Innocent Tshilombo On Simplifying Digital Solutions To Create Accessible Education For Refugees
Innocent’s background cuts across the humanitarian, private and academic sectors. Holder of a Master's degree in Humanitarian Action from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, Innocent is a humanitarian professional and co-founder of Kakuma Ventures.
Kakuma Ventures is a social enterprise operating within the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Innocent has led humanitarian, education and business operations in hard-to-reach settings. He aspires to provide marginalised communities with access to digital services and opportunities in education, trade and employment as a catalyst for individual and community development potential. Innocent visions an equitable world where young people in privileged urban or marginalised rural areas, including young people in remote refugee camps, have equal access to opportunities to build their future and that of their communities.
Innocent discusses Combining technology with sustainable business practices to inspire social change and how open access educational resources create opportunities for refugees.
Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)
[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your work in purpose led enterprise?
[Innocent Tshilombo] - My involvement in social enterprise resonates with my life story because I'm originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Around 2009, I fled mt country and found myself in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world, the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. That's why the name of my enterprise is Kakuma Ventures. Life was not easy in the camp, but there was much to be done. Looking around I had not much to do and not many options; it was very hard for any typical young person who is ambitious about their future, education, and community. But that camp could not stop me from doing something. It challenged and gave me inspiration to see things a bit differently, so I could bring the changes needed in the camp. Even from my inspirations, it's all about supporting marginalised people, because that resonates with me given that in the camp there is not much essential infrastructure. There is no great access to resources, the camp is very remote. It's an isolated area where people are confined; it's very hard and you don't have many options. Based on all those factors, I thought of doing things differently, compared to how I found people used to live there.
I took my time to reflect and see what area I should focus on, because I couldn't change everything suddenly. It took me several years to reach that understanding, and I realised that if in the camp you were able to access education, then you could change things.
With education you can be a creative and liberal thinker. That's why I looked around to see how I could best access education. For me, I needed higher education, but in the camp, there were not many opportunities for this. Life was just you woke up, took something to eat, then you slept again; tomorrow was the same thing. The question was how do you make a new start from the camp when you don't have access to university or money to afford paying school fees? I started looking around for scholarships until I got a virtual online scholarship provided by Regis University in the United States. The question then became how I would compete with my peers from the United States when I'm in the camp and have almost nothing, no access to energy, grid electricity, the internet and more broadly the world. Because of this you don't know what is happening outside, you don't understand the trends. It challenged me to work very hard and go the extra mile, at least to keep up with my peers in my class.
I succeeded and finished a Diploma in Liberal Studies, then I pursued my next scholarship. I got another scholarship from Regis University and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration. That gave me the opportunity to get a scholarship and study in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Graduate Institute with the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Studies. There I graduated with a Master's in Humanitarian Action. It took me several years and all this hard work, but I was able in the end to achieve what I wanted to achieve and unlock my potential. I thought the same process could be used or applied to many more people and not only myself, because wherever I was going, I was finding I was just a dot. Many people with the same background are in those camps; how could I enable this change to the larger community, where hundreds of millions of people are having difficulty with unlocking their potential because they are trapped in a refugee cycle? The refugee situation is not something passing after tomorrow or six months, you don't know when it will end. That's when I went back to mt camp believing I should provide people more access. I wanted to provide people access to the internet, electricity, and opportunities so they can unlock their potential and stop being dependent on aid.
As founder of Kakuma Ventures, can you share a bit more about this enterprise and how it's creating a sustainable social impact?
Kakuma Ventures started out of the blue. It's a tech company, I have a technical background because I did a Diploma in Electrical Engineering since I wanted to become an engineer. I could not pursue this dream given the circumstances, however. I jumped to something else that was available for me, and with that basic background, I had some information from technology accelerated training. I was able to access some open-source resources such as tutorials, and I built a solution that would allow people from the camp to get fast access to the internet. But the question became how will I provide people access to the internet if they don't have access to electricity, and if they get access to electricity and access to the internet, what about digital literacy?
