In Nyakach, few things happen out of the ordinary. Kids go to school holding the same old dreams, same careers and end up in the cycle of poverty as the generations before them.

Career options are pretty limited. If you can’t be a doctor, become a teacher, a plumber, or a Boda Boda guy.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t choose where we’re born, but children depend on the community to open up the frontiers and bring in new hope.

Technology is one of the most effective ways to broaden career options. A well-equipped computer lab can be a life-changing resource in a place where kids do not touch computer keyboards until they get to college (which few of them do).

The Normal Development Route

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4IFkrVCyLY&t=7s

When you come from a place everyone is trying to run away from, you have to work twice as hard to bridge the socio-economic gap.

Nyakach is such a place, kids stay here until they’re done with high school, and then if you’re lucky to have a relative in a city, you can visit and look for opportunities there.

Those who get out are the lucky ones. They’re considered to have jumped the ship of destitution, but in reality, the cost of survival in the city is getting progressively high. Exorbitant rent rates, high transport costs, and utility bills make moving to the city an outcry.

Most villagers who move to town are left to scrape off what remains of the city— when the wealthy and affluent have mined their share of good fortune. Limited to the ghettos of Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, and other major towns, leaving the village without fluency in the tech language makes the kids dependent on casual work for survival in the city.

Life doesn’t get any better for the ones who remain in the village. They don’t have a lot of options. Due to poverty, most parents don’t take their children through college, which reduces the possibility of ever interacting with a computer.

Thus, most girls get married earlier while the boys indulge in vices like robbery and drug abuse to pass the time or simply find meaning in a desolate world. As it is, the village kids’ dreams are left at the abilities of their parents. There’s little in their control, and thus, few are motivated to pursue anything better.

But they deserve better!

The Dream Center Route

We figured, if these kids can have a resource center to introduce them to the tech world earlier, they can have a better quality of life. Think of a programmer working for tech clients remotely in the village where the cost of living is low.

With the introduction to careers like writing, coding, website design, a boy in Nyakach could be working for a US-based tech client and getting paid in dollars without having to move out of the village!

Having adequate resources in the village can curb rural-urban movement and enhance community development. The tech world is awash with opportunities. But the best part is that it empowers individuals to be starters of their own projects, reducing the dependence on employment.

Besides, learners can only harbor dreams within the limits of their exposure, and allowing access to an equipped resource center upgrades their dreams. Through little but impactful ways, the Dream Centre will level the playing ground, enabling the youth of Nyakach to compete in the global tech space favorably.

The Dream Center intends to build a relationship with tech influencers, events, and mentors who can be interacting with the learners, imparting hands-on tech skills and professional guidance to thrive in the tech world. The resource center will also be a recreational hub of a kind. With a fully equipped library, stocking books in different genres, we hope to be a go-to resource for readers and learners in various fields.

We hope to provide a better alternative for youths with free time on their hands. All the village kids might not have what it takes to be tech giants, but everybody can grow mentally and professionally where books and internet-connected computers are available.

Really, to have a running resource center of the Dream Center’s design and equipment is to place a whole world of opportunities in the hands of the village youth.

Our Commitment

The Dream Center is committed to improving the quality of life in the village by improving access to career and professional resources.

The resource center will be instrumental in introducing school-going kids to computers and sharpening them for the opportunities that exist in the tech, art, and business worlds, with a bias to information technology.

Technology cuts across many disciplines. Once you induct a child into tech, they can replicate what they learn into other fields and be self-reliant.

The resource center also fuels the community’s efforts towards social change and better governance. With ready access to information, learners grasp the structures of government systems and know where to exert their knowledge and privileges for progressive social change.

We achieve this by focusing on the following key areas;

Bridging technological gaps; Computers have come a long way and continue to increase in efficiency and effectiveness. From old IBM computers of the 80s to the slim MacBook, the growth of computers has come at a great cost.

The tech space has been advancing in leaps. Now, as the rest of the world is talking about 5G, blockchain technology, AI, and 3D printing, a girl in rural Kenya doesn’t know what a laptop looks like.