A Global Initiative · Pioneered in Kakuma & Kalobeyei
Work is Dignity.
Talent Has No Borders.
Connecting displaced creative and technical minds across the globe to paid commercial work and enterprise technology.
Inaugural CRTW Hackathon Cohort & Strategic Partners · Kakuma Refugee Camp, August 2025
From Aid Dependency to Global Economic Sovereignty
Across the globe, over 120 million displaced people face severe legal, financial, and geographical barriers to formal employment. While humanitarian programs deliver vital survival support, millions of refugee youth possess extraordinary creative and technical potential that remains untapped.
Connecting Refugee Talent to Work (CRTW) is an initiative designed for displaced talent worldwide. We replace endless training certificates with live commercial contracts and enterprise-grade tools. By starting in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement—one of the world's most demanding operating environments—we have validated an exportable, market-first blueprint for displaced communities everywhere.
Explore Mission Chapters
Quick JumpWhy We Started in Kakuma & Kalobeyei
Globally, over 120 million forcibly displaced people are shut out of formal economic participation. To architect a framework that can succeed anywhere, we chose to start in one of the most demanding operating environments on earth: Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. Displacement here is protracted—the average resident has lived here for over a decade under chronic ration cuts and structural isolation. If our market-first model can unlock paid digital contracts and sustainable enterprise growth here, it provides a validated, exportable blueprint for displaced communities across the globe.
Refugees and asylum-seekers hosted across Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement as of August 2025.
Only 15% of working-age adults earn regular wages. The remaining 85% face chronic underemployment or dependency.
KES 5,827 per month for the minority who work, severely lagging Kenya's urban cost-of-living standards.
87% of camp households carry debt at local food stalls (KES 6,850 avg debt) to survive ongoing rations cuts.
The Broken Cycle: Certificate Fatigue
Over the past decade, tens of millions of dollars have funded digital skills training inside Kakuma. Young men and women graduate with diplomas in web development, graphic design, and coding.
Yet, upon graduation, there are virtually no structured avenues to convert that knowledge into income. Without business registration, international payment gateways, portfolio verification, or client trust, graduates end up back in survival mode, clutching certificates that cannot buy food.
This phenomenon — “Certificate Fatigue” — breeds disillusionment and wastes exceptional technical human potential.
The Food Aid Cliff: Declining Rations
In July 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) was forced to cut basic food rations to 60% of daily nutritional requirements due to global humanitarian funding shortfalls.
Humanitarian cash transfers and monthly rations are an indispensable safety net, but they cannot guarantee long-term human dignity. Relying on aid alone leaves entire generations vulnerable to external donor cycles.
Sustainable digital livelihoods — built on commercial demand, market contracts, and enterprise modernization — represent the only permanent exit out of aid dependency.
Three Structural Shifts to Global Economic Sovereignty
CRTW is not a localized aid project—it is a replicable global framework. We design market-first interventions that convert displaced human potential into verified commercial value, replacing endless humanitarian dependency with true economic self-reliance across the globe.
From Training to Paid Contracts
We replace open-ended, classroom-only workshops with high-intensity hackathons and client sprints. Participants are assessed solely on delivered software, brand assets, and measurable business deliverables.
From Camp Isolation to Interconnection
Displaced developers do not just compete in saturated global gig marketplaces. We connect them directly to local merchant ecosystems—starting with the 5,000+ micro-merchants in Kakuma and Kalobeyei—while plugging them into global corporate value chains, proving that camp economies can modernize and trade from within.
From Aid Dependency to Self-Sovereignty
Work provides psychological and economic dignity. By securing verified client case studies, verifiable GitHub codebases, and independent earnings, youth establish portable professional reputations that travel with them anywhere in the world.
The Consortium Coalition
CRTW is built upon radical collaboration. We bring together UN development agencies, bilateral government donors, refugee-led community organizations, global tech giants, and private sector sponsors.
Opengates Link Limited
Initiative Lead & Technical Convener
Founded on lived refugee experience in Kakuma, Opengates architected CRTW to replace endless training cycles with direct market execution, client pairing, and merchant digitization technology.
International Trade Centre (ITC)
Global Trade & Youth Funder
The joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, funding the refugee youth digital specialists and facilitating micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise integration into domestic and cross-border digital value chains.
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
Official Donor & Strategic Funder
The bilateral development cooperation agency of the Republic of Korea, investing in youth digital employment, institutional capacity, and sustainable economic resilience across refugee-hosting regions.
Solidarity Initiative for Refugees (SIR)
Grassroots Anchor & Tech Hub
A refugee-led community organization based in Kakuma 3 providing high-speed connectivity, hardware access, peer mentorship, and on-the-ground cohort management for participating freelancers.
Microsoft for Startups
Cloud Infrastructure & Mentorship
Equipping refugee engineers and venture founders with Microsoft Azure cloud credits, GitHub Enterprise access, AI tooling, and global technical advisory through Founders Hub.
Shopeak
Retail Commerce Sponsor
Private sector commerce provider committing KES 5.7M in grant funding for the 2026 Kakuma & Kalobeyei rollout, subsidizing merchant software licenses and POS hardware at zero cost to local shops.
World University Service of Canada (WUSC)
Founding Funder (2025)Inaugural 2025 Funder · Proving Ground Anchor & Technology Host
Provided the catalytic funding for the inaugural August 2025 CRTW Hackathon in Kakuma Refugee Camp that launched the proof of concept, hosted the Day 2 development sprint at their technology facility, and championed scalable digital employment and education pathways for displaced youth.
Voices Behind the Mission
Real validation comes from the ground — from refugee founders who have navigated displacement to local shopkeepers transforming their livelihood through digital tools.
“Opengates was created to open doors where they were once closed. Work is dignity, and dignity is hope. We do not see refugees as victims of circumstance, but as skilled professionals ready to deliver world-class digital value. While our journey began in Kakuma and Kalobeyei, CRTW is built for displaced talent across the globe. The results prove that when you remove artificial barriers, refugee youth do not just compete — they lead.”
Wyclife Omondi
Programs Manager
Resilience Action International (RAI)
“We need to stop outsourcing tech projects to Nairobi when we have capable talent right here in Kakuma. The CRTW proof of concept proved that local youth deliver high quality, on time, with profound contextual understanding.”
Thierry Light
Local Commercial Merchant
Kakuma Commercial Center
“Operating a business in a camp is tough without digital records. Having a dedicated refugee digital specialist set up our online store changed how we sell. We now receive orders from across the entire camp and Kalobeyei.”
Be Part of the Solution.
Whether you are a displaced engineer ready to compete for paid client contracts, or a Kakuma/Kalobeyei merchant looking to digitize your store at zero cost, applications are open.