Finding local solutions to a global health crisis.
Kibera, some call it a slum, but over 1 million people call this place home.
This is the largest urban, informal settlement in Africa.
A neighborhood of migrants from rural villages, each seeking work and a better life, a diverse
mix of people from different tribes, religions and geography.
Within these homes, countless young parents died of AIDS leaving thousands of children
orphaned.
How can a community respond when hit with a health crisis of this magnitude?
In Kibera, community members united to solve their neighbourhood problems using a
community development model.
The solutions of particular projects in a community lie with the people.
It takes people, individuals' initiatives in the community to address their own needs.
People can learn that even with little resources, they can always make a difference in the community.
The steps that make a community development model successful is that one, we start with
the stakeholders.
They know what we are doing.
Then two, we engage our volunteers, we engage our supporters, we engage our donors.
In whatever we do, we communicate.
We educate even the community on what we are doing.
Leonora and Andrew Obara took in and cared for 10 orphans alongside their own 5 children.
This helped to establish them as trusted allies in the community.
I'm an orphan caregiver. I took in children in my household, 10 of them, including my 5.
So I took care of 15 children.
So when community members saw this, they came to me thinking that I had started a children's home.
But I told them that it was not a children's home, I was just taking care of them
as a family.
Not only was Leonora caring for a large family, she was also a trusted presence in the community
from her time as a social worker.
I worked there previously as a social worker and a community worker.
Women in the community know me for the work that I do.
And of course I am a leader.
Me and my wife, we saw our families, our father and mother take in children who are vulnerable.
So when the chance of getting, picking up and bringing in these orphans came, we took it
with both hands.
So from then I talked to the women and said this is a community problem.
How can we find a way to support these children and that's the time when some of them had
already taken orphans into their households and that's how Kijiji was formed.
Community engagement was key.
Leonora and Andrew recognized that developing leadership in others was crucial for the sustainability
and growth of the community project.
Empowering the caregivers was critical through health, business and skills education.
I develop leadership skills for volunteers and participants by engaging them in the activities.
We have what we call community education sessions.
For example, if we are going to have a community education session, the volunteers learn how
to plan.
It's hands on, they don't read from the books, but I teach them how to get venues, how to
prepare topics.
We are teaching the community about preventing HIV, which is the cause of orphanhood.
So by people knowing how to take care of themselves, going for testing and for those ones who are
HIV positive, going for treatment, the antiretroviral therapy.
This way we are also reducing the number of people dying of AIDS and supporting the orphans.
The financial independence of the caregivers is the key to sustainable success.
Empowering the women to earn a living through skill training and business education is a
crucial part of the puzzle.
At biweekly Kijiji meetings, the caregivers meet and informally mentor each other, offering
local business information; where to shop, where to find services.
Kijiji works on various activities to result into sustainable livelihoods.
One, it's training the women on small scale business management.
And then we have what we called Women Empowerment Meetings.
Here they talk about businesses, they talk about social issues that are affecting them,
They share diverse cultures, they learn from each other, they build resilience and this
gives them hope even to move forward.
After the training, the volunteers visit the women at their respective businesses and look
at what the women are doing and advise and support.
We encourage the women to get more education in terms of how to run the businesses so that
they can have the basic needs to be able to support their kids to go to school so that
we have an educated society that can understand that AIDS is not witchcraft.
People to be able to understand that HIV and AIDS is a disease that can be tackled.
If Kijiji left, if the project didn't function in Kibera, we can talk of sustainability
in the sense that people have acquired a skill, they'll continue to use the skills to earn
an income.
People know how to manage businesses.
This is sustainable.
It is knowledge and it's also a skill that they have to manage their small businesses.
So again, this contributes to sustainability of livelihoods.
The needs of the community are great ranging from health to education to business issues.
But Kijiji funds are limited and they are not able to help with every issue.
Kijiji leverages the skills and strengths of other stakeholders such as the government
health agencies and schools within the community, directing women to other local services.
Because when the women come, they have various needs, Kijiji Cha Upendo is not magic, that
we just give them everything.
What we cannot do then we'll refer to other stakeholders.
Kijiji has been successful in working with other partners in terms of trainings.
We get people who are trained in business management to train our women on the business
skills.
We are not trained in business so we work with partners to help us that.
And we also work with partners in terms of health issues because when these women are
unwell they cannot manage their businesses so we work with the Ministry of Health.
For the women to be comfortable to manage their businesses well, children should be
in school.
So partnerships really help people to succeed in whatever projects they're managing
Membership crosses religious and racial lines, creating a lifeline between women from diverse
backgrounds who share similar circumstances.
Working within the cultures of the community and embracing shared values promotes the success
of the project.
We have looked at the cultural issues, norms, religious aspects of the community.
So we are working within the community and adapting to the community systems.
The mission of Kijiji Cha Upendo is to empower orphan caregivers and create change that is
both longterm and sustainable.
They continue to work successfully in Kibera using a community development model to help
solve the needs of the neighborhood.