## Jacquit’s Story

Jacquit comes from Andilamena in Madagascar’s rural north. His parents worked in far away villages,  so Jacquit had to take care of his brothers and sisters for most of his childhood. As the oldest child, he had to try and balance his own schooling with cooking, shopping, cleaning, and doing the laundry for his six siblings.

Failing to pass the first year of secondary school was a turning point in Jacquit’s life. He became very determined, getting up at 3:30 in the morning to do his homework. In the end, he managed to finish school in the top 1% of his peers.

As a result of his hard work, Jacquit was invited to study with Onja, a social enterprise in Madagascar that trains capable, underprivileged youth into software developers. He was chosen as one of only 19 from across the country.

## The Who Moves and Onja Partnership

Over just 2.5 years studying with Onja, Jacquit became a proficient English speaker and skilled software developer. In May 2022, he joined the Who Moves team as a front-end developer, working remotely from Madagascar.

[Who Moves](https://whomoves.de/) is Germany’s first career platform for international IT & tech talents. They match exceptional people with like-minded companies, helping to build dream careers. The job at Who Moves provides Jacquit with an exciting and fulfilling career, and enables him to earn a good salary to help support his family.

Jacquit’s initial contract was for one year, but Who Moves were so impressed with his work ethic and his performance in the role that they extended the contract.

We are so proud of Jacquit. Not only is he a valuable part of the Who Moves team, his work shows what can happen when great talent has the opportunity to shine.

To learn more about what Onja does, or to show your interest in hiring one of our talented developers, head to our website at the link below.

Website: [onja.org](https://onja.org/) | Facebook: [OnjaAfrica](https://www.facebook.com/OnjaAfrica/)

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Who Moves and Jacquit

A first job can be a daunting time for anyone, however our developers already have two years experience with teamwork, building coding projects from scratch, and working with international people so they already have a head start! 

In 2021, Sandy from our first developer cohort started working with Whitespectre as part of a year-long fellowship. During this time, she gained invaluable experience working remotely and with an international team.

Read [here](https://www.whitespectre.com/ideas/whitespectre-onja-bridging-the-opportunity-gap-in-tech/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=post) about Sandy’s time with Whitespectre. 


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Whitespectre and Sandy

## Early life

Like most people in my village, my parents are farmers. 

We would grow rice, beans and peanuts, and raise chickens and cattle to sell and eat. I finished middle school with high marks for mathematics but I never went to high school. I remember wanting to become a doctor without really believing it, because I knew I couldn't afford to go to university and would probably have become a farmer too

## Discovering Onja

At first, it was really hard to study at Onja. None of us thought we would be able to do it in those years. We couldn’t really speak English in the beginning, and class was quiet because we didn’t want to make mistakes. It was challenging with the technical side, too. Most of us didn't use computers before we came to Onja so it wasn’t just about learning coding, we learned everything from keyboard shortcuts to how to type. It was hard work but it was worth it. Now we are able to speak English, talk to international people, and work with international companies, which is actually amazing. 

Jobs are really limited in Madagascar if you don’t have higher education. I know a lot of people who finish high school and then just stay home. They don’t have anything to do except farming. They just do what their parents have done. It would have been the same for me.


## Exciting Future

My life has turned out to be better than I expected. I am not working on the farms, but I have a farm of my own and I am saving up for my future. I want to be able to provide for my family, especially my children. I want them to be able to go to school and get a better education than I did.

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Developer Stories - Meet Clopedia

## Early Life

“I was born in Fianarantsoa, a big town in the highlands. 

When I was eight, I moved with my 2 little sisters to Kelilalina, a village in the countryside where we lived with my grandmother. I really liked living there. It was quiet, and I liked helping my grandmother work in the fields farming rice and beans. I had many friends and enough free time to draw, one of my favourite hobbies. 

When I was in high school, my mother died of malaria and a few years later my grandmother died too. Recently my father died from lung disease so my brother and 2 younger sisters and I were left without parents.” 

## Discovering Onja

My high school in Keliilalina was very good. It was visited by foreigners several times which gave me the opportunity to practise my English. On the weekends I would do volunteer projects like teaching at the school. I was invited to do the Onja aptitude exam and then received an offer to study English and software development at their campus in Mahanoro.

Before I was invited to join Onja, my vision for the future was just to get any job I could and support my family.”

## Constantly Learning

“I like being at Onja. I like the way I learn things here. There are good teachers, there is good internet, and lots of ways to continuously keep learning and improving in my work. I want to be an excellent coder for Onja. The best there is. I will work very hard to achieve that goal.”

![thumbnail_daniel_blog_story_min_1c0717bce7.png](https://onja-website-strapi-images.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_daniel_blog_story_min_1c0717bce7_a01c6c0e16.png)

## Exciting Future

“In the future I hope to see thousands of students at Onja contributing to Madagascar's development. I am really proud of myself that I can help to give the same opportunity to the next wave of students.”

