Week 4 of 2024
Week four felt like a kitchen and a classroom sharing the same roof. Visitors came with more than donations—they brought lessons: how to speak up, how to plan a week, how to care for money and health in ways that fit real Kibera life, not textbook advice that assumes you have spare rooms and steady salaries.
Then we ate together. There is something about a shared meal after learning—it turns advice into friendship. The children laughed at someone’s joke; an elder nodded at a point about budgeting; a volunteer washed hands beside a teenager who usually keeps to himself.
The feeding programme worked the way it should: hunger addressed, skills added, dignity kept in the room. Smiles at the end were not performance—they were relief, the kind that shows in shoulders dropping and breath going deeper.
If you missed that Saturday, you missed a good one. There will be another—and we will keep building weeks like this, one honest plate at a time, because a child who learns while they eat carries two kinds of strength home.
We are already looking ahead: more guests, more skills, more Saturdays where the lesson before lunch is practical enough to use on Monday—budgeting when the hustle is uneven, hygiene when water is shared, courage when someone tries to shame you for needing help.
Week four reminded us why we keep both parts—learning and lunch—in the same morning: a child who is heard while they eat carries the conversation home.
That is the week we want to repeat—useful talk, honest food, and the quiet pride of leaving no one standing at the back hungry and unheard.
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.