Allan Gets Eye Injury

In 2006, Allan (founder) was hit by a ball while playing football in school and his right eyes was hurt leaving a scar in the eye. Since then he has been on medicine and uses glasses sometimes to reduce the light intensity.

Allan’s Friend Loses Vision

He remembers in 2010, one of his classmates also lost his vision when he was in the middle of the final examinations and he had to drop out of exams for immediate treatment at PCEA Kikuyu Hospital in Nairobi. It was painful for him that when his friend came back from hospital, he had to go back to form 3 since his last class had graduated and he could not be allowed do exams when he came back together with that year’s candidates even though the school knew it was because of medical emergency he had not completed his KCSE. In addition, he remembers how the friend had to struggle to read the same books the other students with normal vision were using since the school was a mainstream school and not a special school for the visually and so he was expected to coupe.

PortableVoices is Born

Fast forward to 2016, Allan was given a job to teach at a school in Kibera where he had been trained. During his teaching, he was expected to do research and so he faced the same challenges of not being able to read or watch videos for long. Thankfully, this time he was introduced to podcasts and audiobooks that he started listening and immediately realized that he was able to learn through the audios. He started using them in class to teach too. However, the problem was that he could not get podcasts done locally on the same topics.

It was then on that basis of missing out and need to create locally made audio contents that inspired the start of PortableVoices with the help of several of his friends. PortableVoices has since then continued the mission to producing and distribute spoken audio entertainment, information and educational programming content with local perspectives that will not only entertain and engage our audience but also inform and enrich lives across the world while enabling international audiences to understand African history, culture and current Affairs.

Qualifies as Seed-stars Nairobi Finalist

Became a Nairobi finalist at Seed Stars World Startup Competition and won 3 months incubation at Nairobi Garage.

Portablevoices Opens the First Recording Studio

Through the support of Somo Africa and other partners, PortableVoices opened doors to podcasters and other audio content creators by opening the first of its kind podcasting and voice over recording studio in Nairobi. The studio was the first in Nairobi.

Portablevoices Starts Ears – for – Eyes Initiative

To continue our mission to support education of visually impaired children, PortableVoices established a non-profit making initiative called Ears for Eyes Africa Initiative for the Blind. Through the program, PortableVoices shall be curating and creating audio learning resources that shall be made available for free to visually children in school and other vial other distribution partners. You can support the vision by donating to PortableVoices.