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Developer Stories - Meet Daniel

Today Onja was recognised as a champion of impact sourcing on [IAOP’s inaugural list](https://www.iaop.org/ISChampionsIndex) of companies that have distinguished themselves as trailblazers in Impact Sourcing.
Note that Impact Sourcing is a business practice that uses outsourcing to achieve social good and IAOP is the world’s leading Association for Outsourcing Professionals.
The list recognises organisations shaping the future of Impact Sourcing, an industry bringing decent jobs to the developing world and one that is set to grow rapidly in coming decades.
From Debi Hamill, the CEO of IAOP: “This initiative is close to my heart and it’s easy to understand why. Doing well by doing good is now more important than ever. Ensuring that disadvantaged populations have access to formal employment and decent work, allowing them to improve their conditions, acquire a career, and thus lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty is one of the most sustainable means to economic growth. I am proud of the work these organisations are doing and look forward to growing the index.”
Here at Onja, we are very grateful that our hard work and commitment to bringing true opportunity to capable youth who would otherwise be limited to unfulfilling careers, is being recognised.

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IAOP Impact Sourcing Champions Index

## Early life

I’m from Andromba, a rice-producing village near Ambatondrazaka. 

Apart from growing rice, my father is a teacher and makes mud bricks from clay in the summertime. My mother has a shop where she sells bread, snacks, pasta and yoghurt.

After middle school, I couldn't continue to high school because my parents had to pay for my younger brothers’ education. Instead, I did all kinds of jobs. Occasionally I would walk for several days to a remote village in the countryside to sell fresh vegetables, but mostly I worked for my parents - helping my mother sell from her shop and my father making bricks. I was also involved in the choir and as a young leader in my local church. However, I still dreamed of going to university, to make my parents proud of me and to get a good job later on.


## Discovering Onja

When the offer came to study at Onja, I had an opportunity to keep studying, find work, and help pay for the education of my siblings. I learned English and Software development which has enabled me to work remotely and communicate well with international teams.

Now, my vision is to help other young people like me in the future. I am proud of myself because, with Onja, I can contribute to giving the same opportunity I had to other young people like me. 

## Exciting Future

I really enjoy being part of Onja. I never expected that all the students would become such good friends. I am also very grateful for the opportunity to go to school again and learn a good profession.

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Developer Stories - Meet Rosny

## Early life

I am a farmers’ daughter from Kelilanina, a beautiful village close to Ranomafana, one of Madagascar’s most famous nature reserves. 


Apart from farming, my parents run a little shop where they sell bread, mofo gasy (a kind of Malagasy bread) and coffee. It makes their house one of the central meeting points in the village, where people gather and exchange news. 


Before I joined Onja, my vision was to learn languages so I would be able to apply for good jobs that require language skills. Unfortunately, I couldn’t succeed in this due to the numerous expenses involved. After I completed my high school degree, I spent two years with no significant job opportunities. Instead, I devoted my time to assisting my parents with their bread sales for our food and my siblings' education. 


## Discovering Onja

For me, the Onja model is great as they give opportunities for young people like me to continue their studies. Most importantly, Onja not only provides us with English and coding courses but they also ensure that all of the developers get jobs in good companies.

My vision is to deepen my knowledge of anything in my field. I believe being open to learning is always the key to success, so that one day I can be more helpful to my family, my community, and even my country.

## Exciting Future

Onja has changed my life both personally and professionally. Not only am I now independent but I am able to support my family’s basic needs. It also brings me great joy to know that I am actively contributing to the development and growth of my peers like me, empowering them with the same opportunities that they have enriched my own life.

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Developer Stories - Meet Kati

## We’re excited to introduce Onja’s organisational values!
These values lie at the heart of Onja because what’s important is not just working towards our mission - it’s how we choose to do that. How we do business, how we treat each other, what we consider when making important decisions. These values help guide us as we accelerate Madagascar’s development by training as many talented, underprivileged young people as possible. 
Our values are both about identifying who we currently are, as well as who we aspire to be. Being able to define and articulate these values, and share them with our supporters, is an important and exciting step. 
Because our values reflect our whole team, we engaged all of our people at Onja in their development - from asking what they believed our values to be, to helping refine the meaning and wording of each one. 
Involving the whole team in this process was important to us as it allows everyone to feel a kind of ownership of the values, and more buy-in when it comes to living them in our day-to-day work. Onja’s heart is our people, and they know better than anyone else what values we live in our work every day, and where we want to be in the future. 
These values reflect our unwavering commitment to our mission and our promise to act in accordance with who we are. We are excited to share them with you. 

