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The problem of waste
Waste

The problem of waste

Around the world, informal settlements face severe environmental and health consequences from ineffective household waste management. In Kisumu, residents are transforming this waste for good.

Telling stories, sharing solutions

Whether a challenge is talked about at all, how it is discussed, and whose voices are heard can really have an impact on what happens next. Our project trains local journalists to write better about how waste affects Kisumu's environment and health. Young people who live in the most affected neighbourhoods are working with them, learning how to powerfully tell their own stories and share their communities' ideas and solutions. Watch our work in progress here

In March 2021 women from four of Kisumu's informal settlements gathered to share their solutions for managing waste in their neighbourhoods. This film tells the story of Wilkeister, a 65-year old business woman from settlement Manyatta A and member of the Flamingo Jikaze Women Group, which brings mothers together 'so they can make their lives better'. Wilkeister designs bags, mats and remarkable goods using discarded objects, weaving plastic sacs with needles fashioned from broken umbrellas. For the mothers, it has become a significant source of income where before little existed. The collective is now sharing their stories with the women of other settlements, and hopes to expand their markets to improve all of these neighbourhoods, where unemployment is high.