Inaugural Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Today looked different from Saturday kitchens: polished floors, printed agendas, and the nervous energy of an organisation formally meeting itself for the first time.
We held our inaugural Annual General Meeting — covering our 2024 strategic plan, financial reporting, what we achieved, and where we stumbled. Departmental directors stood up, named their challenges, and offered solutions that sounded like work, not slogans.
There were slides, questions, and the occasional awkward pause — the good kind — where someone admits a delay and the room responds with “how do we fix it,” not finger‑pointing.
Our Chairman, Mr Alex Devereux, held the room steady at Clyde & Co, Keystone Park, Riverside Drive — a setting that reminded us governance is part of mission, not an accessory to it.
If you have only ever seen NGOs through stories, this is the quieter truth: accountability is meetings like this — numbers on a screen, votes recorded, minutes kept.
We left with a stronger sense of one team. Visit etco-kenya.org to follow our plans — and if you are looking to partner with an NGO that submits its accounts to daylight, we would love to talk.
The feeding programme will still be waiting on Saturday — sufuria steam and all — but now it sits inside a clearer picture of what the whole organisation is trying to build, and what it costs to build it well.
Transparency is not a buzzword; it is what allows neighbours, donors, and partners to stay with us when the road bends.
Engaging Children through Feeding Program
Thanks to Chris and Jayne, ETCO had a warm feeding program for children at our new office—bringing joy, a good meal, and community together in Kibera.
Project Site Visit by Rotary Club of IPSWICH (USA) and Kikuyu (Kenya)
It was a great and engaging day of partnership and learning as we hosted the International Rotary Club of IPSWICH team, led by Environmental Lawyer Chris and his wife, Jane, Former President of Rotary Club of Kikuyu Hon. George Ngotho and Rotarian Yumbya for a visit to our project implementation sites. The visit provided an opportunity to review the project areas on the ground, discuss implementation priorities, and strengthen our shared commitment to sustainable environmental and community development. We also had the opportunity to visit the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC), where we were hosted by Commissioner Dr. Loice Kipkorir, a member of the Ngong River Committee. We explored opportunities to strengthen collaboration and align our work with the Nairobi Rivers Commission's Restoration Framework.
Community Capacity Building Training
We are currently participating in the ongoing PROVE (Public Space Governance Research, Observation, Validation and Experimentation) Pilot Programme, a four-month initiative by Public Space Networks (PSN) bringing together 11 community groups from Kamukunji and Korogocho. The programme focuses on strengthening community organizations’ capacity to manage, protect and improve public spaces as well as restoring rivers and it's ecosystems. The ongoing capacity-building training is helping CBOs and community organizations better understand the connection between public spaces, river restoration and ecosystem conservation, while exploring practical approaches and stronger collaboration among communities, government agencies, development partners and other stakeholders.