![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Portrait.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exploration Through Education<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
By the time Njeri was in high school, her digital skills were limited. Unlike her peers, she couldn\u2019t use a smartphone and often overheard them talking about WhatsApp and social media, not fully understanding what those platforms were about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eager to strengthen her skills and catch up, she enrolled in an international computer digital literacy course, which boosted her confidence and ignited her interest in technology. This passion led her to study information technology\u2014with a focus on networking and coding\u2014at NIBS Technical College in Nairobi, Kenya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, Njeri was selected to join the Internet Society\u2019s Designing and Deploying Computer Networks (DDCN) pilot program in Nairobi. The six-week course, co-facilitated by the Internet Society Kenya Chapter, trained 25 participants aged 18-28, including 20 women and 5 men from various technical and vocational colleges and high schools. The program provided them with hands-on experience, aiming to empower the next generation of computer networkers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe DDCN pilot project has really, really, really changed my life,\u201d says Njeri, who, like most students, found work after completing the course.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n With new skills and experience from the DDCN program now at her disposal, Njeri applied for and received an internship at Tunapanda Net in Kibera, where she started learning more about community networks and wireless technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe whole [DDCN] coursework was exactly what I came to do at Tunapanda,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With passion and hard work driving her forward, she rose from an intern to a key player to a lead engineer, helping oversee the rebranding and rebuilding of the 3-year project into an independent network\u2014Tanda Net. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Njeri has developed the technical capacity to manage network infrastructure, set up masts, purchase equipment, and deploy the network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanda Net has connected about 104 network clients, including 47 individually connected homes, 12 connected organizations\u2014mostly women\u2019s organizations\u2014three hospitals, one children\u2019s home, 22 businesses, and seven schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanda Net burned down in June 2024, but even that did not deter the dedicated, hardworking team behind the community network. With support through our Connecting the Unconnected Funding Program<\/a>, made possible by the Internet Society Foundation, the team successfully rebuilt the network, which is back to running at full capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aside from deployment, Njeri is also actively involved in training community members, particularly women, on a variety of topics, including misinformation, child safety online, and gender-based violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe that women are pillars of the community,\u201d Njeri explains. \u201cIf we try and bring this knowledge and empower them, we can do a lot of great things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gender-based violence is not uncommon in Kibera. \u201cWomen tend to suffer a lot,\u201d Njeri says, and they often lack digital literacy skills. By enabling local women to use the Internet, they can learn more about issues like this and how to report it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Njeri has also led trainings to help people in Kibera grow their businesses and get set up on the Internet\u2014building websites, creating domain names, and more. These trainings have helped improve digital literacy, protect people from online scams, and empower women and other marginalized groups in Kibera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am kind of a motivation to them right now,\u201d Njeri says of the young people she trains. “They are looking up to me. They are like, ‘If Ruth is a lady and she can do all this, then I think I can also do it.'”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As someone who comes from a place with no Internet, Njeri wants to use the skills she has developed to change her village for the better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am hoping that maybe in a few years\u2019 time, whatever knowledge that I have gained, I\u2019m going to get it back to my community, set up a network,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Njeri is also interested in implementing the DDCN program in Kibera. \u201cThere are lots of talented individuals in Kibera who do not have access to such amazing and broad learning information,\u201d she says, adding that she would also like to \u201chelp them join the Internet Society community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Growing up in a small village in Murang\u2019a County, Kenya, Ruth Njeri had nearly no access to the digital world. Today, she is the lead engineer of the Tanda Community Network in Kibera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1844,"featured_media":218910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5693,90,32],"tags":[5666],"region_news_regions":[34],"content_category":[6085,6087],"ppma_author":[5969,6013],"class_list":["post-218909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-community-networks","category-internet-access","tag-learning","region_news_regions-africa","content_category-blog-type","content_category-stories-type"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri.jpg",1200,550,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-450x206.jpg",450,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-768x352.jpg",768,352,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-1024x469.jpg",1024,469,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri.jpg",1200,550,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri.jpg",1200,550,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-250x115.jpg",250,115,true],"square":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-600x550.jpg",600,550,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-400x400.jpg",400,400,true],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Njeri-600x550.jpg",600,550,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Celia Richardson","author_link":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/author\/richardson\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Growing up in a small village in Murang\u2019a County, Kenya, Ruth Njeri had nearly no access to the digital world. Today, she is the lead engineer of the Tanda Community Network in Kibera.","authors":[{"term_id":5969,"user_id":1844,"is_guest":0,"slug":"richardson","display_name":"Celia Richardson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b61c14aabecc12bdeabc3b0b3e1f07ac665a0451f45af0f25b5a70d828d0155b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","last_name":"Richardson","first_name":"Celia","job_title":"","user_url":"","description":""},{"term_id":6013,"user_id":1882,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mukoma","display_name":"Ed Mukoma","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcc0baf5469009de274d11bd65741d8979891da1e1cb0a0915444a0a3f439017?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","last_name":"Mukoma","first_name":"Ed","job_title":"Project and Communications Manager","user_url":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218909"},{"taxonomy":"region_news_regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region_news_regions?post=218909"},{"taxonomy":"content_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_category?post=218909"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=218909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-and-others.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFrom Intern to Engineer\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-and-team.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ruth-and-team-2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNarrowing Kenya’s Gender Divide<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inside-burnt-CN-1024x606.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLooking Towards the Future<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-talking.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDo you want to grow your skillset and learn more? Check out the free online version of our Fundamentals of Designing and Deploying Computer Networks (DDCN) course.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"