She’s a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology pursuing a BSc. Degree in Strategic Management. She has trained in Digital Marketing and Virtual Assistance under the Ajira Digital Curriculum in 2020. Currently, Crystal is a proficient online freelancer with multiple online tasks including long and short term projects. On average, Crystal makes about $800. She has worked for both local and international clients and some of her biggest achievements include:
- Being able to pay her own bills from and supporting her siblings and parents from her average monthly income of $800
- Working with a group of sex workers in collaboration with an NGO to empower them on how to work online and earn a dignified income
- A member of JKUAT Ajira Club and online workers’ community
Before joining Ajira, I was living at the mercy of my parents most of the time because I didn’t have any income. One thing that triggered me to join the Programme is that I was already working with a company where I was required to sell products online, so that is what triggered me to do a Digital Marketing course with Ajira.
Through this, I was able to acquire so many skills in both Digital Marketing and Virtual assistance through which I have managed to source jobs online. As a result, I have had a chance to work for clients abroad as their Virtual Marketing Coordinator. This has enabled me to get an extra source of income to support myself, my family, and even my friends.
During the mentorship, we had help for both Digital Marketing as well as Virtual Assistant and during this period, we were taken through specific skills we both didn’t have or understand and if we did understand, we were then required to deepen our understanding. During this period, we got a one-on-one interaction session with our mentors where they taught us how to register for online working platforms. I deal with Upwork and in this period, my mentor helped me to create an Upwork profile which was verified and that was very exciting for me.
It is from here that I was able to bid for jobs through proposals and I was successful in getting an opportunity to work as a Virtual Marketing Coordinator for a Real Estate company. The whole experience has been amazing for us because we often interact with our Mentors regularly and other trainers to get a feel of their experience with what they are doing on their side which helps us share experiences as we learn from one another.
I would certainly recommend Ajira to any young person out there. In fact, I always talk about Ajira as a day-to-day activity. I love talking about Ajira because to me it has given me a life-changing opportunity for a lack of a better word. Just as it has been a life-changing opportunity, I would like as more people to join and have their lives changed. All one needs is to be open-minded and ready to learn.
As far as what Ajira can do to change more lives, I think so far so good because at first, I thought they had not reached the villages but later learned that there is an initiative to reach them and even those that can’t access the internet.
Every month, I can say I make an estimated Ksh. 40,00 to 50,000m but this varies because in the Real Estate business you get bonuses so sometimes it’s even more, depending on what you earn from selling properties.
And on the impact on the community, through a contract with the Northstar Alliance, I have had an opportunity to train commercial sex workers in Mlolongo on how to start and improve their businesses and introduced the Digital Marketing aspect to those that had their businesses ongoing. And that was impactful because they go to understand that they can take their businesses online particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic season when most of them had given up for lack of access to the market. But when they got to learn that they can take their businesses online, they got excited at such opportunities.
Through this, I have managed to support family and friends financially. What surprised me about the Programme is that it has empowerment centres where every youth can access free internet and laptops to attend training and mentorship sessions if they are unable to get one from home which is mind-blowing because, through such initiatives, we can reach even youths in the most interior parts of the country and even the disadvantaged ones in society. What this does is that the Programme can impact all youths across the country irrespective of their social or financial status.
To the youth out there, online work pays. From experience, I had many doubts, especially because I was scammed before, so I had doubts and most of us do but it was a result of being open-minded and taking the risk of joining the Ajira Programme that opened these doors for me. So, I would advise the youth out there that if you are stuck and do not know where to start, and many of us do because again, we have many goals and are not sure where to start, the Ajira Programme is a good place to start, and it can help direct life to wherever you want to go. Not to mention the many windows of opportunities this opens for one.
The Ajira Programme has impacted many lives. There are very many success stories out there. For example, I remember introducing a friend of mine to the Programme and during her first week of mentorship, she got her first gig with an online working programme which was impactful for her because she was trying to find ways to pay her bills and all.”