Village Enterprise is thrilled to have won the Lwala Community Alliance’s Design Against Poverty competition to design a high-impact economic development intervention strategy that would most benefit the Lwala Community.
The Lwala Community Alliance is a non-profit health and development agency founded by two brothers, Milton and Fred Ochien, who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. Their initial aim was to provide access to primary care in their community. Over time, the Lwala Community Alliance has expanded to encompass public health outreach, economic development, and education programming. The Clinton Global Initiative has recognized the Lwala Community Alliance for its commitment to maternal and child health.
Lwala Community Alliance invited non-profits, social enterprises and individual entrepreneurs from the Sankalp Community to compete in the contest.
We were thrilled to learn that we had been selected as one of the finalists from the 15 proposals submitted, along with Alive, Kicking Kenya, and Livelyhoods. Alive and Kicking Kenya work with disenfranchised youth to produce soccer balls as an income-generating venture. Livelyhoods engages young adults to sell high-impact products such as clean cookstoves, as both a means of tackling high unemployment and also doing good.
The three finalists were invited to pitch their proposals during a session at the Sankalp Africa 2016 conference in Nairobi. According to Executive Director Ash Rogers, “After an extremely competitive selection process, our judges from Segal Family Foundation, Ashoka, and Blood Water Mission chose Village Enterprise as the winner! Lwala couldn’t be more excited about the selection. We are pumped to find ways to work together to fight poverty in Migori, Kenya.” Village Enterprise was unanimously selected by the judges because they believed that our microenterprise graduation program would have the greatest impact in improving the economic livelihoods of people living at the bottom of the pyramid.
We are thrilled that winning this competition has opened an opportunity to expand into a new area! We look forward to fostering a close collaboration with the Lwala Community Alliance using the power of the entrepreneurial spirit to transform lives in South Western Kenya.
See the Design Against Poverty Competition here: Sankalp Forum flyer_Lwala Community Alliance
By Tadeo Muriuki, Kenya Country Director 