DOT Tanzania receives The National Lottery Community Fund Grant

MARCH 13, 2019, DAR ES SALAAM — Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Tanzania is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund for the pilot program, Entrepreneurship Development Program for Youth with Disabilities (EP4YWD)! In partnership with DOT UK, DOT Tanzania will use the grant to officially launch the project that will foster learning and inclusive participation of youth with disabilities within DOT Tanzania’s existing entrepreneurship and digital skills development programs.

The project is currently being implemented in Dar es Salaam until May 2019. It bridges the gap in skills development for young people living with various disabilities by empowering them to design their own learning experience while being mindful of the social barriers they face. In reciprocity of the EP4WD program, DOT Tanzania will modify other successful programs under the umbrella of the organization to also reflect and meet these needs.

Over the next six months, the EP4WD’s peer-to-peer model is set to transform three youth with disabilities into agents of change that will then impact more than 80 other young people with disabilities in the surrounding communities.

The project combines two of DOT’s core programs, the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) and ReachUp! The YLP gives youth who have participated in DOT programming an opportunity to further their digital skills development and then transform these youth into leaders of positive social impact in their communities, prepared to facilitate additional DOT training programs to members of the community. ReachUp! is DOT’s internationally-acclaimed economic empowerment program that equips participants with essential workforce readiness skills, business knowledge, and digital skills development.

The EP4WD participants will undergo four weeks of hard skills training from DOT partner, Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO). All findings, successes and challenges noted from the EP4WD pilot project will be used as a guiding tool to create more impactful future programming and projects for youth with disabilities in Tanzania.

About DOT Tanzania

Established in 2012, DOT Tanzania has transformed more than 150 Tanzanian youth into trainers, coaches, and role models who have returned to their communities and impacted the lives of 20,000 youth, women and community members, helping them to gain access to entrepreneurship, employment, and financial and market resources. This impact is made through digital and business skills development and personal empowerment from DOT programs. DOT Tanzania’s current areas of operation and program facilitation includes Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Mtwara, Dodoma and Pwani.