“DDD and the whole BPO concept says, I'm going to add jobs that were not in the economy before.”

Amolo Ng'weno was working at the Gates Foundation in Seattle during the 2008 financial crisis when a business trip to Bangalore made her realize she might be in the wrong part of the world. Her colleague Michael Chertok mentioned Digital Divide Data and asked if she knew anyone to set up their Kenya office. She saw an opportunity to contribute something positive to society and the broader economy through employment transformation, and in 2011, she left Seattle and moved back to her home country to become DDD Kenya's first managing director. She'd never run a business process outsourcing operation before, so she spent six weeks in Laos and two weeks in Cambodia learning how DDD worked. 

DDD Kenya looked for high school graduates with good grades who couldn't access government scholarships, targeting people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Nairobi's slums and later recruiting from the deaf community. The selection process included aptitude tests and family interviews at candidates' homes—a practice borrowed from Cambodia—to ensure families agreed to the work-study balance. "One thing that DDD does is we actually give you a job," she says, distinguishing it from training programs that leave graduates searching in an economy where only 15% work in the formal sector. The biggest challenge has been building up market demand from Western clients. She'd hoped to see the whole BPO sector grow much larger after her Bangalore experience, but breaking into markets dominated by India and the Philippines proved slower and more difficult than imagined. Her favorite success story is Evance Osee, who got into insurance after graduating and now seeks out DDD graduates to place in companies where he works, embodying the spirit of giving back that she sees in many alumni who stay engaged with their home communities.