Inclusive Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities
MLC PIONEER | Created by Kadiwaku Family Foundation
We provide Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with necessary tools and skills they need to launch and manage their income-generating activities. We also have also created an ecosystem of services and programmes to help programme alumni sustain and scale their impacts such as co-working spaces with meeting rooms and Internet access, crowdfunding platform, e-learning platform.
10,000 Lives Impacted
Launched in 2018, the innovation had been implemented in seven cities in the DRC and 10,000 lives had been impacted directly. Of the 859 young entrepreneurs who were supported by the programme, 453 have launched their income-generating activities and have become successful entrepreneurs, and 173 secured sustainable employment. It has developed a network of programme alumni and disabled entrepreneurs in the DRC who also provide support to their fellows and collaborate on growing their business and support each other in achieving their goals.
Additionally, we have also provided anti-discrimination and diversity training to 51 companies to promote employment of people with disabilities.
Moreover, we designed a guide to self-employment for people with disabilities and oversees its implementation in defined regions in partnership with the Congolese Ministry of Disabled Persons.
The Innovation
The “Inclusive Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities” programme aims to support the entrepreneurship and self-employment of young people with disabilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The primary target is people with disabilities who have limited access to programmes that support entrepreneurship as result of their impairment and other barriers they face such as communication and physical barriers, discrimination of people with disabilities, as well as education background. The selected participants are trained in skills needed to start, manage, and develop their small businesses. Those who develop the strongest business plans receive customized business support, such as connection with Microfinance institutions and Banks, networking and mentoring, and KFF also offers co-working spaces with meeting rooms and Internet access to support them.
About Kadiwaku Family Foundation
Kadiwaku Foundation works towards empowering people with disabilities (PWDs) to achieve economic self-sufficiency and enhancing their quality of life and living standards. We achieve this by providing them with technical skills alongside with financial support in terms of small loans to initiate and sustain a small business, and increase their ability to participate in civil and political life.
*Kadiwaku Family Foundation is an MLC Pioneer Member. The MLC Pioneer cohort aimed to highlight innovations that have scaled to meet the needs of a significant proportion (i.e. 40%+) of their target populations. This cohort was included in the 2019 and 2020 application rounds, however it was phased out in 2021.
Implemented in
Kadiwaku Family Foundation’s innovation has been implemented in Democratic Republic of Congo
