From this small beginning, Ali Hassan progressed to bigger and better-paid jobs. “Right now, I have a lot of projects,” he says. “Not only me, but many youths in the camp – my classmates from the same cohort – have all earned money.”
A new frontier
Freelancing has opened a totally new frontier for the trainees in an otherwise harsh environment with limited opportunities. Dreams are being unlocked. The 30 freelancers who have undertaken projects via the Collective since it was set up in September 2019 have now earned thousands of dollars between them.
Mohamed Omar is a Dadaab freelancer specialising in English-Somali translation. The eldest child in a fatherless family of six, he has earned a monthly average of USD 700 since June 2020 – enabling him to pay for his family’s needs. He has also been able to expand his skills through online courses and venture into photography and videography, funded by his freelancing income.
Another freelancer, Osman Abdullahi, is using his earnings to study for a Diploma in Human Resource Management at the Kenya Institute for Professional Studies (KIPS). In a good month, he takes home USD 500 – which has also helped him to provide for his family and pay the medical bills when his father became ill.
The power of a platform
Key to the graduates’ success is their ability to sell their services online via international freelancing platforms. “There is a platform called Upwork – NRC has helped me to open an account. Not just Upwork, but also Guru and other platforms,” explains Ali Hassan.
View the Dadaab Collective agency page on the Upwork website
As a result, the Collective has managed to secure work not only within Kenya, but in places as far afield as the United States, Egypt, Italy and China.
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