People in camps have been isolated from what is happening in the world, so digital literacy is a critical issue, that as well as infrastructure are drivers for the strong adoption of anything digital that I could propose to my fellow residents.
That's when Kakuma Ventures started focusing back in 2018 on building our first prototype. 2019 we were testing the prototype, and in 2020, we launched our service to serve the people and the camp. We still from that time are offering access to energy so people can get connected to the Internet. Then we bring them affordable Internet so they can get access to digital services and opportunities. At the same time, we leverage digital literacy so they are able to make use of the access we bring them. At the same time, because it's all about adoption and the productive use of our solution, we're also seeing how best we can incorporate more and more features into the stuff we're providing, such as loans so people can acquire or buy new digital tools such as a laptop or smartphones that will allow them to make use of the services we are offering. At the same time, this provides them more access to work remotely or learn skills needed by major companies that can afford to hire them. It allows them to work from and develop their own community, which has been incredible so far.
What advice would you give to social entrepreneur learning how to effectively integrate technology into their own targeted solutions?
Most social enterprise serve people who are underserved, people who otherwise are not seen by anyone else. This means there are many underlying challenges which need to be resolved before you can even get off the ground, because you are existing to fill a gap. To fill a gap, it requires a little more effort than any other business. In our case, we need to fight for access to electricity, internet, digital literacy, digital services, and opportunities. When you combine all those aspects together, you tend to feel like there is too much to overcome. You feel like you can't bear the cost, you can't be the pioneer. However, as a social enterprise, it's a good idea to be a pioneer, because you should lead by example, you should be inspired by what changes you want to see.
That way, it's very good to be fast, resilient, patient, and to understand the needs of the people. That is very key, because we can't solve everything. That is one of the traps that social entrepreneurs fall into, since they see there are many problems, they want to solve everything. But the best thing is to find the root causes of these broader issues and tackle that. Do your part, leverage your solution as you go with the needs of the people. From there, you realise things create a multiplying effect, and that has been the same in our case. Currently, now that we're providing people access to energy, Internet, and some digital literacy, we are seeing people are going beyond our expectations, they are becoming co-creators of our vision, which is perfect. You can only achieve that if you provide people with the right solution.
The right solution does not have to be something sophisticated; it should be very simple. I insist on that, because you need to consider building solutions that leverage existing knowledge, so that people themselves can build themselves around your solution.
For that, you must build something very simple, something that can solve a very simple problem but have a very high impact. I also went through the same frustrations. I was ambitious at some point, and I touched on several solutions. I thought of creating a very sophisticated solution, but they could not work; that's why it took us a bit of time to build our prototype. There was no rush, despite there being a sense of urgency in areas where we go to work. That can put us under pressure to create something quickly, but it ends up being not connected with the local people. In that situation, you need to build with the people. You need to do user consultations, create a prototype, test with them, get feedback, and go back to the drawing board. Don't feel bad if you restart everything from scratch, that's the way it needs to be. You are developing for the people, not for yourself.
As a speaker at the upcoming Social Enterprise World Forum later this year in Amsterdam, what are you most looking forward to?
This Forum is a special opportunity for enterprises serving migrants and displaced people from marginalised communities. This is because we find securing investment to continue serving this group is very hard. Investors are always looking for first a story, the story about what you are doing and what your vision is. That's all about impact. Then from that story, you can be invited for an interview or a chat. From the chat, now you can start seeing what should happen next, and maybe it's an investment. When it comes to the next step, that's where everything becomes no longer interesting because of numbers. First, there is the market we are addressing, secondly, there's issues around the future of the business. For example, a refugee camp is looked at as a transit area or centre, where people can stay for a short time, and then they move. If I speak on behalf of the Kakuma Refugee Camp, people have been there for more than three decades now, and they're still going. If a solution was funded back then, by today (30 years down the line), that project would be something very big, bigger than anyone could imagine. But there's a lack of that awareness among the investor as well as the entrepreneurship community because entrepreneurs sometimes they avoid taking risks, or maybe the risk is within their limitations. I want to bring awareness at this Forum about such a market, so people understand there are also other markets to tap into. There are not just those traditional markets we are used to, but there are other markets that need to be addressed.
