Kiambiu Youth Group and Kiambiu Usafi

Family Hope Charity is working with two local community based organizations in Kiambiu/Nairobi—a youth group (Kiambiu Youth Group—pictured above at the toilet and bathing facility they run in the slum) that has a membership of about 350 and a self-help group (Kiambiu Usafi) with a membership of about 300. We’re in the initial stages of setting up a construction and life skills training program. The trainees would come from the Kiambiu Youth Group and their hands on training would be constructing houses for the members of the Kiambiu Usafi self-help group. Owners of the new houses would either occupy them themselves or rent them out to bring much needed income into their families.


Another program Family Hope Charity will be involved in at both of our project sites--Kiambiu/Nairobi and Kuresoi/Rift Valley, will be the organizing and mentoring of groups of slum dwellers and rural poor into ‘daily savings groups.’ These savings plans have proved to be a very effective way for poor people to harness what little money they have and when combined with the meager savings of other members of the group can quickly begin to generate capital that wouldn’t be possible for any one person acting alone. Each member is expected to save something little each day. Quickly the group’s kitty begins to grow and when it gets to around $500 or so they can either 1) apply for a loan from a micro-finance institution, 2) loan some of it to a member of the group to start a business, 3) or take the money and as group start a income generating project. A year and a half ago, the ladies pictured above along with 26 of their neighbours managed to start saving 25 cents a day and in a year or so accumulated about $1800. With that money they bought five mud houses (one pictured) that they converted into chicken coops. They are now raising about 2000 chicks and the income generated supports thirty families who have on the average ten members.


These men are operating a ‘mkokoteni,’ which is a cart they use to haul goods all around Nairobi and in Nairobi’s slums. They are without a doubt some of the hardest working guys in the city. It is men like these that makes you want to do anything you can to give poor people a chance at a better life. You will see these guys pulling or pushing a thousand pounds of goods often 10 to 15 miles at a time 24/7.