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Our Story

Together fora better tomorrow.

Sanifu is a youth-led Tanzanian NGO bridging the digital divide for youth, women, and people living with disabilities across East Africa.

Where it began

We started with a simple belief, that talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn't. So we built programs that put practical digital skills, mentorship, and access in front of the people most often left out.

Our mission and vision

Our Mission

Equip 1M+ Africans through inclusive tech.

To equip 1 million youth, women, and persons with disabilities across Africa with accessible technology and digital skills training, mentorship, and innovation programs that drive sustainable development.

Our Vision

A digital economy that includes everyone.

A continent where the next billion come online on fair terms, building, leading, and earning in a digital economy that was designed with them in mind from day one.

Theory of change

How change actually happens.

  • Barriers to digital skills, devices, and capital keep marginalised groups out of the digital economy, especially youth, women, and people living with disabilities across East Africa.

  • We pool global partnerships, local expertise, and community trust to build an ecosystem that meets learners where they are, physically, financially, and culturally.

  • Hands-on training, mentorship, and innovation programs delivered through community labs, fellowships, and national competitions like CyberSimba CPL.

  • Certified learners, women-led businesses going digital, accessible curricula built with disabled learners, and a peer network that compounds beyond our programs.

  • A million people across Africa equipped to participate in, and lead, a digital economy that's inclusive by design, not by retrofit.

Our values

What we stand for

Four principles guide every program, partnership, and policy push we take on.

  • Inclusion

    Accessible by default

    We design for the people most often designed out, disabled learners, rural communities, women in informal trade, and let that discipline lift the bar for everyone.

  • Proximity

    Community-led, always

    Programs are co-designed with the communities they serve. Local trust is the asset; we're stewards of it, not owners.

  • Practice

    Skills that ship

    Curricula are built around real career pathways and real businesses. If it can't open a door, we don't teach it.

  • Advocacy

    Push the system

    Training alone won't fix exclusion. We work alongside policy makers and infrastructure partners to make accessibility a default, not an afterthought.

The journey

Turning potential into progress.

  1. 2020

    Sanifu founded

    A small group of youth volunteers run the first community digital-skills workshops in Dar es Salaam.

  2. 2022

    CyberSimba launched

    Cybersecurity training scales across 12 universities, building the continent's next generation of digital defenders.

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  3. 2024

    Programs across 3 countries

    Expansion to Burundi and Uganda, three active programs running with locally-led teams.

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  4. 2026

    1M target set

    Strategy refresh and the formal target: 1 million youth, women, and PWDs reached by 2030.

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The people

A team close enough to the work to know what actually helps.

A small team that ships, backed by a wider network of mentors, contributors, and community partners.

Photo of Bernadette

Bernadette

Executive Director

Photo of Amina

Amina

Programs Lead

Photo of Naomi Kalinga

Naomi Kalinga

Head of DigiSoko

Photo of Joseph Owino

Joseph Owino

Head of Future Forge

Be part of what comes next.

Whether you build, give, or learn, there's a place for you in the work.