LivelyHoods on Righteous Crowd this Week!

LivelyHoods trains unemployed youth and women in slums to bring to clean energy products to their communities.

LivelyHoods

Creating Jobs for Youth and Women in Urban Slums

Next week, we observe Simchat Torah, the holiday where we celebrate finishing the cycle of reading the Torah and beginning again, with Genesis. As we read at the opening of Genesis, when God is creating the heavens and the earth, the first thing God says is, “‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Inspired by this beginning, and of the creation of light, we are featuring a not-for-profit social enterprise that got its start selling solar lamps. Founded in 2011, Livelyhoods creates jobs for youth and women in Kenyan slums through the distribution of life-improving products including, but not limited to, clean-burning cookstoves, other solar products, reading glasses, and household appliances.

Read our interview below with LivelyHood's Executive Director and Co-founder Tania Laden.

What is the mission of LivelyHoods?
LivelyHoods creates economic empowerment opportunities for unemployed, disadvantaged youth and women who face disproportionately high levels of poverty and unemployment in Kenya’s slums. We hire for talent and train for skills, equipping youth and women with life skills, professional experience, and an opportunity to earn an income through the distribution of clean energy products in their communities. Our mission is to build an unparalleled below-the-line sales force of trained youth and women bringing clean energy and transformational change to themselves and their communities.

Why did you decide to start LivelyHoods?
I grew up traveling from the States to the Philippines a lot to visit my mum’s side of the family. What I saw there was abject poverty and people seemingly stuck in a negative cycle of poverty. When my close friend Maria Springer invited me to Kenya to try to tackle this huge issue of poverty and youth unemployment, I jumped on the chance, and together with a group of inspirational and ambitious youth from a Nairobi slum we came up with the LivelyHoods model.

What’s a story about LivelyHoods that is meaningful to you?
Rachel came to our organization in 2016. She was starting from scratch after a failed marriage, losing her home and her job, and even losing custody of her children. She didn't recognise any skills she had that she could use to work her way out of this rut. She came to LivelyHoods and completed our sales and marketing training, and started out as a sales agent, taking the clean energy we provided her for free out into her community to sell and earn an income. Through sheer determination, and with the support of her LivelyHoods coach, she became a hugely successful sales agent and her confidence grew by leaps and bounds. She was a changed woman. She now has her children at home with her, is able to provide for herself and her whole family, and is now inspiring new generations of youth and women in her community to follow in her footsteps.

How would you connect your organization to a Jewish text, holiday, value or experience?
The Jewish values of social justice, peace, tikun olam (making the world even better than it was when it was created), and human dignity are the foundation of our work. LivelyHoods’ vision is a world in which everyone has access to jobs and technologies that enable them to improve their lives and their communities. We believe that honest work, financial independence, and being able to contribute to your community are the keys to human dignity and social justice.

What's the best part of your job and why?
I get to work with such a great team of lively, energetic young men and women, many of whom have been LivelyHoods trainees and benefited from the skills and experience that they now help offer to hundreds of youth and women each year.

What are some non-monetary ways for others to get involved in your organization or cause?
We're always open to volunteers, either remotely or in Kenya, with valuable skills that they're willing to put to good use to further LivelyHoods' mission: financial modeling, sales, graphic design. We also have a small team of highly qualified expert volunteer advisors that support us in fundraising and operations.

To learn more about LivelyHoods click here.