Mathare Slum Community Center
Donation protected
Community Transformers is a nonprofit organization based in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Its primary goal is to support members of the community in the daily challenges they face. It focuses on three main areas: aid and counsel for people living with HIV and AIDS, housing for orphans and vulnerable children, and empowerment of youths through education.
Since it’s founding, Community Transformers has become an indispensable actor in the Mathare slum, but its success can be traced back to the humblest of origins. When CT founders Nick Omondi and Charles Alulu began teaching homeless children in their spare time early in 2005, their goal was not to start a formal organization, but simply to provide a service to their neighbors out of the goodness of their hearts. However, as news of their generosity spread, more families sought them out, and their role expanded to the empowerment of their community as a whole. In addition to mentoring, housing and feeding children, Nick and Charles took on the responsibilities of enabling dozens of parents to care for their families while battling extreme poverty and terminal illness. Soon, the needs of their clients outgrew the resources that the two men could provide, so they reached out to other influential community members, and formally registered Community Transformers as a nonprofit organization in July 2006.
Today, Community Transformers is pleased to announce its latest initiative that will be carried out in the coming months. After working extensively with our clients, an investment opportunity with much potential has become evident. For some time now, those of us working with CT have been in contact with another small grassroots organization that specializes in providing single mothers with income-generating opportunities. Its members meet each week to make soap and beads to be sold on the street, allowing each woman to bring home a bit of extra cash for food and education for their children. While this group has had some success in the short run, their profits are variable, as they do not have a secure location to meet, and store their products in the slum, making their activities extremely difficult to organize.
After working with these women, it has become clear that the issues with their organization are not due to a lack of motivation or knowledge, but rather a lack of capital resources. The leaders of the group are determined, creative, and extremely knowledgeable of the challenges associated with life in the slum. With this in mind, we have decided that the leaders of the group, along side Community Transformers staff members, will be more than capable of sustaining, if not, expanding their previous operation if they can acquire an investment to get them started.
We believe that the best way to help these women, and the community they serve, would be to construct a community center that will:
1. Provide a safe and secure location to hold their meetings, carry out their current businesses (soap making, knitting, and bead making) and to store their products.
2. Serve as a child care center during the week, allowing parents more time to take jobs and join the labor force.
3. Be rented out to other individuals or groups in the slum who need a safe location to work on their own ideas.
Essentially, this building will function as a community center that creates income for the women’s group while simultaneously providing vital services to the surrounding community. The profits that are made at this community center will be administered by Community Transformers for the benefit of the women’s group, and will eventually be used to start a microfinance to help small business startups throughout the Mathare Slum.
The cost of a plot of land and construction of the community center are estimated to be $6,000. This is no small sum of money, so we hope that you will consider donating to our cause. No matter what the amount is, anything we can get will go a long way in Mathare. When we reach our goal of $6,000, funds will be deposited into my personal account in Devon, Pennsylvania, and wire transferred into a Nairobi account administered by the Community Transformers staff. We will be posting pictures and videos of the community center as soon as construction begins.
After working with Community Transformers as interns for the past summer, we are all extremely passionate about our cause. We have been working on this project for some time now, and are thrilled at the prospects of it becoming a reality. This community center has the potential to save and improve a lot of lives down the road, so once it is complete, we will continue to work tirelessly towards its maintenance and expansion.
Kind Regards,
Jared Ingersoll, Victoria Suarez Rubio, and the Community Transformers staff
Since it’s founding, Community Transformers has become an indispensable actor in the Mathare slum, but its success can be traced back to the humblest of origins. When CT founders Nick Omondi and Charles Alulu began teaching homeless children in their spare time early in 2005, their goal was not to start a formal organization, but simply to provide a service to their neighbors out of the goodness of their hearts. However, as news of their generosity spread, more families sought them out, and their role expanded to the empowerment of their community as a whole. In addition to mentoring, housing and feeding children, Nick and Charles took on the responsibilities of enabling dozens of parents to care for their families while battling extreme poverty and terminal illness. Soon, the needs of their clients outgrew the resources that the two men could provide, so they reached out to other influential community members, and formally registered Community Transformers as a nonprofit organization in July 2006.
Today, Community Transformers is pleased to announce its latest initiative that will be carried out in the coming months. After working extensively with our clients, an investment opportunity with much potential has become evident. For some time now, those of us working with CT have been in contact with another small grassroots organization that specializes in providing single mothers with income-generating opportunities. Its members meet each week to make soap and beads to be sold on the street, allowing each woman to bring home a bit of extra cash for food and education for their children. While this group has had some success in the short run, their profits are variable, as they do not have a secure location to meet, and store their products in the slum, making their activities extremely difficult to organize.
After working with these women, it has become clear that the issues with their organization are not due to a lack of motivation or knowledge, but rather a lack of capital resources. The leaders of the group are determined, creative, and extremely knowledgeable of the challenges associated with life in the slum. With this in mind, we have decided that the leaders of the group, along side Community Transformers staff members, will be more than capable of sustaining, if not, expanding their previous operation if they can acquire an investment to get them started.
We believe that the best way to help these women, and the community they serve, would be to construct a community center that will:
1. Provide a safe and secure location to hold their meetings, carry out their current businesses (soap making, knitting, and bead making) and to store their products.
2. Serve as a child care center during the week, allowing parents more time to take jobs and join the labor force.
3. Be rented out to other individuals or groups in the slum who need a safe location to work on their own ideas.
Essentially, this building will function as a community center that creates income for the women’s group while simultaneously providing vital services to the surrounding community. The profits that are made at this community center will be administered by Community Transformers for the benefit of the women’s group, and will eventually be used to start a microfinance to help small business startups throughout the Mathare Slum.
The cost of a plot of land and construction of the community center are estimated to be $6,000. This is no small sum of money, so we hope that you will consider donating to our cause. No matter what the amount is, anything we can get will go a long way in Mathare. When we reach our goal of $6,000, funds will be deposited into my personal account in Devon, Pennsylvania, and wire transferred into a Nairobi account administered by the Community Transformers staff. We will be posting pictures and videos of the community center as soon as construction begins.
After working with Community Transformers as interns for the past summer, we are all extremely passionate about our cause. We have been working on this project for some time now, and are thrilled at the prospects of it becoming a reality. This community center has the potential to save and improve a lot of lives down the road, so once it is complete, we will continue to work tirelessly towards its maintenance and expansion.
Kind Regards,
Jared Ingersoll, Victoria Suarez Rubio, and the Community Transformers staff
Organizer
Community Transformers
Organizer
Devon, PA
