Community Organized Groups – Zero Hunger Initiative

Hope Raisers Initiative, a community-based initiative that was established in 2005 to serve the Korogocho slums in Nairobi. The initiative is structured to offer mentorship and outreach programs to children and the youth living in informal settlements. The approaches used by the group were digital storytelling, graffiti and Participatory Geographical Information Systems (PGIS) in Korogocho slums.

Household of Love Center (HOLC) is a faith-based organization whose mandate is to alleviate poverty, promote peace, access to education, welfare services and mitigate impact of drug and alcohol abuse. HOLC promotes the building of strong families and a strong society through building the capacity of communities in urban areas, informal settlements and the counties, to cope with and overcome social, economic, mental, emotional and other family challenges, and thus formulate the accomplish realistic dreams. HOLC had its activities in Kibera and Korogocho slums and engaged the communities through communities through community dialogues including soup kitchen dialogue, photovoice, social media and digital storytelling workshop.

Koch FM founded in 2006, is registered as a Community Based Organization based in Korogocho. Its mission is to provide a platform for the community to address their issues through information sharing, education and communication with an aim to promote social, political and economic well-being of the Korogocho community and the general listenership. This is done through the radio programmes and the community conversation forums. Koch FM engaged communities in Korogocho slum through radio skits, a series of kikao cha jamii (community dialogue forums), social media and live radio shows.

Slum TV is a Community Media Organization, registered as a Trust founded in 2006. Its mandate is to document the lives of people in informal settlement with a mission of utilization of audio visual media as a tool for self-representation for grassroots communities with the aim of addressing priority issue in the communities in Kenya through educative, informative and entertaining film (audiovisual) content. This is done through 3 programs: Film and Radio Training; Film production; Film dissemination through regular open air and indoor screenings and partnering with like-minded organizations to run and participate in exchange programs. Slum TV engaged the Mathare slum community through community dialogue, photography, film and open air screening and exhibitions.

Precise Consultants is a registered community-based organization (CBO) that offers various services including data collection, entry, analysis, consultancy, and monitoring and evaluation services. The methodologies Precise Consultants uses are majorly based on the capacity to work with clients in efforts to deliver effective solutions to them. The team used participatory and educative theatre and magnet theatre to engage the Soweto-Kayole slums community in schools, public events and the open air.

Ruben Centre is a faith-based organization striving for an empowered and just Mukuru slums community by providing quality education, health, financial and social services to children and families in Mukuru community. The Ruben Centre is a non-profit, charity organization run by the Christian Brothers African Province. It offers educational, health and community development programs to the Mukuru residents. Ruben Center engaged Mukuru Kwa Ruben, Kwa Njenga and Viwandani slum community through graffiti, songs, poems/drama, wall murals, live radio shows, community dialogue and open air events.

Slums Information Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC) is a youth, children and women communication project implementing developmental projects in three major Urban slums of Nairobi Kenya -Pumwani, Kibera and Mukuru Kwa Njenga communities. The Organization activities are geared towards amplifying the voice of the voiceless and empowering societies, in a bid to restore human dignity. As an organization we believe in the slogan “community problems need community solutions” SIDAREC activities are anchored under 5 core pillars namely education, reproductive health programs, social enterprise, ICT and a community radio (Ghetto FM) which is the advocacy wing of the organization. During the Implementation of the Public engagement project on the Right to Food with support from African Population Health and Research Center(APHRC). SIDAREC engaged the communities living in Pumwani and Mukuru Kwa Njenga using diverse Public engagement methodologies ; Interactive live radio talk back shows( Food security experts as guests In the show), Human library (Human experts on Food security and lawyers as live resource persons during community dialogues), Focus Group Discussions with communities, Engaged High school students through debate on thematic topics on Food security and Photovoice and Exhibition (“My photo my story my voice” ;participants shared with others their lived experiences at home on Food security to bring realities through photos to the public and policy makers to spur change) and Digital story telling of Persons abled differently on Right to Food.

Mum, Baby & Love is a registered Trust in Kenya that aims at helping mums cope with motherhood. Our goal is to build a community of mums who help each other have a fulfilling motherhood through a network of support groups. We especially target new mums with a focus on a holistic approach encompassing improved maternal mental health resulting in fewer cases of postpartum depression, physical well being and socioeconomic support. For the right to food project, we used photovoice as our participatory engagement method of research to understand what challenges communities face in accessing good, healthy and nutritious food and the solutions they proposed. The results were a series of pictures and a focus group discussion that gave various recommendations. The photovoice activity was carried out in Kibera, Dandora, Korogocho and Mukuru kwa Ruben.

