Project Overview

The Entrepreneur Training Center is Maak Impact’s newest project in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. The tech center (or ETC for short) is a school with programs designed to help refugees acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to become successful business owners. Kakuma is filled with determined individuals with great business ideas, and the goal of the ETC is to enable these individuals to become as successful as possible. To this end,  in addition to teaching valuable business skills, the ETC provides funding in the form of small microloans to its students. The combination of these loans and the knowledge taught in the classroom propels the students towards success as business owners. 

The ETC currently hosts three courses: Aspiring, Developing, and Growth. Aspiring is for budding entrepreneurs who have a great business idea and are starting a business for the very first time. Developing is for entrepreneurs who currently operate a business, and have been doing so for less than a year. Growth is for experienced entrepreneurs who have been operating a business for more than a year. These different classes allow the ETC to focus on the different types of current and prospective business owners in Kakuma and their unique needs. 

Although the curriculum varies between the different courses, all of the ETC courses teach critical, foundational business skills. In each of the classes, the following skills are addressed: 

• Growing your business
• Identifying and retaining customers
• Competitive advantage and understanding competing businesses
• Revenue, costs, and profit 
• Gross and net margins 
• Financial record-keeping 
• Cash flow cycles 
• Marketing, advertising, and branding 
• Business financing options 
• Written agreements and contracts
• Pitching your business 
• Taxes 

The Story

Maak Impact had been working in the Kakuma Refugee Camp for over a year. We started out by working with local refugees to identify promising entrepreneurs who could potentially change the economic landscape of Kakuma. Once we found these entrepreneurs, we worked 1 on 1 with them to help improve their businesses. We also provided loans and grants as funding to help these businesses grow. 

We saw a great deal of success from working with these individual refugee entrepreneurs, and so we took the lessons we learned from their businesses and turned it into the curriculum and structure of the Entrepreneur Tech Center. We realized that we could reach a much greater number of people and have a more significant impact by training many entrepreneurs at once.

Impact Projections

As of August 2024, the ETC has had 15 students graduate, and another 30 students enrolled in its different courses. The interest in participating in the ETC has been very high in Kakuma, and we have had over 100 applicants so far. 

The ETC graduates have seen significant changes in their ability as business owners because of their time in the ETC. Here are some of the things they said about their experience in the ETC:

• “ETC has really opened my mind on how to manage”
• “I can now manage my business professionally”
• “The ETC is my guide, my map, counselor and mentor for my business”
• “The ETC course has helped me on how I can make my business idea to work and to make it successful”

We expect the ETC to grow significantly in the near future. We are constantly adding new classes and increasing the number of enrolled students. As well, we have plans to expand the ETC from the single classroom that it is now into a larger campus with multiple classrooms, computer labs, and workspaces. Soon, the ETC will be a center of learning and growth for hundreds of refugees in Kakuma.

Get Involved

The ETC needs donors like you to continue changing lives in Kakuma. It only costs $200 to pay for the education and materials that each student needs, as well as the microloan that we provide them to start and grow their business. However, any amount that you are willing to contribute will go a long way towards changing lives and changing Kakuma for the better.