More than 200 youths and Women in Busia county under the umbrella, “Busia Border Hub,” have been trained and empowered on how to use Technology to advance their life interests during these hard economic times, coupled with lack of employment in the country.
Drawn from across the county, the trainee youths and women were challenged to take up their space in Technology world for socio-economic empowerment
One of the beneficiaries, Marian Murunga says their focus is to enrich young Women and youths with entrepreneurship skills in this techno-savvy generation to enable them start and sustain their businesses
However, funding remains the biggest challenge for the young entrepreneurs in Busia county and Murunga is now calling for more investments in youths and women from both National and County Governments as well as donors to support their ambition in the Technological field.
Another beneficiary, Caroline Anyango applauded the initiative as the only hope for empowering youths not only in Busia county, but across the country.
They are now calling upon young women in Busia county, especially in the villages, to come out and join the Border Hub initiative to be able to beat the challenges of the 21st century and become self-reliant.
The organization was founded in 2019 has so far trained over 300 youth in different skills to enable them manage their small-scale businesses, besides being knowledgeable in technology considering the fact that the current world dispensation is digitally sensitive.
Marian Abukai Murunga, the coordinator of the training expressed her passion in empowering youth, vulnerable groups, and gender-based violence victims with skills required for them to thrive in life despite their past experiences.
“Our programs seek to empower young women with digital skills to enable them start, support, and run their businesses in a technology driven world,” said Murunga.
She lamented that most of the youth in rural areas do not have access to digital skills, with some of them being victims of gender-based violence.
“Owing to the challenges that many youths go through, we identified the need to create awareness about gender-based violence, besides training them in business in partnership with Global Peace Foundation,” added Murunga.
The remarks were supported by Vincent Ayako, the resource mobilization and strategic manager at the Global Peace Foundation, who offered business development skills to the youth to enable them reach their potential.
“We are focused on imparting skills to young people and show them how to transform those skills to viable business enterprises that generate revenue,” said Ayako, adding that the business training model covers value proposition, customer relations, and revenue streams.
According to Brian Odinga, a software engineer and one of the instructors at the border hub, only 4% of women in Kenya are enlightened about technology as opposed to their counterparts in Canada at 84%.
“We are working hard to increase technological awareness among Kenyan women to enable them compete globally,” said Odinga.
