Jijenge Sanitation Youth Group is Self-help Group registered by the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Development in Nyeri District. This group has been in operation for six months and has 82 members who are scavengers (Mostly Mature street children with street families) and poor members of the society. They specialize in collecting of recyclables which include plastics, papers, bones, metal,
animal feed which they sell for an income. The group is managed by a management team whose duty is to empower group members by enabling them befit fully from their resources. This is by assisting them bring their products together and sell them directly to the industries cutting the middle men, negotiate with local authorities to recognize them as stake holders in garbage management, rehabilitate them, look after their welfare and also assist them, save, invest and access credit facilities. VISION
“To enable poor members of the society get financial freedom through Solid Waste Management.”
MISSION
Be the most effective poverty eradication initiative in Kenya that empowers, street children and low income earners create wealth and improve their lives through solid waste management. OBJECTIVES
• Change attitudes and promote solid waste management as a respectable sector.
• Provide technical, entrepreneurial and related skills to manage solid waste.
• Improve the living and working conditions, particularly for the street children and street families by improving their capacity to deliver basic solid waste management services.
• Increase employment opportunities and higher income through solid waste management services.
• Rehabilitate and look after the welfare of the workers in solid waste management.
• Promote the participation of the manufactures in assisting the management of waste produced by their used products. These industries include, steel, paper, plastic industries etc. Ironically, the gathers (scavengers) of these products are the poorest in the communities. If these community members were empowered, they would end up owning the recycling industries. Due to the fact that the group members are on rehabilitation, getting them more value for their products may not necessarily be empowering them. It may also mean that they will afford and consume more drugs and alcohol. To avoid this, when group members present their collection, they will get a part payment (the same amount that they receive from the middle men). The products will later be sold to the industries. The full amount will be banked and divided to the members appropriately at the end of the month. The management will also assist members manage their finances. This will be by paying their house rent, educating their children and also save. The savings will assist group member’s start other income generating activities which will include tree nurseries, rearing of livestock e.g. Rabbits, Goats, Pigs, Chicken and eventually open recycling factories. CHALLENGES
Drug Abuse
Street children abuse drugs to run away from reality and the most practical way of tackling drug abuse is by changing the reality in showing concerned by giving them hope and empowering these unfortunate members of the society. Drug abuse is a reaction – we tackle the action. Crimes
When joining the group, the members give their full information and a passport photo is taken. This reduces the chances of the members involving themselves in criminal activities. By accruing dust coats the members will be easily identified. Astonishingly 30% of the people who work in the dump are intelligent members of the society and they have confessed that they use the trade as a camouflage to hide after collation with the law enforcers. I want to request for negotiations with the probation office towards coming up an agreement where the outlaws will write statements of their crimes and the relevant authorities will decide whether to assist by making them serve a non custodian sentence and committed to community service. This will greatly increase their productivity. Street Families
Most of the group members live in the streets but eventually this will change as the project continues because houses and school fees will be paid by the management. and AIDS
This has been a big challenge to the group members since they are at a high risk. The formation of the group has put a mechanism in place that will give accuses to relevant authorities to educate, test and assist the infected and affected members. National I.D.s
This has been a big challenge but after forming the group we were promised by the authorities that they will assist us as a group to acquire identification for those without. This will be motivated by the fact that members have to open a bank account to benefit fully from the project. Police Harassment
This has really gone down because the relevant authorities are aware of our activities and the members are not harassed when they produce their group identification. This has lead to many more members joining the group. New Members Enrolment
We have stopped enrolling new members since we have not received any funding to proceed with our projects. This was to avert the anxiety or uncertainty within the members. We are sure more members will get on board once the project has fully been implemented.
