How Dadaab refugee youth are winning against poverty after branding themselves. #dadaabcollective

The 15 Dadaab Collective Freelancing Agency officials were taken on a study tour to Nairobi by the Norwegian refugee council in partnership with the eMobilis team on Wednesday 8 at 9:00 am. Fifteen freelancers from the three camps that make up the Dadaab camp, namely Dagahaley, Ifo, and Hagardhera were selected to participate in the leadership training at the Nairobi Jacaranda hotel.

NRC organized the tour training for the Dadaab collective leaders from the Dadaab camp to build their leadership skills and the improvement of the self-help agency. The agency's leaders met other successful agency leaders at the training hotel who mainly work online. They taught them free learning platforms, including Ajira, Hubspot certification, LinkedIn certification, Alx, Free code cam, Chatgpt, and how to improve the Dadaab collective agency both its profile and its visibility. The guest speakers also introduced the group to how to register a new agency using the e-citizen and its requirement during its creation.

Hawo Mohamed Abdi, 2021 Cohort 8 graduate, believes that she learned many skills from the training, such as new upskilling platforms where the youth can get free certification after learning the course. “I was introduced to platforms where I can learn and at the same time became certified. I have learned Digital marketing from the Hubspot certification that I was introduced to by the trainers. I am currently learning search engine optimization at the Hubspot platform. I have further gained skills like digital management, financial management, and time management. I could suggest the youth learn the free skills and not depend on N.G.O.s jobs because the opportunities in the camp are scarce while the graduates are many.

Robert Mutiua a successful freelancer who spoke about his success encouraged the Dadaab collective freelancing agency officials by saying “I could encourage the Dadaab collective freelancing agency officials to engage with other agencies and nothing should restrict them since they have the mandate to serve the best interest of the members."

There were also taught the different platforms they can earn from Moge Abdi Saman 2021 Resi Cohort 7 graduate who learned web design and development at the Dadaab says, “the training gives me hope and confidence where by it had convinced my soul and the advancement of my skill so that I have the possibilities of landing new jobs on platforms like the Upwork, Fiverr, Proz and so on. I also learned leadership skills that I could improve the Dadaab collective agency.

On the second day of the study tour, the Dadaab collective officials visited Adopt technology, a Business process outsourcing company (B.P.O. company) in Nairobi. The members asked questions about Adept technologies' operation and leadership structure.

Adept Technologies had a pool of online freelancers who mainly do transcription and data management jobs at their online occupation place in Nairobi.

The freelancers also visited the Gearbox in Nairobi, where they met machine operating experts .at the Gearbox, each freelancer wore a blue Jacket for a practical demonstration of how the motherboard is manufactured in Kenya and the process of making it. There were also different types of Kenyan-made machines like the ANC. used to manufacture other machines.

The following day they were taken to the Kenya National archives, which is one of the biggest historical sites in Kenya. There were shown pictures labeled on the walls of the archives; each photo had a story behind it. Photos of the colonial period and the freedom fighters, stories like the Dedan kimathi, were told by the person whose job was to educate the visitors about the labeling of the walls.

The Dadaab collective freelancing agency was established by a group of refugee youth from the three camps that made up the Dadaab camp in the year 2019 and was supported by the Norwegian refugee council and the I.T.C. who previously trained the youth at the camps on skills that can make them self-reliant.

Author: Abdirizak Jama Shire