Umande Trust

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...