Umande Trust

Umande is excited to be working with the Nairobi River Commission (NRC) and many other local organisations to restore the rivers of Nairobi: the Mbagathi River, the Galana River, and the Nairobi River. The Nairobi River Commission was established in December of 2022 with the hope of rehabilitating the rivers of Nairobi and with it the blue and green infrastructure of the city and surrounding communities. This spring, the NRC began to engage with civil society organisations, community groups, and other non-state actors about the important role that they will play in helping to clean and rehabilitate the river. Umande hopes to be able to engage community groups that we partner with to get involved in the project, to help ensure that the residents of Kibera and other informal settlements in Nairobi can have a voice in this commission. All solutions that are come up with must put those who are the most disenfranchised first. The NRC hopes to focus on four areas: catchment protection and re...

Today is Earth Day! Earth Day is a global holiday that educates the world about the importance of protecting the earth and sustainability. This year marks the 54th annual Earth Day, and the 34th year of Earth Day is recognised internationally. At Umande Trust, we work hard to promote sustainability every day not just on Earth Day, but today it is especially important to recognize the importance of sustainability, and that everyone does their part. Here at Umande, our mission is to “promote eco-innovations that place community groups at the driving seat of enterprising solutions”. Through our more than 80 Bio Centres across the nation, basic sanitation services such as toilets and showers are provided to tens of thousands each day, reducing the contamination of water sources, through a reduction of open defecation. Reducing the amount of sewage that contaminates local waterways such as the Nairobi River is critical to improving the environment and improving the ecosystem that lies on th...

During the morning of my first Tuesday as an intern at Umande, I embarked on my first field visit of the semester. My guide and co-worker Joseph met me at the office bright and early to show me around Kibera, numerous biocentres, and introduce me to the people making everything run smoothly.   Our first stop was the office itself. Umande Trust’s headquarters are situated on the two floors above one of its biocentres. Situated near the edge of Kibera, the biocentre caters to Umande’s employees, as well as other organizations situated along the same footpath. We set out on our tour and little did I know how extensive it would be. We began at Tosha II, the first of three biocentres under the larger umbrella of the Tosha community organization. Once we arrived, Joseph introduced me to one of the caretakers for the Tosha II center, who was filling in for her friend who normally took care of the center while she was away running errands. The ground floor of the Tosha II cent...

Florence has been working at the Tosha 2 bio centre for the past 3 months but already had so much information about her job to contribute to our series. The Tosha 2 bio centre opened in 2007 and is run only by women. Like most bio centres, tosha 2 has a few toilets and a shower, the only shower in the area, and cost 5ksh to use. Upstairs, this bio centre has 5 rooms, which are currently unoccupied, but sometimes houses families that need a place to stay. Tosha 2 also has a large tank of water which holds about 800 liters of water and costs about 700ksh to fill each day. Florence says that her biggest challenge is that this bio centre is less popular than the others because it was on strike and closed for a long while and is not as well known in the area as some of the other bio centres. That being said, the company Shofco has a relationship with this bio centre, paying them some money every month to allow their workers to come in and use the bio centre when they need to. This increas...

On an average day Kennedy spends his days taking care of the kidiot bio center in Kibera. His job description includes but is not limited to front desk work, cleaning, and making sure everything runs smoothly. One of the reasons Kennedy likes this particular Bio center is because it is so environmentally friendly. Kennedy also mentioned that this particular Bio center brought the first toilets to this area of Kibera! Kennedy enjoys being part of this effort of providing sanitary and cheap toilets to this area. For Kennedy, this Bio center has made  tremendous effect in his life because it's something he is passionate about as he has learned so much about the environment and has also helped him to earn a living wage. Kennedy feels like working at the bio centre has made him more environmentally aware and he is proud to be helping an organization that promotes action against climate change and environmental sustainability.

Easily spottable from any matatu driving in on the gravel entrance to Kibera, the Umande Trust building and attached bio-centre stands three stories tall overlooking a busy road filled with people, umbrellas, shops, and cars. While the top two floors of the building is office space, the bottom floor is a complete bio-centre with 4 toilets on each side and 2 showers in total. This bio-centre also comes with a fridge filled with soda for passersby who may want a treat. The caretaker of this bio-centre is Stell a, a 29 year old woman with three children at home. This is Stella’s second month working at the bio-centre here and in her first mont h here says that she considers her job fair.  Stella spends most of her day sitting on a white plastic chair outside of the steps of the bio-centre, collecting the five shilling fair for using the toilet and the fifty shilling fair to get a soda. She also cleans the bio-centre two to three times per day. While she is not sure of the...

On Tuesday, I went to Kangemi to visit the Kibagare Haki Zetu Biocentre.  Kangemi is located near Westlands.  We left Umande Trust's office in the early afternoon and took two matatus to get there.   Upon arrival we walked through the Kangemi fruit and vegetable market, then went back into the settlement itself. The biocentre was built in 2011, and about a year and a half ago the group began a solar program with 6 solar panels.  They are placed on top of the biocentre.  The solar panels produce enough energy to power the biocentre and between 6-8 households.  It costs the households 300/- per month.   I spoke with the treasurer and she really appreciates having the solar power at her house.  Prior to solar power, her households and others used kerosene and candles for lightening, but now having solar power allows them to have clean energy, and it can power more than kerosene, for example TVs. Here is a view of the solar panels. They are s...

Yesterday, I went to several biocentres.  One of the biocentres I visited was the Lindi Safi Biocentre.  The Lindi Safi biocentre has children all around, as there is a nursery school on the upper level.   Here I spoke to the operator of the biocentre.   It was opened in 2010 and their organization has 36 members, and 20 of them are active members.   On average, there 20 female users and 40 male users for the toilets, which cost 5/- per use.    Overall this is a smaller biocentre, but the operator was very helpful. He answered all my questions, and showed me around.   Along with running the biocentre he showed me his other job; he repairs shoes.    He showed me how he repairs shoes and the different types of shoes that he was currently repairing.   He was very happy to share how he did his job! Another biocentre I visited was Tosho 1; this biocentre has a lot of activity! There are always people coming in and out. ...

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 conduc...