As part of Yunitok’s commitment to amplifying youth participation and strengthening inclusive digital systems, the platform played a key role in coordinating and supporting the recent validation exercise for the NIKO (No One Is Kept Out) App and USSD platform under the Humanitarian Innovation Programme (HIP).

The NIKO tool is a pioneering digital solution designed to ensure that children with disabilities—and their caregivers—are not left behind in accessing essential services. For Yunitok, this work aligns with our mission to ensure that young people, caregivers, and frontline actors can meaningfully participate in shaping how humanitarian services are delivered in their communities.

🔍 Validating a Tool Built for Equity and Access

In Nyando and Kisumu East, Yunitok supported the engagement of 513 caregivers and 27 frontline workers, including young medical and education assessors, in testing the registration, assessment, and referral modules of the NIKO App and USSD platform.

This validation built on earlier July UAT sessions and a follow-up mini-assessment in Kasarani, ensuring that youth and community voices guided every refinement made to the tool.

Participants tested:

• Disability registration and assessment flows

• Referral and service-linkage processes

• Data management and verification steps

• Feedback loops and user experience

• Accessibility and ease-of-use on USSD

Through these interactions, young assessors and caregivers surfaced real-world issues—ranging from incomplete submissions and USSD timeouts to gaps in data traceability and missing functionality for reassessments.

🛠️ Youth-Driven Recommendations to Strengthen the System

Feedback collected through Yunitok’s engagement channels helped shape a comprehensive set of recommendations, including:

• Introducing mandatory fields for complete data

• Enhancing visibility and navigation of long forms

• Allowing multiple disability selections

• Strengthening authentication and verification at registration

• Integrating with MoH, MoE, and NCPWD systems

• Adding auto-save, draft mode, and offline capability

• Improving data flow for accuracy and archiving

These youth-informed insights ensure that the NIKO tool remains grounded in real community needs and ready for scale.

🎧 Supporting Assistive Technology Access Through Community Engagement

Alongside the validation, Yunitok supported mobilization for an assistive device distribution exercise following the June 2025 mapping of 798 children with disabilities.

From this exercise:

• 44 children (20 boys and 24 girls) were successfully fitted with hearing aids

• A total of 84 devices were distributed in Ahero, Nyalenda, and Ngeny School

• Six children could not be fitted due to eligibility or contact issues

Young volunteers and community champions helped mobilize caregivers, facilitate communication, and support the distribution workflow—highlighting the power of youth-led engagement in bridging last-mile gaps.

Challenges such as caregiver lateness, inaccurate addresses, and limited alternative contacts were documented and will inform improved mobilisation strategies, clearer sensitisation, and closer collaboration with schools.

🌱 A Youth-Powered Path to Inclusive Humanitarian Systems

The Kisumu validation exercise demonstrated the critical role young people play in improving digital public goods like the NIKO platform. Through Yunitok, youth contributed insights, mobilized communities, and helped strengthen referral pathways and service delivery models for children with disabilities.

As the programme moves toward scale, Yunitok remains committed to ensuring that youth voice, digital innovation, and community feedback continue shaping inclusive humanitarian systems—so that truly, No One Is Kept Out.