I have been pen friends with an entrepreneur based in Nairobi and Kenya, who I met through the Facebook Developer Circles Nairobi.

Charles works in real estate in his area, although lately business hasn’t been great. Me and Charles tried a number of fundraising routes to see what might be possible.

1. We tried GoFundMe by setting up a fundraiser to help Charles request funds for his business.
2. Charles reviewed the options for importing products to him from overseas and it didn’t seem very user friendly to fund-raise by reselling products. Because of the high cost of sending post based on weight.
3. Another challenge was the limited banking available in Charle’s community. Although we found that SendWave seems a viable way to send money directly to him.
4. Charles and I looked at what work he can offer as a remote worker. He has very good access to Facebook, Instagram and communication by messenger.
5. I have hired Charles on an adhoc basis to increase the conversations on some of my content, he added thoughtful comments to my posts, this should encourage others to engage further in the online content.
6. Charles joined in our team meet up by zoom this month and other team members sympathised that due to fear of online scams, that it is even more difficult to fundraise if you are an overseas entrepreneur.

GoFundme – awaiting a sponsor- link gf.me/u/x9bx5g

Overseas payment app https://www.sendwave.com (should you want a recommended app if you were to import or export services to Kenya).

I think me and Charles get on well because we enjoy researching topics like geography and finding out things like ‘how to…’ and ‘is it possible to….’

I think Charles should pursue his skills in local global trade and I wish him the best. If you want to ask any questions to our overseas developer based in Kenya, please drop a comment below. And lastly…well done Charles for doing all this great work, whilst we have all been in such a challenging time!