The ability for individuals in rural communities in Kenya to access resources needed to improve their economic and/or social situation is limited to the size of their social network. In this society, personal and business relationships are based very strongly on trust and respect. Social capital arises from the existence of trust in a society which, in turn, encourages cooperation in the generation of economic capital. Trust takes time to build. The importance of trust impedes the growth of an individual’s network which could enable and facilitate more economic activity. This paper describes two applications of a working concept called WishVast that will help people expand their social networks, share more information, and access more opportunities. WishVast is a cellphone-based social networking system that attempts to harness the pervasiveness of cellphones in developing countries to build trust and optimize resource utilization and supply chains to facilitate people-to-

people trade, with the ultimate goal of alleviating poverty. The paper explains the ethnographic research conducted by the team in Kenya to gain validation for the WishVast concept. The intricacies, social dynamics and inequalities of labor hiring practices and produce supply chains, two scenarios discussed in this paper, exemplify the need and business case for WishVast in developing communities in Kenya and around the world.