Week 17 - Eventful day
The team barely slept — pots to light, mats to roll, routes to confirm. By dawn, smoke already climbed from the kitchen; cooking was the day’s first act of love, long before anyone called it a programme, long before the first whistle.
At Undugu Grounds, children scattered into motion — rugby, handball, volleyball, soccer — jerseys clashing colours, coaches shouting encouragement that sometimes sounded like fathers who remembered being young here too, lungs burning and still calling one more pass.
When stomachs began to complain louder than ambition, we returned to ETCO for a hot meal — benches scraping, spoons ringing enamel. Then evening tilted toward Canaan Estate Community Hall, where ETCO Theatre took the stage and the day finished in dialogue and laughter instead of statistics, the kind of ending you remember in your feet, still tapping a rhythm from the last scene.
Born from inside
We love when activities rise from our own people — passion you can hear in voices that crack at the right line, joy that spills into the aisles. That energy shapes which departments we grow next, where we invest rehearsal time, and how we defend art as work, not decoration.
Backstage, someone stitched a tear in a costume with fishing line — tough, invisible, patient. Out front, the audience forgot to check their phones for whole minutes.
If you want to sponsor theatre props or transport for the next show, talk to us — the curtain goes up because someone pays for the diesel and the daring.
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.