What is kushiriki?

Kushiriki means 'to share' in Kiswahili. It is a free online platform for sharing information. Its aim is to facilitate the movement, comfort and safety of workers in the East African humanitarian and non-profit sector.

Q. Who is it meant for?

It is meant for the non-profit sector in East Africa and those who surround it, such as freelancers, volunteers, journalists and consultants.

Q. How is it different from other platforms such as Trip Advisor or Rough Guide?

It shows more than just hotels and restaurants. It includes medical facilities, communications providers, places of worship, taxis, drivers, emergency relief providers, and general information about a country.

It only shows positive recommendations.  It gives names and contacts and then it is up to the user to do the rest.

It allows NGOs to share best practices.

It is a blog platform from the NGO sector.

It gives up to date news from East Africa.

Q. How does it work?

• People make their recommendations - very quick, usually takes a minute.
• Approval for publication is not immediate.
• The site moderator double checks that the service exists and gets more information such as phone numbers, web sites etc.
• If the moderator has any doubt about the recommendation it will not be listed.
• Other users can search for information and use it if they want to.

Q. Why is it needed?

It allows users to see the options. And even with the best laid plans things go wrong. In such situations it can provide useful information, especially for people travelling alone.  It will also be useful in emergency situations when NGOs have to step in, or for visitors coming from abroad, such as volunteers/consultants etc.

Q. How do you know the information is trustworthy?

All services are double checked online before publication.

Anyone with a personal connection to a service is not allowed to recommend it and must verify that they have no personal connection (except emergency relief providers).

If a recommendation is uploaded with a bad review then the moderator may reconsider the status of the listing. If a bad review appears more than once for a listing then that listing may be taken down at the moderator’s discretion.

Kushiriki does not pay anyone to make a recommendation. Its values are honesty, integrity, trust and knowledge sharing.

Above all, Kushiriki relies on the integrity of its users. That is paramount.

Q. How does it make money?

It doesn’t at the moment. It’s a free information sharing platform.  If it becomes popular it will accept limited advertising.

The idea is to share information while providing jobs in the future as a social enterprise. Its value will grow with the amount of users it gets.

Kushiriki’s vision is to be the ‘go-to’ hub when sharing information between workers in the East African humanitarian and non-profit sector, particularly those not supported by large organisations, such as consultants, freelancers and journalists.