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GOAL in Kenya
GOAL began to support humanitarian and development initiatives in Kenya om 1992. The current GOAL Kenya programme has offices in three locations: Nairobi, Mutomo, and Nakuru.
The Nairobi programme comprises of six interrelated projects that target children and youth in difficult circumstances in the Nairobi slums. Its overall objective is to empower vulnerable children and youth in difficult circumstances to enjoy their rights and fulfil their potential for sustainable well-being.
Pat Cash Centre: Based in the Mukuru slum of Nairobi, the Pat Cash Centre houses several GOAL projects focused on education for slum dwellers. Primarily, the Community Children’s Education Project provides accelerated non-formal education to children between 7-18 years who have dropped out of school. Two hundred and fifty children participate in the one-year programme and are prepared to re-join the government’s free primary education system or vocational training programmes at the end of the year. In addition, a mobile school unit engages street children and youth living on the streets and slums and at the Nairobi dump site in creative, innovative, informal learning in their community. Up to 30 teenage mothers attend life and business skills training at the Pat Cash Centre to enable them start up their own income generating initiatives. GOAL also houses a community resource centre in the Pat Cash Centre, which both students and adults use for a variety of educational activities. In partnership with Make a Better World- Kenya (MABWOK), a local NGO, GOAL offers adult literacy classes to illiterate adults in the slums with support from the Ministry of Education’s Adult Literacy Department.
Kiltimagh Rescue Centre: The KRC, based in Riuru just outside of Nairobi, provides temporary residential care for any child in urgent need of immediate protection. The project provides refuge to children who have left vulnerable situations including physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, neglect and gender based violence. The centre offers psychological, medical, legal and social support to the children while in its care, eventually placing the children in safer environments. The first priority is to return the child to its family, but in some situations children are placed in government institutions for long term care.
Vocational Skills Training Project: The VSTP targets street and slum youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in the slum areas of eastern Nairobi. The centre provides vocational skills training and apprenticeship in carpentry, hairdressing and catering. Over 100 youth participate in the one-year programme which includes the skills training, life skills, social work support, an apprenticeship, and business skills. GOAL supports each graduate to either start up their own businesses or to seek employment. In partnership with the Mukuru Skills Development Project, GOAL supports a second vocations skills training centre that serves the Mukuru area and trains youth in carpentry and hairdressing.
Community Health Project: The CHP is based from a bus that has been converted into a mobile health unit. The CHP provides primary health care to children and youth in institutions of special care and protection and to women and children from the surrounding communities. As well as providing primary health care, the CHP leads prevention and awareness training to its target groups. In addition, the CHP also provides support to GOAL’s beneficiaries in the Pat Cash Centre, the Kiltimagh Rescue Centre, and the VSTP. The CHP works closely with the HIV and AIDS Education and Care project in its outreach activities.
HIV and AIDS Education and Care Project: GOAL’s work in HIV and AIDS focuses on prevention and control of the spread of HIV/AIDS among street and slum children and youth. The project uses Behaviour Change Communication tools to teach the project’s beneficiaries about HIV, and it also actively refers patients for care and treatment services to other service providers. The project also supports its local partner WOFAK- Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya- in providing care and support to People Living with HIV and AIDS.
Environmental Health Project: Working in partnership with a local partner, Umande Trust, the first phase of this project is to construct community latrine blocks in the Nairobi slums where GOAL operates its other projects. GOAL believes that by providing more holistic support to its target group means that all activities will have a bigger impact. In this case, by providing beneficiaries with clean water and sanitation facilities, the health, education and HIV prevention interventions will have a bigger impact. GOAL and Umande Trust are conducting a detailed needs assessment to identify the environmental health priorities they will address in phase two.
From Mutomo, GOAL implements two projects in partnership with the Diocese of Kitui. Mutomo is one of the driest parts of Kenya, and rainfall is regularly below the minimum needed. The programme improves the standard of living of vulnerable communities by helping communities harvest rainfall and reach water and by improving the conditions in the local schools. The two projects are:
Water Provision Project: The water programme makes water more available to communities through the construction of four types of water harvesting mechanisms: hand dug wells, sand storage dams, earth dams, and water catchment tanks. These projects increase the proximity of water for very needy communities. When the government declares a drought, the Diocese of Kitui delivers water by water trucks purchased by GOAL.
Schools and Sanitation Project: GOAL is currently constructing 63 new classrooms and 420 latrines for primary schools in Mutomo District. These schools have very basic facilities, and in some cases, structures are so dangerous that students have to study outside rather than in the classroom. GOAL has also provided desks and benches for the students and teachers at the request of the Ministry of Education. The project provides 120 hand washing stations at the latrine blocks, along with training on basic hygiene around latrines and the importance of hand washing.
GOAL is committed to responding to any emergency. Therefore, when violence broke out in Kenya after the election in December 2007, GOAL responded. From Nakuru, GOAL has been providing support to the victims of the violence through different interventions.
Distribution of Non-Food Items: GOAL provided emergency relief supplies to 25,000 people immediately after the onset of the emergency in Central Rift Province and Nairobi’s informal settlements. In addition, through GOAL Uganda, GOAL assisted Kenyans who fled to the border with Uganda to safety. The supplies included sanitary supplies, soap, and additional blankets to those who had lost everything.
Water and Sanitation: GOAL also improved water and sanitation facilities in camps for the displaced people and in schools affected by the crisis. As people lost their homes, many schools became camps for the displaced, and the latrines intended to serve small groups of students were not enough for the influx of displaced people. During the recovery phase, GOAL distributed seeds and fertiliser to 3,700 small scale farmers as they returned to their home communities in Central Rift Valley.
Transitional Shelter Kits: GOAL, in partnership with UNHCR, distributed 480 transitional shelter kits to families wishing to return to their homes following the violence in the South Rift Valley. GOAL assisted the elderly and female headed households to construct their homes, while those with able-bodied family members constructed theirs with new tools from GOAL.
Accolades on GOAL Kenya
‘We respect very highly the excellent work GOAL is doing in Kenya, and globally for street children.’
Dr Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF, Kenya.
GOAL to show Mary Robinson slum life in Nairobi
Media Statement, 22nd January 2007
(read
the article)
Combating poverty with 'Respect pliz!'
Conor O'Loughlin, DCU Times (Winter Edition), December 2006 (read
the article)
Slums in Nairobi : Thousands of children have been helped by GOAL in Nairobi - giving the
young ones back their childhood and the older ones a chance to make their own way as adults.
( Listen to
GOALies describe the programmes in Africa)
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