Inclusive entrepreneurship for PWDs

Despite being the second-largest country in Africa and being endowed with rich natural resources, the DRC is the second-poorest country in the world. More than 80% of Congolese people live on less than $1.25 a day, defined as the threshold for extreme poverty.

In the context of people with disabilities (PWDs), they belong to the most marginalized groups in society, and are more likely to be unemployed compared to their counterparts without disabilities. There is no official reliable data on disability exist. Based on studies in sample districts, the Congolese health ministry estimates a prevalence of around 15 percent or around 13 million persons.

This project is designed with the purpose of supporting self-employment and entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities by providing micro-entrepreneurship development services. This is achieved by providing them with business support alongside the financial award to launch or expand their small businesses.

The entrepreneurship option represents one of the most effective ways to fight against unemployment and improve the living conditions and wellbeing of people. However, in developing countries, especially DRC, businesses are directly or indirectly affected by the environment no matter how big or how small the business is because of the technologies, facilities and expertise involved. For example, most small businesses and startups have difficulties getting business spaces, suitable technologies and facilities, electricity and more and this affects productivity. In addition, small business owners face a range of challenges to successfully launch and grow their businesses. Challenges include, but not limited to, access to capital or seed funding, the marketplace, business opportunities.

The Kadiwaku Family Foundation enables disables people and other marginalized groups to receive business support and tools they needed to develop a sense of autonomy regardless of their ability to walk or travel. This is achieved through Mobile Application and in-person training, networking, internship and customized business support. Thus, they are ready to participate in the job market either as entrepreneurs or employees. A major effort through this program’s life span is the creation of an ecosystem of disabled entrepreneurs and informal alumni networks across the country who might become employers and mentors to their former peers. In addition, the program improves the literacy skills of young people with disabilities who are not educated or dropped out schools the digital skills- We teach them how use common Microsoft programs, financial management software and web search engines. Moreover, we are creating an inclusive and supportive workplace and increate job opportunities for young people with disabilities by training employers as well as young people with disabilities to acquire the workplace behavior and meet the market demand.

Our primary targets are PWDs who are the most marginalized groups and more likely to be unemployed compared to their counterparts without disabilities in DR Congo. Unfortunately, the country has not yet taken a practical steps to make disability rights a reality. Thus, the majority of people with disabilities turn to begging or they may rely on family support or social services because they have no other options open to them. In addition, PWDs face challenges such as harassment, communication barriers and negative perceptions of PWDs which further impedes their chances to become entrepreneur or secure a sustain employment.

The theory of change follows five steps with subsequent expected impacts as follows: (i) The organization works with community and organizations of people with disabilities to select participants to participate in training program (online through Mobile App or at our training centers); (ii) the participants have improved the knowledge of good small business management and they develop a business plan; (iii) the best business plans are selected to receive a customized business support including financial award; (iv) the participants establish a business; (v) businesses expand and begins to contribute to self-employment.

Our project is in line with this challenge as its promotes equal access for young with disabilities to entrepreneurship opportunities and takes necessary measures to reduce obstacles that could affect their chances to become entrepreneurs. For example, the trainings/events are combined with sign language to allow the hard of hearing and deaf people to access them and we helped those in need to obtain the mobility aid including wheelchairs, leg-braces and other devices that PWDs rely upon to help them attend in-person activities.

Solutions to the marginalization of PWDs are being developed. However, PWDs continue to face challenges in accessing and benefiting from them. KFF focuses on the intervention not only by providing business development services, but also helping disabled people overcome the barriers that prevent them from accessing these services, we have adopted a locally-based approach that involves bringing together Disabled People’s Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations and Community-Based Organizations and local government officials to foster local public-private–NGO partnerships to provide an integrated support model at the local level tailored to young people, thereby addressing the multiple barriers young people with disabilities face to starting and expanding their businesses. This positions KFF, not as a competitor to other NGOs or initiatives but rather establishes a lasting partnership to sustain and extend the program.

