Young AIDS Victim Brings Hope to Kenya's Slums - Joy Needs Our Help

By Evanson Njeru, Founder/Exec. Director, COMPASSION CBO

Compassion for Joy

Compassion CBO has been on the frontline when it comes to fighting HIV/AIDS in the Nairobi slums and its environs since 2005. It’s in one of the slums at Githogoro where mother-to-child transmission is very high and as a result, many children are living with HIV/AIDS.

One girl has borne the brunt of the pandemic and has come out strongly to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS to other children in many public arenas. For example, on World Aids Day 2012, Joy recited a poem about HIV/AIDS in an open air public meeting; she was at that time age 7. Her feeble body said it all.

Her name depicts life full of joy, but she has not known joy since she was born.

In the Slums of Nairobi – Women’s Empowerment is Progress for All

By Evanson Njeru, Founder/Exec. Director, Compassion CBO

International Women's Day

With International Women's Day on March 8 being celebrated by us and Safe World For Women, with the theme of 'Women's Empowerment is Progress for All', we would like to appeal to our well-wishers to help women access grants and come to the rescue of these honorable ladies languishing in poverty.

Many of them are trained and are saving little by little, but it takes three to four years before they can save enough to start a small business. Sometimes other issues arise making them lose their savings, such as drought, disease, or other factors.

Those who are trained by us and get some grants immediately live a successful story.

Compassion CBO - Helping Children Heal After Westgate Terror Attack

On 21^st September 2013 at around 12:55 pm, Westgate Mall in Westland, Nairobi, Kenya came under scathing attack by Al-Shabaab terrorists.

Faith Muiruri, age 10, was taking part in a cooking competition on the top of the mall when gunmen entered and started shooting. She lay down and crawled into a cupboard where she hid.

Kenya: Cutting the Ribbon - Working to End FGM in Tharaka Nithi

'Rite of Passage'

Almost all the 42 Kenyan tribes practice Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)¹ for teenage girls,

Culturally, FGM is coveted as a 'rite of passage' from childhood to adulthood and every tribe has its own ways of performing the practices.

Despite the enactment of the prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011², the practice is very alive in Tharaka Districts of Nithi County in Kenya – mostly South District (Igambangombe) and in both North and South Tharaka Districts. Girls as young as 7 years old of age are circumcised.

In those areas, the culture is most important for shunning circumcision through social rejection.

Nairobi: The Grandmothers Who Support Orphans Through Small Animal Farming

Nairobi's Slums

Kenya’s capital city Nairobi has some of the most dense unsanitary and insecure slums in the world.

Almost half of the city’s population lives in over 100 slums and squatter settlements with in the city with little or inadequate access to safe water and sanitation. Housing conditions in slums are deplorable and most residents have no form of secure tenure.

The UN estimates that Nairobi has the fastest population growth rate per annum on the continent. There are two counties that are under Nairobi metropolitan which are categorized as arid areas.

About 65 percent of the urban population live in slums. Those slums occupy only five percent of the capital’s total land area. They are more congested than any informal settlement in this part of the world, hosting 1,177 people per acre in grim 10*10 feet’s sacks.

Over recent years, Compassion CBO has initiated projects like pig keeping, pawpaw (papaya tree) farming, and sweet potatoes, within the Nairobi metropolitan area.

Work begins on new school buildings

Work has started on new school buildings for Compassion CBO, including a new kitchen and cafeteria.