From Kibera to the World
Kibra Youth Network teaches young people in Kibera to design, shoot, edit and market — properly, to a standard clients will pay for. Five courses. All free. For most of them, the phone in your pocket is enough to start.
Applications take about five minutes. We reply on WhatsApp within a week.
And a student pays KSh 0. No tuition, no registration, no exam fee, no certificate fee — not now, not later.
The courses
Each one is taught at our centre in Kibera by people doing the work for real clients. You finish with a portfolio you can show — not just a certificate. And all five are free.
Class timetable
Everything happens at our centre in Kibera. Classes are in the evening or on Saturday on purpose — so you can still work, still be in school, still help at home. Check the days before you apply.
Running late from work or school? Come anyway. We would rather you arrive at 6.30pm than not at all — just tell your trainer on WhatsApp so we know to expect you. Sunday the centre is closed.
How to join
If anyone asks you for money to join Kibra Youth Network, that person does not work for us. Tell us on WhatsApp.
Five minutes on your phone. Name, age, where in Kibera you stay, and which course you want.
We call or WhatsApp you within one week. Keep that number on.
A short chat at the centre so we know you and you know us. No exam, no interview panel, no fee.
New intakes every two months. If a class is full, you go first on the next one.
We train children and young adults, so we are strict about this and we would rather say it out loud than bury it in a policy document.
If something feels wrong, tell this person:
You can report anonymously, and you can report about anybody — a trainer, a student, a visitor, or someone outside. You will be taken seriously and you will not lose your place for speaking up. In an emergency call 999 or 112, or Childline Kenya free on 116.
Application
Nothing here costs money and nothing here is a test. Write how you talk — we're reading for interest, not grammar.
Asante, friend. Your application is in the queue.
What happens next: someone from the team will call or WhatsApp the number you gave within one week. Save our number so you know it's us. If you haven't heard from us in seven days, message us — don't just wait.
We will also call your parent or guardian on the number you gave us, to confirm they know and to agree your class times. That call is part of how we keep young people safe — it is not a test of your family.
Heads up — this site is not connected to a mailbox yet. This form is in demo mode, so nothing was actually sent anywhere. Until the team wires up a real endpoint, please send your details on WhatsApp using the button below so your application genuinely reaches us.
Student work
Not exercises. Real work for real clients — shops on Kibera Drive, a church choir's album cover, a boda sacco's TikTok, a salon's price list. Students keep every shilling they earn from their own jobs.
Photography students shoot product ranges for shops that have never had a proper photo of what they sell — on a phone, against a bedsheet, by a window. Shops that get them tend to come back every time the stock changes, which is how a student turns one shoot into a monthly client.
Design students start with something for their own street — a tournament, a fundraiser, a crusade — and it goes up where everyone can see it. The second one usually gets paid for. Menus, price lists and salon boards follow from there.
Every videography student finishes a two-minute film about a real business, artist or event, and we screen them all on the last day with families invited. The businesses get something they can post; the student gets a portfolio piece and, often, the neighbour's job next.
Want to see more? Ask on WhatsApp and we will send you a folder of recent student work, or come to the Saturday portfolio clinic and look through it in person.
Trainers & graduates
Nobody here flew in to teach you. Every trainer works in the thing they teach and gets paid for it during the week, and most of them sat in these same chairs first.
Come to the Saturday portfolio clinic and you will meet several of them — trainers and graduates both. It is open to anyone, whether or not you have applied.
About us
Kibra Youth Network is a community organisation based in Kibera, Nairobi. We were started by young people from these same estates who got a skill, made a living from it, and decided the next person shouldn't have to be lucky to do the same.
Kibera has never been short of talent. What it has been short of is equipment, a quiet room, someone who will show you the shortcut, and a first client. That is exactly what we provide — and we provide it free, because charging for it would defeat the point.
Empowering youth, building stronger communities. Not a slogan we bought. It's the order we do things in: skill first, then income, then a young person who lifts the people around them.
Contact
Honestly, WhatsApp is fastest. Someone checks it every day.
Ask for us at the gate — everyone around knows the centre. If it's your first time, message on WhatsApp first and someone will meet you at the road.
You leave with finished work, not notes. By the end you will have produced:
Rates above are typical Nairobi freelance ranges for this standard of work, given so you can judge what the skill is worth. They are not a promise of income, and what you charge is entirely yours to keep.
Donate & partner
Students pay nothing — that is the whole model, and we will not change it. It works because other people cover the cost. Here is exactly what that cost is and where it goes.
Pick an amount to see what it covers. Monthly giving is what lets us promise a student the full course rather than hope.
Giving from outside Kenya, or want a standing order or card payment? Email us and a human will reply — we would rather do that properly than point you at a payment button that isn't finished.
Email us about donatingMoney is not the only useful thing. We are always looking for:
Reporting: partners get a short written report each quarter — students enrolled, students who finished, work produced, money spent. Plain numbers, on time.
Talk to our partnerships teamWhere the money does not go: we do not run paid advertising, we do not print branded merchandise, and no one on this team flies anywhere to talk about Kibera. If you want the detailed budget before you give, ask and we will send it.
Everything a funding committee needs on a single page. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog.
Kibra Youth Network
From Kibera to the World · Empowering youth, building stronger communities
We train young people aged 14–30 in Kibera, Nairobi in five creative skills — graphic design, photography, videography, digital marketing and social media management — and we do it free of charge. Students finish with a portfolio, a certificate, and in many cases a first paying client. Most courses can be started on a smartphone; the centre supplies laptops, cameras and data for the rest.
| Amount | What it covers |
|---|---|
| KSh 1,500 | Data bundles for one student for one month |
| KSh 6,000 | One student through a complete 10-week course |
| KSh 25,000 | A camera kit shared by a class of fifteen |
| KSh 150,000 | A full intake of thirty students, start to certificate |
All figures supplied by Kibra Youth Network.
Sign in to reach your lessons, resources and certificate.
No PIN yet? Your trainer gives you one when your place is confirmed. Lost it, or it stopped working? WhatsApp us and we will reset it — we will never ask you to pay for that.
Offline copy: this file is not connected to the server, so sign-in is a simulation. .
Change your PIN. You are still using the one your trainer gave you, and they know it. .