Our mission is to transform lives

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.