Marlon Parker
LinkedIn
Founder | RLabs
Marlon Parker’s life has been far from easy, growing up surrounded by drugs and gangs. As the oldest sibling in a family raised by a single parent, Marlon felt the weight of taking on the responsibility of a father figure. By 8 years old, he had already started finding creative ways to make money for his family, selling sweets and helping elderly women carry their grocery bags. Eventually, he moved on to bigger things, getting a college degree in IT and becoming a lecturer for the university. He had a deep rooted belief that training people with technological skills could bring hope and social change to communities across the world. He piloted the project with 14 former gang members from his neighborhood in a borrowed computer lab. Today, his organization Rlabs has had over 20,000 graduates in 23 countries, creating thousands of jobs and impacting millions of people.
Marlon Parker sits down with Ndidi and Henry to talk about the role technology plays in empowering Africa’s next generation of leaders and how he aims to make hope contagious.