ReachUp! supports disenfranchised people, including unemployed and underemployed women and youth in rural and remote communities, to lead themselves out of poverty by building ICT-enabled sustainable livelihoods.  DOT equips tech savvy young adults with 21st century technology and leadership skills to serve as ICT champions during a ten-month internship. Placed in economically distressed communities, DOT Interns work directly with community members to increase their capacity to effectively use ICT in their personal and professional lives.

Here are some examples of the ReachUp! program at work:

• A young woman becomes interested in open source applications.  A ReachUp! Intern helps her learn technology skills.   She now owns a successful ICT business, serving large organizations and businesses.
• A ReachUp! community participant discovers an online community of practice where Africans are discussing issues in a field she is very interested in pursuing.  She now plans to set herself up as a consultant and use the resources of this online group to help her develop her business idea and concept.
• A ReachUp! participant uses Word to create a personal portfolio -- with professional-quality resumes, business cards and proposals -- that she can effectively use in her job search.
  

Through the ReachUp! program, Interns, community participants and partners work together to help communities recognize their full potential and access opportunities in the world around them while harnessing the power of ICT.  To date, more than 7,000 community participants have been empowered to use ICTs for local development in their own communities.

As a result of their training experience:

• 98% of the community participants felt they had improved their chances of finding gainful employment
• 95% of the Kenyan participants felt they had improved their opportunity at starting their own business
• 50% of the Ethiopian participants learned how to use a computer for the first time
• 49% of the community participants impacted were women

Here is one community participant’s success story:

Damaris Toboso was born in a slum in Nairobi. She had never touched a computer and had no idea of the impact that technology would have on her life. During the training, Damaris and seven other women in the program decided to launch a micro enterprise based on their own talents and assets. Using the computer and entrepreneurial skills gained in the ReachUp! program, the women created their own presentation materials for their hand-made beaded jewelry, learned to navigate the Internet for marketing and business purposes, and discovered the power of email communication.