The Power of Community is

Impact

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Kenya Works creates lasting opportunities for women and children throughout Kenya that end poverty & create a sustainable future for all.

 

Our theory of change is to address root causes of poverty for Kenya's women and their children providing solutions to the core issues of period poverty and human rights barriers, while partnering with community centers that provide paths out of urban poverty through education, nutrition and economic development.

 

We are a US-based 501(c)3 with deep roots in Kenyan communities, supporting change from within the country in the framework of the UN 2030 Agenda and Kenya's Vision 2030 Plan.

 

Statement of Impact  |  2018

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Makini Pad Initiative: A Full Cycle of Opportunity
Employing women while empowering girls to stay in school and stay healthy
 

In 2018, Kenya Works partnered with schools and women’s groups, providing 20,000 girls throughout Kenya with our Makini Pad. Our reusable, eco-friendly Makini Pad is giving girls a safe and effective way to manage their periods. In Kenya, girls miss an average of 4.9 days of school each month because they lack sanitary products for periods. Through the Makini Pad program, we help girls stay in school, while building their self esteem.

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Kenya’s HIV/AIDS rate among adults is 6.3 percent versus 0.6 percent in the United States. In combination with the Makini Pad delivery, Kenya Works educators go into the schools and provide educational materials focusing on puberty, hygiene, risky behavior, HIV/AIDS, and building positive self esteem--curriculum not mandated in Kenyan schools. Last year, we reached 50,000 girls with this life-changing and life-saving information.

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The Makini Pad is designed and produced for Kenyan women by Kenyan women. The Kenya Works Makini Pad production line is employing 30 Kenyans with a living wage which is bringing financial security and stability to their families, while providing a meaningful revenue stream to the VICODEC facility, fueling development of a sustainable market.

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• 20,000 Makini Pads were produced and distributed to Kenyan girls who would otherwise not have sanitary pads. This represents a nearly 20% growth rate from the 2017 distribution of 17,000.

• This initiative provides employment to 30 women on the VICODEC campus, and an excellent, growing revenue stream for the organization.

• Kenya Works expanded Makini Pad distribution into 5 new counties, reaching ever more girls without access to menstrual hygiene products and puberty/HIV education.

 

Kenya Works Community Works: Accelerating Human Rights
Advancing Gender Equality from the Ground Up

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Kenya’s constitution passed in 2010 created landmark legal protections for women and girls providing for equal educational opportunity and outlawing harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage. Legal protections have not fully translated to cultural practices, and there is still widespread disparity across the spectrum of leadership roles, economic advancement and gender-based violence. 

 

Kenya Works Community Works forums are intensive behavior-change workshops to reduce and ultimately eradicate harmful cultural practices by identifying gaps in information, developing a baseline of attitude and working toward attitudinal shifts. The training is developed for community leaders who then bring the work home to their communities. 

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In 2018 organic demand for these sessions continued to grow dramatically. In addition to 4 planned sessions, 2 more were added, as well as a 1-day session for girls on anti-FGM. To date, Kenya Works Community Works has now trained 1164 community leaders from around Kenya, and is currently advancing this program by implementing a long-term attitudinal shift study to quantify long-term change as a result of this work.

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• Workshops Program expanded from 4 (2017) to 6 annual sessions due to high demand and positive response for these workshops.

• To date, Kenya Works has trained 1164 community leaders across 9 different counties

• Leaders in turn take the training out to their communities and further the reach and impact 

• Held a December Anti-FGM (female genital mutilation) Awareness workshop for girls with 242 in attendance. Workshop put girls at the forefront of fighting for zero tolerance of FGM.

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Kenya Works Education Works:

Paving Paths out of Poverty

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At least 46 percent of Kenyans live below the poverty line, making it impossible for many families to afford school fees for both private and public secondary schools, along with uniform fees, school supplies and basic nutrition. As such, 58% of Kenyan students do not graduate from high school.

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Schools are vastly underfunded resulting in large class size, lack of materials and dilapidated learning environments. We have partnered with numerous public and private institutions improving environments for children to be safe, learn and thrive. 

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Finally, nutrition continues to plague poverty-stricken children, making it impossible to expect quality educational progress.

Kenya Works is addressing these need by providing comprehensive educational foundations to help kids pave their paths out of poverty, including investment in sponsorships, school buildings & infrastructure and school feeding programs.

