Background and objectives:
Dallas village, in Embu District, has a population of more than 18,000 residents, the majority of them Muslims. The settlement has most of the characteristics of urban informal settlements. As in Kibera or Mukuru in Nairobi, the residents live in squalid conditions where settlement is highly congested. They occupy tiny semi-permanent structures which house numbers far beyond their capacity. The project aims at addressing these problems through an integrated process that will result in an overall improvement of living standards of the community. The core focus of the project is handling the sanitation issues, flooding control and livelihood programmes aimed at poverty alleviation.
Activities:
The man activities include:
- Developing sustainable strategies to address the basic urban services and environmental challenges through a community-led participatory planning process.
- Formation and strengthening of self help groups, community mobilization and training, development of micro credit structures, and strategic visioning to help the community develop long term plans.
- Identifying problems, assessing and selecting alternative solutions in order to develop possible solutions and strategies to achieve a shared vision.
- Strengthening the capacity of youth and women groups in the use of appropriate building technologies.
- Documenting the overall project experience in order to capture good practices, lessons learnt, information, and methodologies for possible replication and results-based management.
Results:
The main results have been:
- Dallas Community Organization reconstituted with new management committee and youth and women’s representation.
- Links established with local, national, governmental and public sector partners.
- Training programme conducted with 249 participants.
- Governance structures improved through development of a new constitution and opening of a bank account.
- Mobilization and profiling of women and youth groups within Dallas community.
- Installation of a new loaning system.
- Registration and organization of savings groups.
- At least 30 loan committees constituted.
- Total of 13 groups received funding for micro-credit facilities.
