Benin
Digital Villages · SOS Children's Villages
It started in one village.
It started in one village.
Now it spans a continent.
In 2020, SOS Children's Villages in Benin went looking for a way to turn young people with no path to work into digital entrepreneurs. The answer was Learnio, and the first cohort ran out of a single computer room in Abomey-Calavi. Six years on, the same model runs in eight African countries, with eight more launching in 2026: 1,300+ young people trained and an estimated 650+ now earning.
Trained
1,300+ young people
Got into employment
650+ graduates
In partnership with
Delivered within SOS Children's Villages’ Digital Villages programme
Delivered within SOS Children's Villages’ Digital Villages programme
8
African countries where the partnership is delivering today, with eight more launching in 2026
1,300+
Young people trained across the partnership since 2020
650+
Graduates who got into employment or freelance work
$1.7M
Estimated income earned by graduates each year, from survey data
SOS Children's Villages works with young people who have lost parental care, or are at risk of losing it. Many grow up in places where the formal job market is thin, where a diploma does not lead to a wage, and where the nearest training centre is a private cyber cafe that is too expensive to use for long. The talent is there. The local opportunity often is not.
Digital work does not care where you live. By 2030, the World Economic Forum estimates that nine out of ten jobs worldwide will require digital skills, and demand for those skills is climbing fastest in exactly the markets these young people call home. Yet in many of these markets only a small share of the workforce holds the digital skills employers now expect. That gap is a barrier. It is also an opening.
So SOS Children's Villages brings the villages, the equipment and the safety net, covering laptops, connectivity and even travel to class, and Learnio brings the rest: a hybrid model that pairs self-paced online coursework with in-person mentors who are working freelancers themselves. Courses run in Graphic Design, Web Development and Digital Marketing, taught in English and, in Ethiopia, in Amharic, Afan Oromo and Sidamifa, so the skills land in the language students think in.
Our main objective is the socio-professional integration of young people. It is to make them truly employable. Ali Idrissa · National coordinator, SOS Children's Villages in Niger
Across the continent
One village in Benin, now a movement across Africa.
Eight countries where the partnership is delivering today, and eight more preparing to launch in 2026.
Where we are
Launching soon
Where it all started
Benin
365
Young people trained
~228
Got into employment
$372
Avg. monthly income
$1.02M
Est. income / year
The origin
The whole partnership began here. In 2020, SOS Children's Villages in Benin went looking for a way to turn young people with no path to work into digital entrepreneurs, and found CodersTrust, now Learnio. The first cohort ran out of a single computer room in the SOS Children's Villages site at Abomey-Calavi.
From there it grew. A second location opened in Dassa-Zoume, around thirty computers now anchor the training, and SOS Children's Villages covers the travel costs that would otherwise keep students at home. Benin became the blueprint that every other country was built from.
It is also the clearest proof that the model can pay for itself. Community learners now enrol alongside SOS Children's Villages programme participants, and their fees help fund the trainers, many of whom are former graduates of the programme.
“I got my first computer from SOS Children’s Villages, and used it to land my first paid contract.”
Yvette Natta, 24, trained on the web development track and now freelances from home for an international company, offering online presentation services. She represents Benin's youth at regional roundtables on employability.
Yvette Natta
Digital Villages graduate · Web development
Scaling fast
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
376
Young people trained
~220
Got into employment
$147
Avg. monthly income
$390K
Est. income / year
A market ready for it
Zimbabwe has one of the widest digital-skills gaps on the continent. Only about 13 percent of the workforce holds the essential digital skills employers now expect. SOS Children's Villages in Zimbabwe saw the opening and brought the Learnio programme to its villages in Bindura and Bulawayo, later reaching Hwedza.
The results came quickly. In the first wave, 73 young people graduated and more than a quarter had secured work before they even finished. A group of digital-marketing graduates now serve clients in Bulawayo, and some have won contracts with a company across the border in South Africa.
The programme rebuilt the infrastructure it needed too, upgrading ICT rooms with laptops, solar-power backup, webcams and microphones, so that a power cut no longer means a lost lesson.
“From facing homelessness to running my own company.”
Before joining the training, Muntesi John was facing homelessness. He graduated on the digital marketing track and now runs his own business, helping local companies grow online. His is the story the partnership points to when it describes what the work is really for.
Muntesi John
Digital Villages graduate · Digital marketing
Newest, widest reach
Ethiopia
318
Young people trained
~136
Got into employment
$166
Avg. monthly income
$271K
Est. income / year
Built for the whole country
Ethiopia is the newest of the three anchor countries and already one of the largest by reach. The programme runs across four cities, Bahir Dar, Hawassa, Harar and Jimma, as part of the wider push on youth employment by SOS Children's Villages in Ethiopia.
What sets it apart is language. Courses are taught in English and in Amharic, Afan Oromo and Sidamifa, so students learn in the language they think in and the skills are not lost in translation. Mentors are recruited locally in each city to teach graphic design and digital marketing and to support students one to one.
