Social-Economic Empowerment
Through capacity building, financial literacy/education, household economic strengthening, vocational training, apprenticeships, and enabling job links, LISP works with youth and caregivers to enhance their economic wellbeing.
Objectives
Improved wellbeing among disadvantaged youth through capacity building in life skills and financial literacy
Increased opportunities for vulnerable youth to access work readiness and decent job placement packages for sustainable incomes
Household economic strengthening for orphans and vulnerable children
Projects Implemented
Kenya Youth Empowerment and Opportunity Project (KYEOP) is funded by World Bank to The Kenyan government through the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs (MPYGA). The project targets youth aged between 18–29 years and is geared to support the government in its effort to create and improve youth employability by helping them gain relevant skills and experience.
Project Focus
A major problem that was noted among the young people is that they lack the required skills and attitude for employability and creatively starting up personal enterprises. Hence KYEOP comes in to bridge the gap and ensure the youth get the required skills and experience for the job market.
The Life Skills Training (LST) is critical in imparting the right attitude and skills needed by the youth, it becomes pace setter and prepares the interns to go through the project with resilience despite the challenges that they may face.
LISP's Role in KYEOP
LifeSkills Promoters is contracted by the ministry to conduct the LST training for ten days in various counties. The training equips the youth beneficiaries with adaptive and positive behaviour that enable them to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
The training is learner oriented which gives the trainees the opportunity to share their experiences and learn from one another in a friendly environment. The training is very transformational and imparts the beneficiaries with skills to face life in all aspects of their lives.
Training Objectives
Appreciate the role of personal life values and norms in enhancing productivity and appreciation in the workplace.
Demonstrate improved personal management including social assets for resilience and personal development.
Exhibit enhanced communication and interpersonal skills for better relationships.
Show capacity to access and retain employment or enterprise development.
Demonstrate greater social concern and responsible citizenship in the society.
2INUANE YOUTH PROJECT
Lifeskills Promoters (LISP), in partnership with government-run Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, launched a youth empowerment project called 2Inuane funded by GIZ & KOICA, targeting youth aged 18 to 29 years. The project’s goal is to equip unskilled youth from poor backgrounds with the necessary life skills and technical training to secure gainful employment or start their businesses.
Challenge:
The coastal region of Kenya has been grappling with a huge youth unemployment problem, leading to high levels of poverty and an increased risk of youth getting radicalized by extremist groups. The lack of skills and opportunities has left many young people with no hope for the future.
Our Intervention:
2Inuane project takes the youth through life skills training and career guidance, followed by three months of technical training in various artisan-level courses, including hairdressing, electrical installation, motorcycle repair and maintenance, plumbing, and hospitality. The project also teaches entrepreneurship to help those interested in starting their businesses acquire practical skills in the field.
Private business owners near the learning institutions are engaged as mentors, offering internships and eventually employing the youth graduates from the program. The project has sponsored 70% of the youth enrolled in the program to take the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) assessment, ensuring they leave the project with a globally recognized certification.
The benefits/ Results:
The project has surpassed its initial target of 1,560 youth, having reached over 1,900 due to overwhelming interest from the youth. The project offers a short course that results in direct linkage to jobs and startup kits for those interested in starting their businesses. 60% of the youth have secured jobs, while 26% have started their businesses, now having regular income to support their basic needs and families.
The life skills training component of the program has been the greatest catalyst for transformation in the youth’s lives, developing their self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, and analytical skills. Feedback from employers has also been appreciative of the conduct and behavior of the program’s graduates at their places of work.
The partner institutions, such as Sokoni Vocational Training Center (VTC), Mwabaya Nyundo VTC, Tiwi VTC, Mazeras VTC, and Godoma TTI, have benefited immensely from the project’s capacity-building approaches integrated within the program. Through cross-learning, equipment purchases, and training of their instructors on effective pedagogical skills.
Example: Fatuma, a 24-year-old girl from Kilifi, was among the first cohort of the 2Inuane project. Having dropped out of school due to financial constraints, Fatuma struggled to make ends meet. After completing the program, she secured employment in a local hotel as a housekeeper, earning a steady income that has enabled her to support her siblings and pay for her mother’s medical bills. Fatuma has since been promoted to a supervisor position, and her dream of opening her restaurant is now a reality. She credits the project for changing her life, giving her a sense of purpose, and teaching her the necessary skills to succeed in life.
NAWIRI
Adolescent girls and young women in Isiolo and Marsabit face higher rates of gender-based violence and unsafe sex practices increasing their risk of teenage pregnancy and school dropout, which in turn leads to a lack of economic resources and income-generating options and a general lack of agency in shaping their lives. The root cause of these vulnerabilities is largely determined by the girls’ weak social, health, and economic assets. Adolescent girls and young mothers’ limited access to and control over productive assets and resources and decision-making power further aggravates their health and nutrition and that of their children.
