash course.”
Kenic will share information on the training and its graduates within its networks, providing opportunities for possible employment with various organisations.
Sustainability
Steve Nyikuli of Moringa School said they hope to diversify the training to include other ICT courses on offer at their Nairobi centre. “We should be able to offer courses in computer science, data science, and professional development. They should additionally be able to access any of our courses online.”
An organization by the name Sannapis will help with sustainability issues such as funding, proposal writing, and continuity of the project.
Partnerships initiated by the foundation have in the past included a medical camp with Amref and planting trees with the Red Cross. The foundation seeks up to 45 partners for its different projects.
In its various projects, the foundation is guided by the desire to alleviate poverty and uplift the standards of living among the Maasai in Kajiado County. Apart from education, the foundation is involved in areas as diverse as encouraging farming of cattle feeds and raising funds for school fees to assist disadvantaged children. It is patronised by its founder and area MP Memusi.
