Hagush
Organization Details
We are working to make information and communication technology (ICT) access universal. We work with university students, refugees, and youth living in care institutions in low-income countries. Our approach focuses on increasing the purchasing power of people through two main programmatic areas:
1.Financing program: we provide our constituents financing for ICT device purchases (e.g., a laptop), and they agree to pay back a fixed % of what they owe monthly for a set period. All repaid funds are then reinvested back into the program.
2. A job placement program: we connect our constituents to jobs.
We also have a digital literacy training program to ensure optimal use of devices.
Hagush supports the ability of people in low-income countries to address the issue of limited ICT access themselves. Our programs enable people to leverage what they have (their labor and time) to gain the economic power they need to get ICT access.
Impact Story
Hagush exists to address the issue of limited access to information and communication technology (ICT) in low-income countries. We are working to make ICT access universal. Currently, we are preparing to launch a pilot of our financing program. We'll be working with 100 refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Because the refugees have limited access to computers at the camp, they have to share laptops to do their jobs. This issue of limited ICT access has been a bottleneck in their productivity and is affecting the quality of their work. As a result, they're having trouble retaining clients. In the pilot, we're financing personal laptops for them. We are also preparing to launch a second pilot in Rwanda.
Access to ICT will improve the lives of our constituents in numerous ways. For example, for the refugees in Kakuma camp, it'll enhance the quality of their work and productivity. It'll allow them to retain more clients and increase their income, affording them greater access to resources and the means for upward social mobility.
More generally, greater ICT access will give more people from low-income countries a way to participate in the digital economy. As a result, income levels and living standards will increase.
Moreover, ICT access will mean online educational resources will be available to more people in low-income countries. It will mean more interactive and informal learning and a richer learning experience. It will also mean that, at some point, stories of people who teach themselves programming at some absurdly young age will be as widespread as they are in high-income nations.
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