People

Tunapanda Institute is a non-profit social enterprise that runs intensive three-month technology, design, and business training courses in extreme low-income environments of East Africa such as Kibera (an informal settlement in Nairobi). Its mission is to create an environment for lifelong learning, earning and problem solving to create sustainable solutions for improved livelihoods and self-expression. TunapandaNET focuses on building a network that allows access to educational resources. The goal is to have schools and youth centres access digital educational content and technical support for the institutions, affordable access to the internet and digital literacy training for teachers, students and women. They are equipped with skills in education and entrepreneurship as well as an e-platform which enables access to learning resources and also makes content creation by users possible.

TunapandaNET will connect 13 schools and has set up the network infrastructure in seven centres. The internet connectivity to the centres is ongoing and there is a cloud-based school management system that the local schools can use for administration and also as an e-learning platform for schools to create and share educational content. The TunapandaNET team conducted research with partner institutions (youth centres and schools) to help determine ownership and business models for sustainability.