My name is Olieki Gideon Kato. I am 25 years old. I am a Graduate in Bachelor of Business Management (Marketing Option) from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya. I joined the DOT internship Program in April 2008. I had previously worked as a volunteer at Millennium Global Education Services, tutoring TOEFL, SAT, GRE, and GMAT programs, after which I became a Certified Test Centre Administrator for ETS. While on industrial attachment at the university, I worked as a marketing intern for Pan African Paper Mills (Panpaper) and Kenya Seed Company which are market leaders in their respective industries in East Africa.

I accepted to take up the internship program as a learning opportunity for me as I serve my community. The program has surpassed my expectation.

The DOT internship is a very distinctive program in that, apart from giving me an opportunity to work with my own community, it is sharpening essential skills that are vital in my career. These skills include advocacy (which is more or less the same as marketing), facilitation, coaching and also leadership skills.

The program itself is custom made for the least empowered communities without compromising the quality of learning in its three main areas of Sustainable Livelihood, ICT and Business. The course’s emphasis on ICT as a prerequisite for today’s person is very appropriate due to the improbability of working without use of ICT.

During my work with community participants, I have discovered how desperate for knowledge the otherwise ignored members of society are and their desire to keep up with the dynamic global economy. I consider it a privilege to be able to help meet this deep desire in the society, thanks to the DOT Reach Up! Program. I also discovered that there is much ‘gold’ that needs to be harnessed from within rural communities that has always been ignored. (Click here to read more on this in my blog)

The program has also worked at increasing my confidence and polished my public speaking as well as my presentation skills. The new friends and colleagues I have met through this program have been a source of encouragement and learning during the training and I can count on them for the same throughout the rest of the internship. This is because of knowledge sharing component of the program. In the evenings after my internship duties I coach St. Matthews Secondary School handball team in Busia.

After the internship I hope to secure a good job in the field of marketing or management to put to practice what I have learnt and to serve the wider Kenyan and international community. My passions include watching and playing soccer and handball. I love music and so I play the guitar and the keyboard. I am very interested in web design and I have a heart for philanthropy. My vision for humanity is to have nobody lacking the very basic essentials of life.