## Our New Organisational Values
# Love
“We believe that love is the fuel to all good deeds and the essence to life itself. Love lets us put our mission before ourselves and have a meaningful impact that will burn bright long after we are gone. This doesn’t mean love is always easy, and we know that love sometimes looks like making difficult decisions. But we try to have love in everything we do.”

This value comes first, because if we are thinking and acting from a place of love, then everything else tends to follow naturally. 

# Diligence
Our common goal is to help underprivileged youth to get the same opportunities we had,  so we work hard and we don’t give up, even when things can seem impossible.

This value supports Onja’s mission by making sure everyone recognises the gravity of what we do and all play our part and work together to make Onja succeed.  

# Integrity
“We uphold our commitments. We align what we say and what we do, live by our word and stick to our values even when it might be easier not to.”

When working in a team, integrity is essential to everyone playing their part so the whole organisation can function well. This is a value that covers the way that we work, and also how we treat one another and the environment we spend our time in. 

# Togetherness
“Our team members are chosen from all over Madagascar and the world and have different backgrounds and upbringings. So far from home, we support each other like family.”

At Onja, we like to make sure everyone feels welcome. We hold regular team-building days full of fun activities, share meals together at campus, and travel around Madagascar together. 

# Humility
“Humility allows us to put our mission above ourselves, and to connect and understand people from different walks of life. We keep our feet on the ground and our heads in the clouds: Understanding where we come from and being grounded to that, while dreaming big and believing we can achieve what others say is impossible.”

Onja’s mission is what ties everyone together. Humility guides us to keep this mission front and centre of everything we do. By being humble, we acknowledge the importance of everyone’s role in working towards our goals.

# Gratitude
“At the core of Onja's model is giving back to the community. Through gratitude, we not only appreciate the opportunity and support we receive but also commit to contributing, ensuring our mission advances and positively impacts the community we serve.”

Consciously practising gratitude allows us to think about what we have and be thankful for our work, our community, and the mission we’re trying to achieve. 

# Respect for Malagasy Culture and Values
"The majority of our team and stakeholders are Malagasy so we strive to ensure that Malagasy culture is given an importance that reflects this. While Malagasy culture is our baseline, we have a unique blend of Malagasy and western cultures, leveraging the strengths of both."

We sit between two worlds, so we make an effort to all understand each other. For our International staff, we adjust our communication style to work well with our Malagasy colleagues, who tend to have a softer and less abrupt approach than is often used in the West. When we meet in person, we like to sit on hand-woven Malagasy mats (tsihy) outside, to connect better to the culture we’re in, the place we work, and each other. 

Most decisions regarding Onja’s students carefully consider Malagasy culture, often starting by asking ourselves ‘what would their parents think of this?’. This is what guides our operations, even if some of the ways we end up doing things differ from the ideas of a Western perspective. 

Sometimes, to reach towards the mission, we have to compromise between cultures. For example, Onja’s campus is fully English speaking. The immersive environment helps the developers reach a professional level of English much faster than just a few lessons in a classroom each week. International staff are offered Malagasy lessons to learn more about the culture they are also immersed in. This has also created a great culture of learning and interesting discussions over lunch as we talk about the linguistic differences between Malagasy and English.

# Business Excellence 
“Our mission is purely social, but we can only maximise our impact through a thriving social enterprise. We are a non-profit but operate like a lean startup. This means we strive for outstanding results and continuous improvement and bring exceptional value to our clients.”

Onja’s self-funding model is one of the things that make us unique, and it amplifies our impact by allowing us to focus resources on advancing the mission rather than fundraising. Performing well, bringing value to our clients, so that we can continue to create impact through our model, is central to everything we do.  

## Looking Ahead
Developing these values was an exciting, cross-organisational effort by the whole Onja team. Everyone had input into what the values were and their specific wording. These values are an amalgamation of everyone’s efforts. It was a process that took a long time, but we are incredibly proud of the outcome, and to have organisational values that really represent Onja as a whole. 

We’d like to thank the whole Onja team for their time and their insights in developing these values, and are excited to have them as front and centre of our work going forward. 


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Onja's Values

## Thanks for being here and for your interest in joining our team!

At Onja, we believe that hiring the right people is the key to our success. Our people are at the heart of what we do and as we continue to grow, we are committed to building a team that can deliver Onja’s mission.  

Below, you can find some guidance outlining how we do hiring at Onja so you know what to expect during the process


## At Onja, We Want To:

### Hire the best people we can
We are looking for the most suitable people who will best deliver Onja’s mission. Finding the right fit for a role takes a lot of time and care. We do our best to constantly reflect this and improve our processes.  

### Stand out
Our acceptance rate is around 2%. But often we are looking for specific and unique qualities and attributes which means that sometimes 'unorthodox' candidates are selected over 'ideal candidates' - so don't hesitate to apply!

