An overview of annual progress of Sote ICT program of IT clubs and student companies at 12 schools in Taita Taveta, Kenya and Sote Hub for young entrepreneurs in Voi town.

1. Growing Startups from Rural Schools in Kenya
Our achievements in 2015 and 2016
Some of our recent major developments:
1. Opening of Sote Hub for our graduates and young entrepreneurs in Taita Taveta County;
2. Organization of two annual trade fairs of student training firms;
3. We established a cooperation with iHub, Andela, SwahiliBox and Digital Opportunities Trust;
4. Two new secondary girl schools joined our Sote ICT program and started 4 companies;
5. We grew our membership from 417 to 850 students at 12 ICT Clubs and 26 training firms;
6. More than 5000 students benefited from our continuous IT support at 12 secondary schools.
7. We held regular workshops at Sote Hub and welcomed 4 companies to our incubator
8. So far we mentored 18 startup teams and held one investors’ pitch competition
9. We organized a competition in sports apps with Hype Foundation and Strathmore University
10. We registered Sote ICT NGO and plan to scale Sote Hub to other counties and countries
Since 2013, students in our Sote ICT clubs established and manage 26 training companies.
With the support of Slovak Centre for Training Firms and Practice Enterprises Network we
transferred the methodology of training firms to Kenya, as the first country in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Students at twelve schools, on a weekly basis, simulate doing business among
themselves and with students abroad. During the school year, students join our competitions,
create brochures, video adverts, blogs, business plans and accounting documents and prepare
for a trade fair. They share their work through facebook.com/SoteHub and
slideshare.net/SoteICT.
Why Sote ICT?
The youth unemployment is a global challenge. We offer a scalable, non-intrusive and
affordable way to nurture practical IT and business skills in secondary school students and
directly link them with our Sote Hub. Once they graduate they can start business or receive
further career training. This is both more inclusive and cheaper, than alternative efforts to
create innovative hybrid schools with the focus on STEAM education. The Swahili word “sote”
means everybody and describes our philosophy of inclusion and search for high social returns.
According to the UN, 77.9 per cent of workers in Kenya in 2014 were employed in the informal
sector and jobs for young people are scarce and fragile. The core purpose of Sote ICT is to
nurture practical IT and business skills in young people from all backgrounds that
will enable them to become qualified and responsible future employees or business

2. owners who will support a sustainable development of their country. We focus on rural
schools with no, or limited technology exposure. Our added value is the ability to combine
concepts of student Sote ICT Clubs, training companies and international student cooperation.
We provide continuous support to educators, students and graduates alike.
Sote Hub to mentor graduates and support their startups
Thanks to continuous support of SlovakAid we opened Sote Hub in Voi town in 2015, to
support our graduates and local youth. We are partnering in know-how transfer, workshops
and member exchanges with iHub, the oldest startup hub in Africa, Andela - startup recently
backed by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and SwahiliBox from Mombasa. Our members at Sote
Hub started two peer learning groups. Sote Tech Queens is uniting our female members with
local university students to pursue weekly coding workshops. The Coding Club is the second
and mixed group. We also organize regular trainings and study visits for local youth and
students from 12 schools. We have two 3D printers and continuously develop our digital
fabrication program. We incubate so far 4 companies and advise 15 other startup teams.
Six years of growth and our future plans
Sote ICT is based on 4 projects of Slovak-Kenyan Cooperation for Modern Schools that
SlovakAid co-funded since 2009. The program expanded to 5 schools in 2012 and 10 schools
in 2013. In the same year we introduced the concept of training companies. In 2015 we grew
to 12 schools and opened Sote Hub in Voi town. Pontis Foundation and our partners, Kasigau
Wildlife Trust, have managed the program for six years and recently registered the Sote ICT
as a spin-off NGO and Sote ICT Limited as social business. We seek new partners to scale up.