Kiscodep and Somo Partnership

KISCODEP also partners with The Somo Project, an international non-profit venture capital investment firm whose mission is to identify, train, fund and mentor entrepreneurs looking to drive social change by building self-sustaining enterprises in their own low-income urban communities.

Informal settlements are growing rapidly, with approximately 1 billion residents now and a projected 2 billion in the next fifteen years. The population growth and lack of basic infrastructure open up huge opportunities for entrepreneurs to build meaningful social enterprises over the coming decade. The Somo specializes in entrepreneurship, community development, mentorship, and business training.

SOMO Project assists KISCODEP through its KISCOM, an ICT venture within the program and whose proceeds from the business (computer training and other ICT activities) are used to fund projects under the program. These includes sponsoring the orphans who are not able to meet their education costs in high schools, supporting HIV/AIDS victims  and buying school equipment for the vulnerable children in our program. KISCOM enables us to locally raise funds through the business to mitigate financial solutions in our program. In so doing, the organization becomes self-reliant.

The Somo Project offers training for the up-coming entrepreneurs who are capable of starting their own businesses through “pollination fund” for investment to ignite social change and capital formation. This helps in mitigation of the rampant poverty existing in the slums.