When Funding Fails, We Rise: How I’m Keeping Rural Girls’ Dreams Alive Through Digital Emp

I’ve poured my heart, savings, and strength into keeping this mission alive. There have been moments I wanted to stop, moments when the weight of running an entire program alone felt too heavy. But every time I see a young girl holding a computer mouse for the first time, nervous, curious, and full of hope, I remember why I started.

DEAR SISTERS,

It’s been quite some time since I last shared an update here. Life has been full, uplifting fellow women, mentoring girls, and building small ecosystems for myself and those around me. Though I’ve been quiet on this platform, I’ve been busy on the ground, doing the work, shaping change one community at a time.

I’ve poured my heart, savings, and strength into keeping this mission alive. There have been moments I wanted to stop, moments when the weight of running an entire program alone felt too heavy. But every time I see a young girl holding a computer mouse for the first time, nervous, curious, and full of hope, I remember why I started.

I lead Project Digital Impact Foundation, an initiative born from the belief that rural children deserve equal digital opportunities. In many of these villages, technology feels like a distant luxury, yet the digital divide widens each day. We couldn’t afford to wait for perfect conditions or big sponsors, so we started with what we had, our passion, our resilience, and our community.

Today, we have over 50 volunteers and have trained more than 300 students, with about 60–70% of them being girls. We’ve equipped them with digital literacy and ICT skills, giving them the confidence to dream, code, and create.

We recently hosted a Climate Action Summit, helping communities understand how they can contribute to environmental solutions. We’ve also led mental health sessions that teach children and parents about stress, depression, and emotional well-being, conversations rarely held in rural Kenya. By bringing parents, mothers, and fathers together, we’re creating homes that nurture rather than limit dreams.

💪🏽 This season has been challenging. We didn’t receive any sponsorships, so I’ve been personally funding our 7-week digital boot camp through my business. Even with the struggles, I couldn’t let the program stop, because the digital literacy gap keeps widening, and our children can’t afford to wait.

One of the most exciting projects we’re working on now is an entrepreneurship initiative for mothers, where we’re helping them rear indigenous chickens in organized groups. Most of these women are mothers of the children we train. They live in rural areas with access to land, some large, others small, but much of it remains underutilized.

Through this project, we’re not only creating a source of income but also giving these women ownership and pride in their work. We’ve already engaged the county government and discussed linking them to ready urban markets, where indigenous chicken is in high demand. This idea deeply resonates with their environment, culture, and strengths, it’s familiar, sustainable, and empowering. It’s about lifting homes, not just individuals, because when a mother’s livelihood grows, her child’s education and confidence grow with it.

As we approach our graduation ceremony next week, where we’ll celebrate the students’ accomplishments and bring their families together, our hearts are full but our resources are stretched thin. Traditionally, our graduations are more than just celebrations, they’re community empowerment events. We invite parents to learn about digital safety and cybersecurity (so they can protect themselves from scams), discuss entrepreneurship opportunities, and explore how they can support their children’s digital growth.

This time, however, we’re short on funds. I’ve done everything I can to keep the vision alive, but I need help to make this celebration and training possible.

✨ How you can support:

Any contribution, even as little as $5, can help us create a memorable graduation and continue empowering these families.

If you’re in Kenya, you can donate via Paybill

PAYBILL: 100400

ACCOUNT: PDIF

If you’re outside Kenya, please visit our website to donate via PayPal or credit card:

https://projectdigitalimpactfoundation.org/donation/

Every donor receives a full transparency report after the event, because integrity and accountability guide everything we do.

Thank you, sisters, for believing in this dream. We may not have the resources of the world, but we have something even greater, the will to rise, rebuild, and reimagine rural Africa through technology and hope.

With gratitude and love,

Susan Khasoa 💕

Founder, Project Digital Impact Foundation