Makoo in the Iraqi Arabic dialect means “there is not”.
Makoo work, makoo ways to grow, makoo good education, makoo jobs, makoo places to gain job experience, makoo opportunities for women who can’t leave their homes and makoo personal growth and development. These are the words I have heard since 2008 as I began being involved in trainings and projects that target young people across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region; from Duhok to Basra and Al-Muthana, boys and girls, grown men and women, all had the same complaint, “makoo!” rang in my ears.
During the peak of Covid, when the world went into shut down, when depression was at its peak, and hope diminished by the day, as we watched death tolls spike and the world was in shut down mode, I decided on Akoo! There is!
Maybe I had read Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret too often, but a time had to come where everyone said Akoo!
The idea of Akoo is an online platform and a mobile application, where all the jobs (part-time, full-time, remote), internships, volunteering, grant and training opportunities are all in one place. It is like a hub, or a home, for all the opportunities across the country. We have launched in the Kurdistan Region and look to expand to other Iraqi governorates by early next year.
On Akoo, designed in three languages (English, Kurdish and Arabic), people can look for all the opportunities they want to look for, based on their expertise and location; and employers can post all the opportunities that they have available in less than two minutes. All free of charge.
My vision is for Akoo in Iraq to be an app like Facebook and Twitter, where people can scroll through every day and recognize the amount of opportunities available. Embedded into the mobile application, and to launch in the future, is also a self-development section where people can take pre-recorded training and develop their skills. Since Akoo’s launch in the Kurdistan Region, I have learned there is a gap with the skills people have and the requirements and needs of the market. There are tailored trainings for some of the main skills required in the market.
The journey in creating a tech based social enterprise in a market where the tech business is new has been challenging to say the least, the first and foremost being the building of the application, followed by financial issues. The application has been in the making for more than a year and a half. However, I am proud that from the very first brainstorm, design, and coding has been in the Kurdistan Region, in Erbil to be exact. To me, this is an achievement, despite the challenges, we opted for inhouse construction of the application.
I began the journey solo, with the support of the Iraq Response Innovation Lab (IRIL): their team guided, assisted, brainstormed with me and provided the technical assistance I required. With a background in Diplomacy and Education, the tech industry seemed far-fetched, but I remember the director of IRIL often reminded me that he admired the inner passion I had.
Along the way, I came to the realization that my passion alone was not enough as I navigated my way into the tech world and read article after article about mobile applications, I brought in a cofounder to take care of the technicalities. It has been the best decision. This month we also hired three interns from so many applicants. It was a coincidence they, too, are all female. Here we are today, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, five young women running a tech social enterprise.
For me, this platform aims to create a social change. I want to see more internships, and companies offering part-time opportunities for students and young people who are ready to juggle student life with a job. It is a gateway for organizations to employ students. It will be a new culture, for too often in my part of the world one must wait until graduation to start looking for a job.
Then there are the girls and women who are at home, who for various reasons cannot leave their homes whether it is for social reasons, looking after their children, their location or pure choice, Akoo has introduced the ‘remote’ feature. We will begin to look and post for opportunities that target women and girls who can work from home, and earn an income, without the need to step foot outside within the existing search categories.
The training videos feature scheduled to go live by early 2023 will mean people can gain skills that are a demand in the market, in the comfort of their own homes. The trainings are in their own language and dialect, they are prerecorded videos presented by professionals across the country. Until our education sector works to prepare individuals for the marketplace, this is a core solution to a growing issue today.
I hope the platform will connect young people to great internship opportunities in their three-months summer breaks, and an increasing number of people will be having life experiences as volunteers instead of spending their free time afternoons jumping from one social media platform to another.
As the Akoo team, our vision is to be Iraq’s number one go-to app for opportunities, we are passion driven and work tirelessly every day to make this possible, despite the financial and technical challenges.
And as a society, and as individuals when we start telling ourselves Akoo (there is), the Secret will work, and we will attract all the opportunities there are, right at our fingertips.
You can download Akoo here or if you are an employer you can post a job on the website.
By: Sazan M. Mandalawi, a facilitator, a PhD candidate in the field of education, and a passionate blogger herself focusing on culture and the creative scene in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Copyright photos: Sazan M. Mandalawi and DataCode: BLOCKEDdatacode[.]appBLOCKED