It is early, and the earning rate reflects that: the first cohorts are only now moving into the market. But the reach is real, and the foundation is built to grow.
“Turning a passion into a small business.”
I have always believed that education should be engaging, accessible, and relevant to real-world needs. What motivated me to start this course was that I wanted to easily adapt to digital tools, that I could not easily find the training, and that photography jobs bring me joy.
Kassesh Ayalew
Graphic Design · Class of 2025
The bigger picture
Nine in ten jobs will need digital skills by 2030.
Nine in ten jobs will need digital skills by 2030.
These young people won't be locked out.
1,300+ trained · 8 countries delivering · 8 more launching in 2026
Programme · Digital Villages · SOS Children's Villages × Learnio
The wider footprint
The model keeps travelling.
Beyond the three anchor countries, the partnership delivers in five more today, and is preparing to launch in eight others in 2026. Every country starts small, proves the model, then grows: new tracks, new locations, new cohorts.
Mali
Our most complete partnership in the region. What began with two tracks grew, year on year, into full three-program delivery, with Digital Marketing added in 2026.
139
Trained to date
Niger
Home to our very first Digital Marketing cohort, and a partnership we have returned to and rebuilt since. Young Nigeriens learn to help local businesses grow online.
~25
Trained to date
Central African Republic
Our debut in the country, and for many of these 20 young people a first real step into the digital economy. Both a milestone and a starting line.
20
First cohort
Togo
A new market with a strong start: 22 young Togolese learning social media, content and digital advertising, and applying them to help real businesses grow.
22
First cohort
Beating the odds as a woman in tech
“Through the Learnio courses, I discovered a great potential that I had struggled to tap into.” Between the classes, the collaboration with classmates, the nights of presentations, and the assessment exams, I was able to explore several levels of my intelligence. I was able to propel myself even when the modules became incomprehensible.
Mahawa Dembele
Web Development Graduate · Class of 2024 · Mali
Launching across Africa in 2026.
The momentum is not slowing. Eight more countries are in preparation with SOS Children's Villages, with enrolment numbers and start dates being finalised now.
Burkina Faso
Programs being finalised
Guinea
Digital Marketing
Guinea-Bissau
Digital Marketing + Graphic Design · our first Portuguese-speaking community
Liberia
Programs being finalised
Rwanda
Programs being finalised
Namibia
Graphic Design · Tsumeb and Ondangwa
Tanzania & Zanzibar
Digital Marketing · mainland and Zanzibar
South Africa
Programs being finalised
Outcomes
Training that turns
Training that turns
into a livelihood.
Across the four countries surveyed so far, roughly half of graduates report earning income from the skills they learned. Applied across every cohort, that points to a partnership generating real money for young people who had few other routes to it.
Headline metric
$1.7M
Estimated income earned by graduates each year, across the partnership.
Trained
1,300+
Got into employment
650+
Per year
~$1.7M
1,300+
Young people trained
Across eight countries since 2020, with eight more launching in 2026.
650+
Got into employment
Survey earning rates applied across each country's full cohort.
3
Core programs
Graphic Design, Web Development and Digital Marketing, plus job-readiness and business English.
The picture, country by country.
Each country runs its own graduate survey. The share earning and the average monthly income vary with the local market, but the pattern holds: a large minority to a majority of graduates convert training into paid work.
Benin
62%
Of surveyed graduates are earning, at an average of $372 a month, the highest in the partnership.
Zimbabwe
59%
Of surveyed graduates are earning, at an average of $147 a month, some serving clients abroad.
Mali
51%
Of surveyed graduates are earning, at an average of $174 a month, across all three programs.
Ethiopia
43%
Of surveyed graduates are earning after the newest start, at an average of $166 a month.
Verified & documented
The record is public.
The partnership is documented by SOS Children's Villages, both at the international federation and across its national member associations. One relevant source sits inside each country section above. Below is the wider public record: federation features and reports, and national news from SOS Children's Villages in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
News · Benin · 2022
SOS Children's Villages
A new generation of African digital entrepreneurs
Read the feature →
Report · Benin
SOS Children's Villages
Holistic integration of ICT4D in Benin
Read the report →
News · gender & tech
SOS Children's Villages
Empowering women and girls through digital technology
Read the story →
News · Ethiopia · 2026
SOS Children's Villages
150 young people graduate from advanced digital skills training
Read the story →
News · Zimbabwe · 2025
SOS Children's Villages
Empowering Zimbabwean youth through digital skills
Read the story →
News · federation · 2023
SOS Children's Villages
Embarking on the journey to digital employment
Read the feature →
About these figures. Earning and income numbers on this page are estimates, drawn from graduate surveys in each
country and applied across the full cohorts, rather than audited totals. The Benin partnership was first signed in 2020 with
CodersTrust, which later became Learnio; SOS Children's Villages documentation from that period references the organisation under both
names. The company, mission and core team are continuous.