CREATING JOBS FOR TALENTED YOUTH AND WOMEN IN URBAN SLUMS

THE PROBLEM

UNEMPLOYMENT

In Kenyan slums, up to 70% of youth are jobless, with women facing
additional barriers in earning
an income.

HEALTH

Millions of families in Kenya burn biomass for cooking which emits toxic fumes that kill more children than malaria.

ENVIRONMENT

Kenya’s forests have been depleted by 83% in the last 50 years, primarily for fuel, which accounts for around 20% of all black carbon emissions.

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OUR SOLUTION

We have created a youth-powered sales network that trains and employs disadvantaged youth and women in Kenyan slums to distribute life-improving products in hard-to-reach slum markets.

By offering training and job opportunities we provide unemployed youth and women with an opportunity to work their way out of poverty. At the same time, this door-to door distribution network of youth and women from slum communities brings clean-energy products that improve the health and quality of life in these same communities. LivelyHoods products also prevent harmful emissions, reducing deforestation and climate change.

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Support LivelyHoods

$25

provides a 3-week sales and marketing training for one sales agent.

$45

Join our Air B n B Social Impact Experience and see a whole new side to Nairobi!

$50

provides a 3-day empowerment workshop to a group of 10 youth and women.

$60 increases the income of an unemployed young person or woman by $300

According to an ‘Impact Matters’ guided impact report

$100

provides training and a business start-up kit for one sales agent.

$500

provides a 3-week sales and marketing training for a whole class of 20 youth and women.

OUR IMPACT

225,835

lives improved

through training, job creation,
and product distribution

108,097

cars taken off the road

in equivalent carbon dioxide
emissions avoided

$20,924,825

in customer savings

by using clean-energy
products

OUR PRODUCTS

Clean-burning Cookstoves

Solar Products

Reading Glasses

Household Appliances

HISTORY

LivelyHoods was created by Tania Laden and Maria Springer, two young women from California, in search of a sustainable solution to the problems of unemployment and access to clean energy in Nairobi's slums.

Through their initial research in the heart of Kawangware slum, with a small group of youth from the community, Tania and Maria realised that, though there were significant resources and innovation focused on creating products that would improve the lives of the world’s poor, there was a huge bottleneck in getting these products into the hands of the people who need them.

LivelyHoods was launched in 2011 as a U.S based non-profit organization and a Kenyan social enterprise, to fund an environmental and livelihoods program, which trains and employs door-to-door sales agents distributing life-changing products in slum communities.