The Secret Behind Safaricom’s Success Lies In Uplifting The Vulnerable

No business in the world operates in a vacuum. Businesses are because of people. A business that takes care of the people never runs out of business. Great businesses don’t always invest in making profits but in bringing up people.

Someone said that the greatest secret to the success of any business is trust. Trust is the powerful invisible currency on whose businesses are founded and thrive. People don’t buy goods and services, they buy trust.

Kenya has many businesses; big and small. All striving to catch the attention of customers but one thing always makes some standout; giving back to the people. No law requires them to give back but it is in the moral fabric of most of them.

One company that has been keen on uplifting the lives of the vulnerable in Kenya is Safaricom PLC. The giant telecommunications company has gone out of its way, on many occasions to support talent, help keep girls in school through the donation of sanitary towels, pay school feel, construct and renovate classrooms, take water to the people, among others.

Through Safaricom Foundation, the giant does a lot behind the scenes that people rarely get to know about it. They are like fish that lays hundreds of eggs in a day with no one knowing. Not like a hen that lays one egg and the whole village is notified.

For instance, over 1,000 learners in Turkana County have benefitted from classrooms, books, desks, and chairs donated by Safaricom Foundation. Among the schools are Katiko Primary School which got 5 new classrooms and Jeriman Lokitaung which received 2 classrooms. Nariding Nursery School and Katongun Mission Station each had one classroom constructed and furnished.

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Lolobo, Lokutumo, and Loreamatet Primary Schools each had one classroom constructed and furnished under the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP), a literacy and numeracy program being implemented by Safaricom Foundation and Zizi Afrique Foundation. Nakiria Primary School also had a library constructed under the ALP Programme. Safaricom says it has invested over 21 million shillings in this initiative.

Learners in Katilu Mixed Primary School also received desks and chairs, while visually impaired students in Katilu Integrated Primary School benefitted from furnishing works. Kilokony Eboyor, a local community organization, was equipped with more than 500 books for learners they support.

In January this year, Safaricom Foundation opened a new and improved ICT-enabled skills center at the Waithaka Vocational Training Centre in Nairobi. The institution was refurbished for 28 million shillings including equipping the computer lab with modern ICT equipment as well as placing modern tools in the Plumbing, Welding, Electrical Engineering, and Food and Beverage departments.

The launch of the refurbished institution is part of the foundation’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program focusing on Plumbing, Welding, Food and Beverage, and Electrical Engineering. The other component of the program includes providing scholarships to over 700 students across various TVET institutions in the country.

The center in Waithaka will see 200 students supported over the next two years with the remaining 500 spread across 11 other institutions.

The first batch comprising of 350 students was also officially commissioned with Waithaka Training Centre admitting its initial 100 scholars. The students will not only receive fully paid scholarships, but the Foundation will also work with other partners to place them in jobs after their training.

In December 2020, King Fahad Referral Hospital in Lamu County started offering critical health services for expectant women after the Safaricom Foundation invested 13 million shillings in the renovation and equipping of the unit.

The hospital, which previously referred pregnant women who needed critical care services to Mombasa, now has a 10-bed capacity high dependency unit equipped with oxygen piping and patient-monitoring equipment in addition to renovated floors, walls, and ceilings.

Additionally, the Newborn unit was also renovated and fully equipped to cater to pre-term babies and critically ill infants.

The above three cases just show how Safaricom invests in people around Kenya in the spirit of Twende Tukiuke.