Kinshasa, Congo (DRC) — Kadiwaku Foundation is pleased to announce that they have been selected to receive an Award by Zero Project.

Each year, the Zero Project selects, communicates and shares Innovative Practices and Policies that support the rights and lives of persons with disabilities, across a four-year cycle of topics:

• Independent Living and Political Participation (2015, 2019)
• Education (2016, 2020)
• Employment (2017, 2021)
• Accessibility (2018, 2022)
• Since 2020, in addition to these four topics, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is covered every year.

Kadiwaku Foundation’s inclusive entrepreneurship accelerator programme targets young people with disabilities, especially young women. At KFF training centres, participants are trained in skills needed to start, manage, and develop their small businesses. Those who develop the strongest plans receive customized business support, such as networking and mentoring. KFF also offers co-working spaces with meeting rooms and Internet access to support entrepreneurs. It has developed a network of programme alumni and disabled entrepreneurs in the DRC who also provide support. To date, 360 successful alumni have started businesses, mostly in the fields of IT and telecommunications, finance, and fashion.

As an awardee, we very much look forward to continuing working toward a common cause of scaling solutions and making a positive difference around the world to millions.

We can’t do it alone. Thanks to you and our partners, we are able to amplify our efforts to help small businesses across the country.

About Zero Project

The Zero Project was initiated by the Essl Foundation in 2008, with its mission on supporting the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) of the United Nations and to work for a world without barriers. The approach of the Zero Project is to research and share Innovative Practice and Policies worldwide, by engaging with a worldwide cross-sectoral network of innovators, decision-makers and opinion leaders. More than 5,000 experts, with and without disabilities, in over 150 countries, have been actively contributing to the Zero Project in the past years.