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In-person training at our training centers: 

1/Kadiwaku Family Foundation is using technology as a means to reach and empower individuals with disabilities and their communities. Our web and mobile app, and WhatshApp-based platform have helped people with disabilities to attend our virtuel events and training, and to receive customized business support they needed to start or boost their businesses. All are able to communicate and network. 

2/Our team is using the internet as a major communication tool-every staff has e-mail ID and all computers in our training centers are connected with LAN to share files/printers.

Our platforms helped provide self-paced training and are being used by disabled-entrepreneurs as marketplace:  Thanks to the popularity of mobile devices, people spend more time online than ever, connected even while on the move. it's the easiest way to reach them. KFF took advantage of this to introduce young people with disabilities to freelancing because it's entirely possible to become a professional freelancer without much upfront cost and regardless of someone’s physical ability. They can work from the comfort of their own home with an online-based businesses. 

Learn more here: https://35985147-a7d4-4e07-9fa...

The theory change follows four steps with subsequent expected impacts as follows: (i) the selected participants attend our training program at our training centers, (ii) the participants have improved the knowledge of good small business management and they develop a business plan; (iii) The best business plans are selected to receive a customized business support alongside with financial support; (iv) participants establish a business, and apply improved managerial practices and attitudes toward business, (v) businesses expand and begins to contribute to self-employment.

The following are some of the indicators that are achieved by the project so far:

- 859 direct beneficiaries successfully completed the entrepreneurship training of which 75% were youths with disabilities (650 PWDs);

- 645 youth entrepreneurs attended our networking and skill-building events of which 50% youth with disabilities (326 PWDs);

- 654 young entrepreneurs who received pre-creation support and the percentage of disabled entrepreneurs: 55% (360 PWDs);

- 502 young entrepreneurs who received post creation support and the percentage of disabled entrepreneurs: 69% (360 PWDs).

The above indicators were supported by intermediate result indicators:

- 2010 beneficiaries participated in pre-screening phase;

- 859 selected beneficiaries for entrepreneurship training have completed their business plans;

- 803 Participants rated the quality of the training package as useful or very useful.

Example of beneficiary who received training, financial assistance and mobility aid: 

The initial target of the project was to train 650 young people with disabilities. However, the KFF extended the training to other marginalized groups who expressed their interest. Because of opening the gate for others to come in, the program, registered more people than originally expected. was slightly exceeded (reaching 859).

As of the 502 young entrepreneurs who received pre-creation support-360 have are succeeding as entrepreneurs, 12 secured sustainable employment, 76 failed in becoming neither entrepreneur nor employee and 54 dropout (70% of dropouts launched their business but they couldn’t sustain them). 

The project also intended to reach at least 26 potential employers across DR Congo on how to accommodate an employee with disability or with specific needs, and how to support diversity and anti-discrimination in the workplace. Instead, 51 were successfully trained. 97% of trained employees rated the quality of training as very useful while 72% of trained employers are using our guidelines to accommodate an employee with disabilities and other marginalized groups in the workplace.

KFF is planning to expand its operations to other African countries (the Great lakes sub-region) where people with disabilities are facing similar challenges as in DR Congo. Our vision is to reach one million young people with disabilities and enable them to participate in the job market either as entrepreneurs or employees in order to maintain a sustainable level of income and achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Learn more about our conferences and networking events:

1/ Establish partnership: The KFF will strove to establish and strengthen existing partnerships with a wide array of institutions to reach 1 million PWDs. The partnership with Ministry of People With Disabilities will played a key role in identifying young people with disabilities through its network and database. The International NGO East Eagle Foundation also will partner with KFF through this program to reach more beneficiaries in across the country. KFF has concluded a MoU with PayAfrica Foundation to provide 10,000 beneficiaries with financial literacy and to build a network of mobile money agents in seven cities throughout the country where KFF is currently active. 

2/ KFF is looking forward to developing a Mobile App that can work offline and contains online library of business educational articles and podcasts to help the disabled community to learn how to start and manage  small businesses in their native languages.  