### Ensure an inclusive candidate experience to the best of our ability
It is really important to us that all candidates feel respected during the process, and get the opportunity to show who they are at every stage.


## About Our Hiring Process

💡 Some of our interviews are in person if you are located in Madagascar, while overseas applicants will do video interviews

👌 We value human connection and we see interviews as conversations, a two-way exchange, where both sides can see if it is a good match.

🎤 We record interviews for maximal fairness and efficiency. This allows a diverse panel of people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to assess and reassess the candidate based on set criteria, even after the interview has been completed. We are very strict with access to these recordings and they are shared only with relevant interviewers/hiring team members.

Once you submit your application, we will take a closer look to see if your experience and skills are matching and are relevant to the position you have applied for. Please always submit your application by English language only, since we are a multicultural team and English is our common working language.

You will be able to submit your application easily through our website and we encourage you to upload any supplementary forms and/or links that might be useful for the hiring team to know.

We try to get back to everyone within two weeks at most, and at best, within one week. Whatever the outcome,it is important to us that we let every candidate know either way.

From submitting your application to receiving an offer, the entire process normally takes around 4 weeks. This might change according to the workload of our team and the types of assessments required per role.

## Steps of Our Hiring Process

### Introductory call
A 50-60 min. casual chat to get to know each other, answer the questions you may have about Onja and potentially moving to Toamasina, and get an initial sense of whether you’d be a good fit for the team. We will give you more information on what to expect if you were to join Onja, practicalities regarding relocation (if applicable to you) and benefits, as well as answer any questions or concerns you might have. To book this call, you’ll receive a calendly link to select a time slot that suits you.

### In-depth interview
If you and the team think that this could be a good match, then we will invite you for a 1 hour interview, usually with 2 team members; the Hiring Manager and potential direct line Manager. This is a deeper exploration of how you work, and gives us insight as to position alignment. This will also give you the chance to get to know how the team operates and explore the potential for a good team fit from both sides.

### Writing Samples and/or role-related task
For some roles we might ask you for a writing sample. We try to be respectful of your time so we  don’t ask you to write anything specifically for us but rather just link us to any previous writing you may have done.  Occasionally, where the position demands it, we may ask for a small task that we would like you to prepare for in your own time, and then will schedule a call with a member of the team to walk through what you’ve done in a working session.


### References
If we see it as a good fit, as a final step before making an offer, we will request two professional references, preferably managers.  The Hiring Manager or hiring team will contact your references. We ask you for their email so that we can send them a calendar link to book a quick 15 minute conversation with us at a time convenient to them. 
We understand that in some places reference calls are not a common practice, and in this case a letter of recommendation is sufficient.

A reference check is not the sole decision making factor to hire. However, where applicable, a reference check can be used in the final decision for making an offer, taking into consideration the interview and interview team feedback.

### Casual chat with other team members (optional)
We offer optional conversations with staff members to get to know what it's like to join our team. It’s a good opportunity to ask a lot of questions and get an understanding of what it would be like to work together. Keep in mind, these aren’t interviews!

### Formal offer
After the interview, the hiring team will discuss and make a decision based on our evaluation criteria and reference checks. Successful candidates will be offered the position via email or call.


## What we do to make our hiring inclusive

We’re always learning about different ways our hiring process can be more accessible and inclusive for all candidates. Here is what we are doing so far (we welcome feedback throughout the whole process):

➡️ We make sure to include a diverse set of interviewers and evaluators that are representative of Onja’s multicultural work environment.

➡️ We work to have fair evaluations for all candidates using set criteria to help us determine organisational and position fit.

➡️ We don’t make any decisions during the interview, we know that sometimes first impressions can be biased, so we try to take a reminder to pause and be more deliberate in catching ourselves.

➡️ We encourage applicants to apply even if they don’t 100% meet all the requirements.

➡️ Easy scheduling and calendar invite for accessing Google Meet interviews

➡️ We value attitude and fit over qualifications

➡️ Throughout the interview process, you can discuss any reasonable adjustments you might require and how you can be accommodated.

### And last but not least, we're looking forward to hearing from you! Head to our [careers](/careers) page to see and apply for our current open positions. 




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Get To Know Our Hiring Process

Having a good internet connection is essential to Onja’s mission. Our developers need reliable internet not only to learn and practice coding during our training program, but they also need it when they begin working remotely with international companies.

When Onja was considering where to set up our first base in Madagascar, Ookla helped us find a spot with great internet to support the learning and professional growth of our developers. 

Read more about Onja and Ookla’s partnership below:

[How a social enterprise in Madagascar found their dream beachside location with Ookla](https://www.ookla.com/articles/how-ookla-for-good-helps-onja-in-madagascar)

Ookla For Good

Who Moves and Jacquit

Whitespectre and Sandy

Developer Stories - Meet Clopedia

Ready to make an impact with your next hire?