A Limitless impact story from Kenya

After I joined the Limitless Youth Innovation Academy, I was confident enough that my initiative would lead to a positive change in my community, and I launched Cyber Limitless. 

Together with support from our local Red Cross branch, I kept training youth on online digital skills, equipping them with skills that are market-driven, like transcription or graphic design, and showing them how to apply for tasks and work online.

I started with 15 youths from my village, who rapidly started earning money online after they successfully completed some tasks. Interest grew and news spread out so fast, that women and youths were coming to me from the neighboring villages, requesting training, and I can remember most women were specifically interested in e-commerce.

In spite of not having IT equipment like computers and laptops, or even a room for the training, it wouldn’t limit me (I have the Limitless state of mind). So I decided to organize the digital training in their villages, at the chief camps and social halls.

And the numbers continued to rise! Now I have successfully trained a total of 248 direct beneficiaries, including 192 youth (18-34) and 56 adults aged 35 and above. I surprisingly noticed that more than half (138) of the beneficiaries (248) were women and girls.

Through this project, women in my community are now owning businesses online, selling their products to online customers, and bringing more income to their families. Today, 64 running online businesses were fully mentored by the Cyber Limitless project and over 100 youths are now freelancers and earning a decent livelihood from online jobs.

Tanya Emily is one of our beneficiaries. Tanya makes African handmade dresses and walks door to door in our villages selling the dresses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she had to stop her activities. But after receiving e-commerce training from Cyber Limitless, she is able to sell her products online and earn more income to support her family. She now also teaches other women the skill of making Swahili dresses.

The most recognized impact in my community is DIGITAL LITERACY, which has opened so many doors for the youth. Now they know that they can access government services online, study online, apply for scholarships, and now they know the Internet is not just for social media, but for many other important things.

My confidence and my changemaker drive were nurtured from the Limitless training and workshops and most especially the mentorship sessions I had with such a lovely woman, Ms. Maria Kuter from ICRC in Geneva.