Dream Rise Foundation

With Ntirimiti Community Library and St. Rita Innovation Hub, Ntirimiti taking shape, I will prioritize the completion of the project. This resource Centre entails developing and implementing high-quality digital skill-building programs that are competent and responsive in the digital world. It provides digital skill building, device access, and digital support for young generation in preparation for workforce development programs.

The goal of the Digital Inclusion being to support the connection of an additional one billion people to the internet, I will use the available resources to bring to life Digital Academy Schools by Dream Rise Foundation; in form of Social Impact Labs, to the most marginalized areas in Kenya. These Digital Academies, their main aim shall be to digitally empower disadvantaged groups, with support of innovative partners.

Besides availing internet access and teaching basic digital skills, they will be centered to nurture creativity and innovation. By teaching courses like programming, data analysis among others, I look forward to a more diversified society with adequate and efficient digital skillset.

I have launched a campaign against the increased gender based violence especially for the LGBT community members. I will utilize the opportunity to establish a safe space, in form of counselling Centre.

Being the first student to join a national high school from my village, it was bittersweet experience. How could I support more students to join me? I thought of coming up with a platform that can support more primary school students through mentorship in both leadership and academics.

That was the inception of Dream Rise Foundation, with the aim to inspire, empower and transform the lives of the young generation from the under-resourced areas in Kenya

Later, I had to travel 49 miles to access internet services, to do university applications and fill loan applications for my studies; since everything had to be done online. Transport was costly and I was overcharged for the services. When I joined university, I owed a laptop and learnt few digital skills at first. Now that I am pursuing Computer Science course, digital literacy has come in handy. My motivation to pass same skills to others from my village, brought about the idea to establish and ICT Hub.

Besides establishing ICT hubs and rolling out computer literacy training programs, I want to nurture a generation of young leaders who can identify gaps in their community, come up with sustainable action plans, and exercise them.

In Ntirimiti, before 2019, only less than three students who managed to transit to high schools annually. My case was unique because I was given a scholarship by a Catholic Church priest to study at a church sponsored boarding school. Currently, at least ten students have transited for the past two years annually. For the institutions of higher learning, up to date, I am the only student who is still continuing with education.

The area has recorded seventeen teenage pregnancies since March, when lockdown was announced in Kenya. Prior 2019, the case was even worse with local authorities recording at least twenty cases annually. At least a girl, from a group of three has gone through female genital mutilation. The young boys, at least 90 percent are engaged in drugs and substance abuse, especially bhang, khat and alcohol.

Most of these problems, have been brought about by high rate of unemployment, lack of global exposure and limited to no access to educational resources. The factor behind this is the increased levels of poverty. Dream Rise Foundation supports through comprehensive mentorship programs, establishing public access library and an ICT hub to help curb some of the highlighted challenges.

Our programs are located at the grassroots, Ntirimiti Location, thus we are directly engaging the students and impacting them. We have been able to intertwine our programs, i.e. Comprehensive mentorship session, public access library and digital literacy trainings to complement each other.

We take time to train our team of volunteer mentors on different topics enshrined in our mentorship guide and on contemporary issues that are affecting the young generation. Through this strategic approach, we ensure that our members are fully equipped with adequate and necessary skills to meet our set objectives. This is achieved through partnership with the American Spaces Kenya, on monthly basis in Nairobi.

For the ICT Hub, since it is intended to offer variety of learn skills like the vocational skills, digital skills, art and craft skills, we shall collaborate with Ruibi Polytechnic, a TVET institution, to support us in accrediting with certificate beneficiaries of our programs, through Ministry of Education certification.

Our team of volunteer mentors is comprised of young people, who are currently either in university or are fresh graduates. We have paired each mentor a number of mentees. This helps us to be the role models that younger people can look up to.

Our first mentee, Peter Chege, will be joining Harvard University in August. Since 2019, when we started mentorship projects at Ntirimiti, 23 students have secured a chance to join some of the best high schools in the country. Last year, two girls also managed to join one of the most prestigious national school in the country, Starehe Girls’ Centre. When we started digital literacy programs, we have recorded a number of 94 young people who have enrolled for our programs; despite the limited resources at disposal. Combating stigma being central to addressing Menstrual Hygiene Management and connected issues like child marriage, we have trained 126 young people on Menstrual Hygiene Management through Capacity Building for Lifelong Learning Sessions by Dream Rise Foundation.

We achieved this through a consistent and comprehensive mentorship program from August 2019 to date. To complement our mentorship program, we recommended establishment of a community library, that is accessible by any member of the community. With COVID-19 exposing the weak systems in governance and global education deficit, we narrowed down on digital hub establishment. This is to avail digital tools and resources to the underprivileged in this community. The onset was to start with digital literacy trainings.