ICOKE KIKAPU

70 million people have been forced from their homes. Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is one of the sites where the  UNHCR established a refugee camp in 1992. With more than 200,000 residents,56%  of refugee households are headed by women. Women in the camp face economic challenges that result in psychological and negative coping methods. Refugees have no access to financial systems this is because of restrictions on refugee labor, limited movement, and lack of access to financial services.

Icoke Media Ltd is a social enterprise whose aim is to empower displaced communities to pursue self-employment and pursue jobs in the creative industry. Icoke Duka is an online platform that sells products locally made by refugees in Kakuma. The platform sells refugee products with 70% of the items listed there made by refugee women. The website is friendly and easy to access. The website sells reusable bags, and shoes made of local materials woven from sisals yarns, hats, woven baskets made of reeds, and beadwork.

Through the website, we are supporting refugee entrepreneurs to generate more income through the sale of their products with one equipped workshop with 4 electrical sewing machines and employing 5 women through the revenue we have generated through the project.

Through the website, we have employed indirectly 50 women.

Our goal is to expand the e-shop to help us work with even more talented and skilled refugees to produce t-shirts, sun hats, and school uniforms to sell to the local and global markets.

Then through this, we plan to help the communities become part of a cooperative where we can build a circular fund for them by saving above 10% of what they make per month to help them realize financial independence and build a sustainable business model to last.

Icoke Duka offers refugee women a chance to generate more income from the products they make. Refugee women face gender-based violence, the burden of caring for children, trauma, and low literacy status that makes them not to be hired. Economic participation of women in Kakuma remains low, ranging between 21% and below. The refugee women are from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, Congo, and Burundi. Most of these women concentrate on working in low-capital and low-skills-requirement businesses. Women-owned businesses generate lower business earnings than male-owned businesses. Analysis of data collected by IFC (2018) shows that female refugee-owned businesses generate an average of 3300KES. With the existence of local and international organizations women are enrolled in vocational skills learning to help them in the future generate income. After graduation, some of the women start small business that includes fashion design shops, beadwork, and weaving. Most of the women don't get the opportunity to pursue these skills as they lack the equipment and raw materials needed to produce these items. With the cooperative, we hope to provide second-rate financial access with no exclusions to women with skills by buying them equipment they get to use at our production unit and they can pay off the amount needed to secure the items as their own by saving part of what they make in installment and once they do they graduate to their own businesses or work where they want.

Icoke teams are made up of 2 co-founders and 15 members from the refugee and host communities.

One of the founders is a refugee, a filmmaker by profession, and living in the camp for the past 10 years. I am a Kenyan who has been living in the camp for the past 7 years.

My background is in education and international marketing and for the past 10 years I have been working on education and livelihood projects in both Dadaab and Kakuma Refugee Camp.

The team comprises of filmmakers, photographers, fashion designers, and social media managers.

The team is made up of all youth below 35yrs old.

All of us live in the camp and we are very close with the communities we support.

We normally meet through meetings, project initiations, and social events normally, and during capacity-building training.

Our team is focused on growing and supporting these communities and we always meet them when we are doing business documentaries.

Directly we have supported 400 people. Through capacity building training on business, financial literacy, life skills, social media marketing, content creation services, and employed by the projects we run.

Indirectly we have supported 1000 people.

Icoke Kikapu aims to use technology to elevate women entrepreneurs in the camp, the e-commerce will connect refugees to a global market out there.

To establish a full operational cooperative we need money to help us establish a central location where we can be meeting our communities,put the right systems in place, and also polish up the e-commerce.

We also need raw materials needed to produce products that will be sold on e-commerce and locally.