The Runda Youth Sports Association (RYSA) is a non-profit community-based organisation registered in Kenya Nairobi Westland area and has been operating in the urban slum areas of Githogoro and Mji wa Huruma slums in Nairobi. Our mission is to improve the quality of life and life opportunities for young people living in the two informal settlements. RYSA’s activities are organised around three core and interlinked programmes that is Sports, Education and Community Service. In this project, we aimed to explore the views and experiences of Githogoro and Mji wa Huruma residents in relation to food security. Githogoro and Mji wa Huruma are peri-urban slums within Westlands constituency in Nairobi County. The project involved a people-driven approach, where residents shared their experiences and views around producing, accessing and consuming food availability, and their understanding of the concept of ‘right to food’. We elicited these experiences and views by facilitating four photovoice and four community dialogue sessions. Participants were drawn from different areas of Githogoro and Mji wa Huruma and included groups of young people, elderly residents (>58yrs) and young mothers. A total of 120 individuals participated in the photovoice and community dialogue sessions.

Mwengenye Lifestyle CBO (ML-CBO) is a youth-led not for profit organization in Njiru community whose mission is to address various social challenges facing urban communities and society. ML-CBO employs the Asset Based Community Development Model to solve social challenges. We have established an urban agriculture resource and information center to capacity build our community on urban agriculture
During the Right to Food project, we used Graffiti and Digital Story-telling participatory methodologies to get food experiences of residents of Shiranga, MailiSaba and Mwengenye slums. The results were three graffiti arts in different parts of the community and three digital stories.

Gifted Community Center is a youth led community-based organization formed for and led by youth with disabilities in the Kibera informal settlement- embedding ‘nothing for us without us’ in our work. GCC works with all types of disabilities and gender. Our programs entail economic empowerment and employability, research and outreach, education and information and health. In all our programs and projects, we work for and with persons with disabilities and their caregivers in Kibera, parts of Rongai (some PWDs reside in Rongai) and Kawangware. GCC has ambassadors in different counties who are youth with disabilities and who help us to locate youth with disabilities not from within Kibera but also from different counties. For the right to food project, we deployed community dialogue and human library methodologies that were considerate of the needs of PWDs. The methodologies were expected to empower the participants on food and nutrition security concepts and to contribute to enhance awareness of community members and the public on lived experiences of PWDS of Kibera on food security.

Christian Best camps of Kenya, is a registered faith based organization working in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Christian Best Camps of Kenya was founded in 2010 to provide an opportunity for urban youth to encounter Christ through its leadership and discipleship programs. Currently the organization has a community centre in Mugumoini offering the following services; a basketball academy, feeding program for children and the local schools, a community library, community hall, a children’s playing ground and a sanitary pads center. On the Right to food project Phase 2. CBCK had its activities in Kibra slums focusing on Linda, Silanga and Undugu villages. The organization used the following methodologies: Graffiti installation, fish bowl discussions, talking mask initiative and photo elicitation.

Beulah organization is a community based self-help youth group which started as a merry-go-round from a group of youths who had a common idea and passion for financial freedom and sustainability for improved livelihood. Our headquarters are based in Nairobi. We are involved in a series of activities in matters affecting the community at large persons with disabilities and supporting vulnerable families. We empower the community on important areas such as education, health and food security, early marriages, drugs, poverty eradication among others and also act upon them, through various hands on activities that complement the mission of our group. Our main areas of operation are; Youth empowerment through Awareness and use Trainer of Trainee concept, businesses such as; Beadwork, Farming, Cyber- café, Plastic and Waste management, Soap and Detergent making, Hawking and Chips vending, Software programming and basic IT skills teaching among others.

CITY OF KISUMU URBAN AREAS ASSOCIATION (CKUAA) is a Non-Religious, Non-Political and Not-For-Profit making welfare organization whose mission is to transform the City of Kisumu, through collaborative partnership, into a better place to live, work and visit. CKUAA employed Digital Story Telling and Participatory Geographical Information System (PGIS) to share the food stories in Nyalenda, Manyatta, Obunga/Nyawita and Kaloleni/Nubian/Manyatta Arabs informal settlements in the City of Kisumu under the RIGHT TO FOOD PROJECT II: EVIDENCE TO ACTION