Nawiri life skills program targets adolescent girls and young mothers aged 15 to 24 years who constitute a significant number of those with negative health and nutrition outcomes and lacking in relevant skills, knowledge, and attitude to sustainably address persistent acute malnutrition affecting young children.
The overall goal is to develop a Nawiri Life Skills curriculum and training modules and build the capacity of the Trainer of Trainers (TOT) to deliver the program. The life skills program is intended to build the agency, as well as the social, health, and economic assets of adolescents’ mothers and youth aged 15 to 24 years, in a safe and fun learning environment.
The project equips AGYMs with self-efficacy skills to gain confidence and cope with emotional stresses, make decisions, explore and engage in economic activities, and adopt healthy habits for improved health and nutrition outcomes. AGYMs also increase their knowledge of appropriate child care, hygiene, feeding, and dietary requirements. The project equips AGYMs with entrepreneurship and financial management skills to enhance their financial literacy and gain the ability to plan their finances. Continuous mentorship and individual and group counseling helps AGYMs sustain the skills learned resulting in improved quality of life. AGYMs also get an opportunity to acquire a technical skill of their choice through apprenticeship and vocational training, providing them with an opportunity to participate in the labor markets through job creation.
GPE Project
The GPE funded project aimed to enhance access to online and distance learning for students in primary and secondary schools and facilitate a smooth transition in the return to school for targeted vulnerable learners.
The project had three components
KEY MILESTONES
1. Design and pilot an online based mental health, psychosocial and spiritual support services
2. Build the capacity of guidance and counselling teachers, chaplains and education officials to continually provide psychosocial support to learners and their parents/guardians beyond the project period
3. Provide mental health, psychosocial and spiritual support services to learners affected by COVID-19
4. Offer mental health, psychosocial and spiritual support to teachers, non-teaching staff and parents in the affected areas.
5. Develop and disseminate key child friendly messages on psychosocial wellbeing
Statistics
Teachers in different school reached
Parents and non teaching staff Received PSS support
Peer Educator trained and are supporting their peers in school
Learners reached by peer educators and suported to cope with everyday challenges
Achievments
PSS Needs assessment
• The study findings showed that both teachers and learners were undergoing very stressful and challenging issues that have resulted in high levels of trauma.
•The assessment recommended continued capacity building of Guidance and Counselling teachers, strengthening peer to peer support structures for learners, and equipping parents with skills to be enable them support their children
E- Learning Platform Developed
• The system will continue to be available for the teachers, parents and Chaplains beyond the initial project period ended November 2021
Training Tools Developed
1. Sensitization manual for stakeholders
2. Training manual for teachers
3. Training manual for parents
4. Training manual peer educators
5. Training guide for chaplains, Sheiks and Hindu Fraternity
Radio Talk Shows
LISP partnered with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) to run series of programs targeting parents. This entailed hosting live talk shows on topical issues affecting parents and children and which had a direct link to the effects of COVID 19 as well as Psycho-social wellbeing for the children. 7 Programs aired.
TUINUE JAMII / Adult Literacy Program
Turkana is the second largest County by land mass in Kenya and considered one of the poorest with the adult literacy rate at 20%. Lifeskills Promoters (LISP) funded by GIZ implemented an “Integrated Life Skills for Functional Literacy and Household Economic Strengthening Project” in Turkana County. The project was Christened Tuinue Jamii (Kiswahili for ‘Let us uplift households’). The functional literacy programme targeted 1,500 youth (aged 18-35 years) and adults living within Turkana South and Turkana East Sub Counties. Household Economic Strengthening (HES) on the other hand targeted 750 Households to be empowered through Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) and other income generating activities.
The Functional Literacy training included both basic literacy and numeracy training integrated with practical skills such as bead making, basic business and entrepreneurial skills, agribusiness, health and household management through income generation projects. The program trained adults and youth to meet independently the reading and writing demands placed on them. It stressed the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive, and computational skills to accomplish practical ends in culturally specific settings.
Project Result
300 Goats procured and distributed to all SILC beneficiary groups. 3 goats per group for all the 99 groups targeted as a start-up Kitty for the pastoralists groups as a source of livelihood & security.
Their outstanding loans amounted to Kshs. 3,165,085 and Kshs. 223,650 left in the “bank” or SILC boxes.
146 SILC groups were formed in Turkana East & South by the end of the project.
The 146 groups in Turkana had a total of Kshs. 3,905,275 in terms of savings.
Social fund for emergency increased to Kshs. 489,580
In Depth Project
In 2010, LISP in partnership with World Servants through Tear Fund, started Kenya In-depth Project. The program which is focused on Community Development runs through an exchange program in which, selected students from Kenya go to Netherlands and students from Christian University in Netherlands come to Kenya for cross cultural interaction and learning.
Interact and learn from the local organizations
- Understand the dynamics of both rural and urban development
- Learn and interact with different models and strategies for community development
- Conduct a culture visit
The program helps the young people interact with the reality of development issues in the country they visit. The experience often times erase prejudices that one might have about their host culture and allows them to appreciate newer development approaches and initiatives.