3/ KFF will network with financial institutions that would accept to provide youth with credit at attainable rates or submit an unsolicited proposal to current donors including USADF and Echoing Green to provide financial support to beneficiaries. This can be in form of a local competition to identify or boost sustainable and scalable business ideas.

1/ The implementation of this project with such a big magnitude proved to be difficult and challenging as it had to deal with a big number of issues and challenges-Logistical and mobility challenge. Although KFF helped some young people to obtain mobility aid and orthopedic equipment, many young people with disabilities weren’t able to attend the in-person activities because they lacked mobility and the transport has been a major obstacle especially for those who live in rural areas. An online platform could help them access the services. Unfortunately, the platform is running with internet which is not so widely available to everyone in DRC. This has limited access and not have as much impact or scalability as intended.

2/ Although the training program and materials took into account the educational background of PWD initially targeted by the project, this was another reality during the training delivery. Some beneficiaries expressed their concerns regarding the training language. The mismatch between the level of the training curricula and the education background of the beneficiaries was an issue. The curricula were developed in French and not all beneficiaries spoke French.

3/ The young beneficiaries who were graduated but did not run their businesses quickly forget some of what they have learned.

1/ KFF wants to develop a Web and Mobile App that will work offline and contains online library of business educational articles and podcasts to help the disabled community to learn how to start and manage  small businesses in their native languages.  

2/ KFF will develop the training materials in Congolese native languages including lingala, Shawili, Kikongo and Tshiluba.

3/ KFF is setting up a follow-up program to reinforce the skills they were taught. The organization should also extend its internship program to help them get some experience and workplace behavior.

The Inclusive Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities in DR Congo project staff structure reflects the desire to keep the program team modest, yet highly functional, and optimize us existing resources to ensure a sustainable program. The team includes six key personnel: Project Manager (PM), First Assistant PM in charge of Administration and Finances (APM), Second Assistant PM in charge of main office (OC), Technical Support (TS) seven field Coordinators (FC), Training and Event Coordinator, Internship Coordinator (IC) , Volunteer Coordinator (VC) and Volunteers. 

KFF is one of the organizations composed mainly of people living with disabilities who are engaged in promoting the rights of their peers in the DR Congo. KFF’s team leader by John K. Ntonta, a 2018 Echoing Green Global Fellow, a disability rights advocate and social entrepreneur, believes in a new way of thinking and undertaking tasks. This passion is seen in his effort to register the entity. Also, a team of fellow disabled people join in and contribute time, effort and energy to support their fellows in the same state, which is very unusual, uncommon and rare. These facts make KFF a different entity and position it strategically as the entity that will aleviate the disabled people from poverty and also link them to various platforms where they can access the resources they need to promote their self-determined goals and wellbeing.

The Founder of KFF, Mr. John Ntonta, a Global Echoing Green Fellow, a Disability Rights Advocate and a Social Entrepreneur, works alongside other business experts and Consultants to provide Executive staff with strategic support and capacity building and they work closely with them to design, implement and evaluate the project activities in the field and contribute to creating an informal alumni network who eventually will become employers and/or mentors to their former peers. As of January 2020, KFF established seven alumni networks that represent seven provinces where the organization is active.

The KFF has established partnerships with a wide array of institutions. We have established a partnership with East Eagle Foundation, which played a key role in identifying and building the capacity of fifteen volunteers through its network of disability right activists. The International NGO Handicap International also partnered with KFF through the project to reach thirty beneficiaries in the municipality of Kinsenso in the city of Kinshasa. KFF concluded a MoU with PayAfrica Foundation to provide beneficiaries with financial literacy and to build a network of mobile money agents in seven cities throughout the country where KFF is currently active- Finally, KFF worked also with the Finca to organize financial education workshops in the city of Lubumbashi to help beneficiaries understand the basic of  financial literacy which included how to budget, track spending, properly pay off debt and the requirements and process to follow to apply for a loan at Finca International.