Student Sponsorship​​

• 310 Kenya Works sponsored students
  • 14 students graduated to secondary school (high school), passing their KCPE exam​
  • 100 % successfully moved to their next grade level
  • All received personal social work guidance in being matched to a school, receiving school uniforms, school supplies and other family psycho-social support to ensure school success
• 80 students and adult-learners have completed computer training at KW-supported ICT center serving unmet community need 

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Buildings & Water Tanks

• Kenya Works partnered with Oloomayiana, a pastoral Maassai community and school suffering from extreme drought during extended dry seasons of past several years 

  • Constructed 110,000 ltrs water tank. 

  • Upper-deck room leveraging the water tank as foundation. Room serves as community center and class room.

  • Extended school with new class room that will hold up to 50 students.

• Nakeel Primary School: Roof repair project

• Kotanje Pre-School: Painted entire school on a facility built by Kenya Works in 2014. 

• Nutrition / Feeding Program: Lack of reliable, healthy meals continues to plague students in Kenya. In 2018 we grew our investment for in-school feeding programs by over 30%, now reaching 4548 students with daily nutrition.

  • NEW: KW launched a new feeding program at Baba Gustone’s Special School in Homabay to provide 200 special needs students a daily nutritious meal

  • NEW: Kenya Works has joined with MCEDO Beijing school in Nairobi's Methare slum to provide a daily meal for 503 students 

  • EXISTING FEEDING PROGRAM PARTNERS: 

    • VICODEC: 2925 students receive a daily meal

    • MIALE 520 students receive a daily meal

    • TAPA Preschool: 400 students receive a daily meal

 

Kenya Works Partnership Works:
We are continuing to invest in long-term partnerships with Kenyan community-based organizations to support the work of Kenyans deeply committed to brightening Kenya's future.

Miale ya Tumaini:

Miale ya Tumaini opened its doors in 2014 as a feeding center for the hungry and impoverished children in the Kware Slums. Kenya Works is its primary funding partner, and the two organizations work closely to develop the center as it addresses a growing number of the community’s deep needs. 

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MyT’s founding principal is to provide psycho-social support to the community in combination with nutrition and a link to school partnerships to ensure that its member children are actively attending and thriving at school. In addition, MyT reaches parents providing guidance on helping their children thrive and build paths out of poverty, building community and self esteem in the process.

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In 2018, MyT opened an emergency shelter that houses up to 42 women and children to provide a safe harbor from the streets. Programs are continuing to grow, and a new feeding location is underway in 2019.

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• Emergency Shelter: Kenya Works built and furnished this facility in 2018

  • Shelter is often at capacity with up to 42 children having a safe place to stay on any given night.

  • The shelter serves as both emergency lodging and for extended intervention issues such as real cases of a 12-year-old mother of a 13-month-old baby, and a child forced to miss school as the parent insisted they earn money selling sweets in the street. 

• Feeding Program:

  • Averaging 520 daily meals; expanding effort to satellite location in Kibera Slums in 2019 to feed an additional community of children

• Counseling

  • 418 parents and students underwent counseling in 2018. The primary goal of these sessions is to support psycho-social growth out of the streets to excel in school and society

  • Counseling in schools and mentorship continues to be a cornerstone of our connection to students' at school and the broader Kware community.

TAPA:

TAPA provides a much-needed early-childhood program for the children of Kibera Slums—one of the world’s largest slums. In addition to providing a safe, happy learning environment, TAPA also provides daily nutrition for its students, as well as an evening meal for current and past students. In addition to nutrition, TAPA provides school supplies, uniforms and financial stipends to its graduates to help ensure continued school success. As a means of employing impoverished parents in the community, and of creating reliable revenue generation to offset expenses, TAPA has a successful school uniform business on sight, including high-value embroidery and knitting equipment that provides the social good business a significant competitive advantage.

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• Students

  • 100 current day students, preschool to (what age?)

  • Growing to 130 with new academic year Jan 2019

• Employment

  • 5 teachers, growing to 7 in 2019

  • 1 cook, 1 administrator, and 1 cleaner 

  • 17 employees in our workshop-- 5 permanent while the others are casuals

    • Uniforms business provides employment to poor parents, while providing a revenue source for the school, funding approximately 50% of annual budget. 

• Once a TAPA member, always a TAPA member

  • 300 + children have graduated from TAPA, and are in different levels in primary schools continue to benefit from our program with

    • new set of uniforms every school year

    • school supplies every term

    • evening dinner 

  • 7 out of 8 TAPA children who did class 8 national exams are joining high school, and 1 is repeating class 8. 

  • TAPA is giving cash of $100 USD  to each parent and guardian to enable them take these children to high school. 

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