Umande Trust

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...

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. ...

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...

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...