Our business model is non-profit. however, Kadiwaku Family Foundation implements the following strategies to sustain the program:

1/ Co-working spaces membership: in 2019, we extended our co-working spaces membership to other young entrepreneurs. 9019 youth entrepreneurs used our workplaces of which 7% young with disabilities (650 PWDs). the membership costs $5/months;

2/ Events: in 2019, we reached 500+ young entrepreneurs who successfully attended our entrepreneurship conferences/events. Most of the events are free, however, the attendees were requested to pay small fees to register (3$/per event) for book and material.

Annual conference: $ 1,500

Individual donations: $ 5,000
Board contributions: $ 6,000
Membership fees: $ 1,200
Program services fees: $ 16,800
Grants: $ 80,000

We are applying to solve in order to receive a technical support from its community to develop a web and mobile application that will help us reach young with disabilities who haven't access to the internet. We actually contacted a company who can develop this application but, currently, the organization can't afford the requested budget. Even if the prize is not there, we will be grateful and we look forward to collaborating with the solve to overcome this challenge.

The Kadiwaku Family Foundation would like to partner with grant-making organizations to support the disabled-entrepreneurs after they complete their entrepreneurship training. The outcome of training will require each beneficiary to have access to funding for taking their business ideas to the market or boosting their existing businesses. 

KFF concluded a MoU with PayAfrica Foundation to provide beneficiaries with financial literacy and to build a network of mobile money agents in seven cities throughout the country where KFF is currently active. The PayAfrica Foundation is committed to helping refugees and immigrants to achieve financial sustainability and full pontential in Africa and USA. Thanks to this partnership, KFF help 70 disabled-entrepreneurs to achieve economic self-sufficiency by becoming mobile money agents, of which 29% are disabled refugees from the Republic of Angola and Central Africa Republic, and 17% are Internal Displaced Persons.  

The funding from the Andan Prize will help us reach more people with disabilities among people on the move including refugees.

The KFF inclusive entrepreneurship program supports especially girls and women with disabilities who are known to be very poor and twice victimized as women and also disabled. In order to promote equal access for young women and young men to entrepreneurship, the organization implemented measures to reduce obstacles that could affect the access of women and men to the project activities-the obstacles could be, but not limited to, heavy domestic burdens, risks of violence or sexual abuse on the way to the training center, socio-cultural barriers, etc. the following are specific efforts and strategies that the organization put in place to remove these barriers to entrepreneurship:

-     For disabled women who have children, the organization has made available volunteers to take care of their children during the training;

-     The toilets are separate from men and women and are in a safe location;

-     Teachers and staff of training centers are trained on gender-based violence and have basic psychological support tools;

-     training schedules take into account the distance of beneficiaries to prevent them from arriving late in their homes so that they are exposed to the risk of sexual or physical violence on the way home;

-     the organization provides intimate hygiene products that girls and women rely on.

The funding from this prize will support these measures and increase women's participation in our program.

Although entrepreneurial approach seems to be a solution to eradicate poverty and improve the living conditions of marginalized groups in DRC, PWDs face a range of challenges when it comes to business creation, including physical and communication barriers, negative perceptions of people with disabilities, and other factors that lead to discrimination again people with disabilities. That is why the organization took the necessary measures to maximize the project inclusivity- all the activities within the framework of the project have integrated the "inclusion" dimension which means the project activities showed the capacities to allow everyone (women and men) with specific impairment to access training regardless of someone’s ability and to be supported; The trainings/events were combined with sign language to allow the hard of hearing and deaf people to access them and KFF helped those in need to obtain the mobility aid including wheelchairs, leg-braces and other devices that PWDs rely upon.

Funding from this prize will help us increase the inclusivity of this program.

In addition the entrepreneurial training and financial support, the program was able to improve the literacy skills of young people with disabilities who are not educated or dropped out schools by establishing adult literacy classes, and the digital skills by teaching them how to use common Microsoft programs, financial management software and web search engines.

This funding will support these program components.