Umande Trust

Students from the University of Tokyo and the University of Nairobi collaborated these past 10 days to understand life in Kibera. The students were broken into three groups, livelihoods, energy, and solid waste management.   These groups have spent their time in various villages in Kibera discussing their projects with residents and local officials, taking surveys, and observing the area in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of Kibera and the aspect they are studying. Today, all of the groups came together with community members, Umande Trust staff, and local officials to share their initial findings.  After a series of introductions, and noting the importance of partnerships between universities and organizations, the groups began to share the work that they have done. The first group that went was livelihoods and they found that there is an importance between social ties and success in entrepreneurship.  For many people to be able to move to Kibera and find job opportuni

As I begin my internship with Umande Trust I am currently going through Kibera and visiting the different projects that Umande has done.     I have visited the Katwekera Tosha Bio-Centre and saw not only how the bio-centre works, but also how the upper floors are utilized.    Here there is a school that combines education and sports, and on the very top floor meeting space for the community.   At this particular location, watching football games is the main use.   We moved on to a school where Umande has created a urine diversion toilet, a WIMMA project, which will allow waste to be processed and turned into fertilizer.    The fertilizer collected here will be marketed, in part, outside of Kibera.   This is a new project, which differs from their bio-centres, which create biogas.   Another project that I visited was the Jasho Letu Bio-Center.   When we arrived here the community was conducting a meeting to discuss giving loans to community members