Our mission is to transform lives
IMPACT SOURCING
Digital Divide Data (DDD) uses impact sourcing to empower individuals and businesses to break down social and economic barriers. Impact sourcing is when companies intentionally hire and offer career opportunities to people who otherwise have limited prospects. DDD pioneered the impact sourcing model of offering employment in business process outsourcing (BPO) services to people from underserved communities thereby providing them a path to economic self-sufficiency.
DDD is proud to comply with the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition’s Impact Sourcing Standard, reaffirming our commitment to employ talent from underserved communities
Our Social Impact Model
50%
Women in the workforce
95%
Economically and socially marginalized individuals in the workforce
7,000
Youth impacted through employment or employability training
$350 mil.
Estimated increase in lifetime earnings
Success Stories
Inspiring Social Action Through Inclusion
Though less than ten kilometers away from Mathare North, where Joan has lived all her life, she never imagined the day would come when she would work at a building as elegant as Paramount Plaza, where DDD Kenya holds office.
It was too stark a contrast to the largest slum in Nairobi, which Joan’s family and half a million other people considered home. As a child, she was fascinated by buildings and structures, and dreamt of one day becoming an engineer. But it seemed unlikely that she would ever attain it, forced as she was to switch schools multiple times due to insufficient funds. And it wasn’t only her education that suffered: Joan never stayed at a school long enough to make friends either.
When a neighbor told Joan about DDD, she knew there was nothing to lose in giving it a try. To this day, she believes joining DDD’s Work-Study program was the best decision she has ever made. It opened up opportunities she never imagined she would have: learning Spanish for a project, earning an income four times higher than the minimum wage, and even attending Kenyatta University. Best of all, Joan found lifelong friends in her fellow associates, some of whom are persons with disabilities.
Working within DDD’s inclusive and encouraging environment has not only allowed Joan to develop her own skills and capacity for learning; it has also given her an appreciation of the potential of all young persons, including those with disabilities. Where before, Joan dreamt of building concrete structures, today she is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Special Needs Education and looks forward to the day when she would build a school that would empower persons with learning disabilities instead.
Technology Knows No Boundaries
Nairobi is home to Kenya’s Kibera housing project where an estimated 170,000 live in poverty. With minimal opportunities and high unemployment, most live on less than $1 a day. For women, life in Kibera is even harder with few education and employment opportunities.
In January 2017, DDD, AWS and Intel launched the Cloud Center of Excellence in Kenya to teach technology skills to young people from Kibera and other underserved parts of Nairobi. More than a third of the pilot class were women and most had no computer experience.
Maureen Chebet and Damaris Sirengo were part of this inaugural class completing six months of training to become certified in AWS Systems Ops.In November, AWS invited them to ReInvent in Las Vegas to share their own experiences and how DDD is helping women in Nairobi gain skills in technology.
“The technology industry is male-dominated, but we all have potential.” Maureen believes. “Unfortunately, women often are not given a chance because their skills are underestimated. We need to widen our empowerment channels to support women who want to enter tech.”
Dameris’ experiences were similar. “Since we started the training, I have seen myself grow tremendously. I`ve overcome the fear and perception of ‘it’s impossible, and that IT is hard only men can do it.’ Once I started doing it, I found out that I can do it better than the men.”
“Their stories were heard by executives at Enquizit, a U.S. based managed services provider, who invited Maureen and Damaris to train alongside their employees to serve clients in applications, web development and cloud migrations.
“We hope to further dissolve barriers to socio-economic gains for motivated and intelligent youths…we’ll strive to get these young professionals the chance they’ve earned,” said TC Ratnapuri, Enquizit President.”
Today both Maureen and Damaris work remotely from Kenya helping their Enquizit colleagues bring cloud skills to clients around the globe—demonstrating technology truly has no boundaries.
When a neighbor told Joan about DDD, she knew there was nothing to lose in giving it a try. To this day, she believes joining DDD’s Work-Study program was the best decision she has ever made. It opened up opportunities she never imagined she would have: learning Spanish for a project, earning an income four times higher than the minimum wage, and even attending Kenyatta University. Best of all, Joan found lifelong friends in her fellow associates, some of whom are persons with disabilities.
Working within DDD’s inclusive and encouraging environment has not only allowed Joan to develop her own skills and capacity for learning; it has also given her an appreciation of the potential of all young persons, including those with disabilities. Where before, Joan dreamt of building concrete structures, today she is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Special Needs Education and looks forward to the day when she would build a school that would empower persons with learning disabilities instead.
