Social-economic Empowerment

Enhancing the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable women and girls, families, and communities is at the core of INUA KIKE’s programming. Women and girls continue to be disadvantaged socio-economically due to low levels of education and lack of profitable skills.

In an effort to improve their status, INUA KIKE provides capacity development by providing financial credit for the development of income-generating activities and small-scale businesses and the establishment of voluntary savings and loan associations.

One Girl at a time social enterprise training program provides critical business tools and knowledge to improve lives and help reduce unemployment rates in informal settlements and devastated rural areas of Kenya. Each year, INUA KIKE leads four-week business skills training courses for girls and young women in schools and out-of-school settings. For participants, the program provides a great opportunity to learn about other cultures, how businesses are created and developed in different contexts, and the role of education in economic development.

We are driven by the fact that having a university degree is no longer enough to find meaningful employment, and INUA KIKE doesn’t consider a degree the end of our investment; we are not successful until girls/young women are able to start working, earn a living and become financially independent. That’s why INUA KIE’s Social Entrepreneurship Program offers entrepreneurship training workshops to teach girls and young women how to use their skills and interests to create small-scale businesses. At the same time, they build their knowledge of business and develop a career.
In the school context, the workshops are designed to introduce Kenyan students to cases and concepts that are contextualized to fit their environment and business framework. In this context, the program supports girls in Kenya through the Cycle of Empowerment. This holistic approach supports girls from the time they leave primary school until they graduate from university and gain meaningful employment.
Out of school context, the program scales up a successful model of social enterprise training, making it accessible to more young women in Kenya and empowering them to jump-start their business ideas and become leaders within their communities.

Beneficiaries

Primary beneficiaries:

Poor, vulnerable women and girls, with or without disabilities from the urban informal settlements and interior rural areas of Kenya challenged by women and girls' economic dependency, illiteracy, marginalization, HIV/AIDS, Sexual & Gender Based Violence (SGBV), conflict, insensitive laws and policies.

Secondary beneficiaries:

Households headed by women and girls/widowed fostered, fostering/taking care of vulnerable children, girls, youth and men. The women and girls are the main bread winners.

INUA KIKE targets the improvement of livelihood and wellbeing of the vulnerable women and girls, girls and their families including their communities. INUA KIKE remains committed to serve its beneficiaries with a range of services for the improvement of their well-being.