There are people who desire any solution you can bring to them, and the solution can transform their lives and create a big impact. The conversation should be easy, and people should also have the courage to adopt those inclusive approaches.
Whenever you see a typical form to apply for funding or an opportunity such as a partnership, you don't find much. Sometimes even, if it's a system generated form, the system will just throw you out because you don't fall under any of the logarithms it was programmed using. That follows a very traditional model, while with social entrepreneurship, it's more about adapting to the circumstances and how best partners or potential investors can create or develop that sense of inclusivity. This helps when it comes to providing equitable access to everyone and reaching the most vulnerable individuals. That's one of the main concerns I will raise at the Forum, because I want to express this openly, discuss with others and invite them to see and understand our context. At least together we can see how best we can leverage this market and what partnerships are needed? Out there, there are people ready to support us, and on the other side, there are also ready and in need of support. However, there's a lack of connections between the two. Through constant engagement and networking such as this, it provides a platform to build that bridge between people who are ready to support and people who need support.
What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently that are creating a positive social change?
Recently there are many. Every time you come across something interesting, you'll come across something that challenges you. You realise there are people who think of the world very differently. Something I came across recently was the concept of a Digital Humanitarian Identity. Let's say refugees could get access to more services in a dignified way given they can have their Digital Humanitarian Identity. That's something which touched my heart, because I've realised it's something very small and simple, but it could have a big impact on the life of someone who depends on that. That tool so far has been allowing refugees to access social assistance such as healthcare and humanitarian cash assistance. Those are the things we need to see, and that is the result of the partnership between the humanitarian and private sector. For someone who has a lived background in a humanitarian setting, that's important, because there are not many options, opportunities or innovations coming out of the humanitarian sector.
As we see more private organisations partnering with humanitarian ones, that will change things and create more awareness on issues they're trying to raise. At least people can see this in a transformative way rather than these things being too difficult or hard to achieve.
It's great because it brings up inclusivity you want to see. It also helps those people who can miss out on a solution, innovation, or assistance that they need. In some cases, when you are not identified, you can be seen as a criminal, because it's very hard to know who you are if you can't prove who you are. Despite your problems and needs, people will be just confused, and you might not get that assistance you need because you are not able to be identified. Bringing in this digital identity for the humanitarian sector is a great solution, and I'm keen to see how it will change or disrupt the humanitarian sector, if not the social enterprise sector and market.
To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?
On the entrepreneurial mindset, some of the resources available are very sophisticated. Some of the resources are too expensive, and sometimes when you are building a solution you know what you want to achieve, but you don't know how. To solve the how, it becomes very challenging, critical, and time consuming, because you need to combine several solutions together. As an entrepreneur, in the early stages you tend to be alone. You just have a small team of co-founders who you may be as a team facing limitations with. But I'd like to recommend going first to open resources. With open resources, we can prove the concept, build more prototypes, and learn some of the basics we may want to get started. After we get started, then we can leverage paid or more advanced content as we go. For a start-up, entrepreneur, or founder, spending even one dollar is too much. If you spend many one dollar, they may not even lead you to anywhere as you're trying to come up with a solution. Whatever dollars you are spending should be meaningful and add value. To add value, you should start small and find what is available first within your cycle. After you have exhausted all the resources you can get to through open resources, then you can leverage them to seek t more sophisticated consultations or resources that will enable you to progress to the next stage. There are also people who are doing pro bono work, many organisations have come up with a formula to provide social entrepreneurs with pro bono services and consultations that may be useful for them to build their solution. There are many accelerators; I I went through many of. I went through the Miller Center Accelerator, The HiiL Justice, and recently the Acumen Academy. For all those accelerators I never paid anything; they were really very useful because I met several mentors who have been part of the Kakuma Ventures journey. That is great, because the knowledge I got through those accelerator programs came from networking, such as going to global entrepreneurship forums. Those are a great platform to find these accelerators and meet other like-minded people who we can share our vision with. That's already a resource we should make use of, and that should be our starting point as we go to the upcoming Social Enterprise World Forum.
