Dandora Awakening & Economic Recovery

Mr. Onyango is the Executive Director of Dandora Dumpsite Rehabilitation Group (DADREG). He holds Diploma in Information Technology from Inoorero University; Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies and Certificate in Executive Development from Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Onyango is a recipient of Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development, the Japanese Award for the Most Innovative Development Project (MIDP).Commonwealth Foundation Professional Fellowship programme; African International Achievers Award  and Johns Hopkins International in Philanthropy Fellow.

Mr. Onyango is a social entrepreneur having started the work of empowering communities through sustainable livelihood programs in 1996. Mr. Onyango has helped set up projects in agribusiness in the rural areas to support women and youth engage in modern farming to fight hunger & poverty. 

DADREG is committed to proving access to skills and providing sustainable livelihood to people living in the Dandora slums and in the Mbita Sub County.

The pandemic has shown the need to have skills and education that make people to be competitive at place of work and in the job market. Majority of the people affected highly by COVID-19 are women and young people with no skills or education that would allow them to be retained in their various posts. We at DADREG are committed to make education and vocational training accessible to the youth in and out of school, enabling them to become competitive in their chosen fields and also creators of wealth. 

DADREG is also committed to training women & youth in modern farming methods and providing land accessible to women to allow them work on their farms instead of working for others. 

DADREG is solving the following problems:

a. Lack of access to technology in the Dandora slums. While the schools have been closed and some schools especially Private ones have been providing teaching online, children from the slums have been affected severely. DADREG expect to make technology accessible to children and youth in Primary, Secondary, Vocational and Universities enabling them to catch up with their studies like the rest of their counterparts in private institutions.

b. Lack of skills: In the slums, those who have been retrenched from their places of works due to COVID-19 pandemic are people without skills or education. The effect of this has not only increased unemployment, but poverty . People without skills are always the first casualties when there are retrenchment as they cannot commit with others who have skills in their places of work, nor even in their places of their businesses.  

c. Giving support and creating opportunities for women and youth who run small & micro-enterprises that has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The effect of the COVID-19 on the lives of the poor people has shown that there is need for people to have skills for gainful employment. Even though other segment of the society have been affected as a result of this pandemic, women and young people have been the most impacted negatively by the coronavirus. 

Bridging Social & Economic Divide in Dandora Slums Post-COVID-19 Pandemic is a project that will not only provide skills to the youth and women who lost their jobs and businesses during the pandemic, but will provide them with capital and ideas on unlock their potential to create opportunities to others within Dandora slums.

Through this project:

a.  women and young people who lost their jobs will be re-trained to enable them become competitive or create their own wealth

b.  women/ youth entrepreneurs trained in value addition to benefit more from their trade

c. People supported with credit to to awaken community's economic recovery

d.  Training youth & women in business/ entrepreneurship skills

e. Training youth in life skills to be able to prepare curriculum vitae, developing skills for interpersonal relationships, reproductive health & household economics.

Dandora is one of Nairobi's Eastern suburbs and one of its biggest slum areas, with a population of 154,151 people. It is also, according to the UN, one of the most polluted sites in the world. Established in 1977 as an attempt to offer higher housing standards, it soon turned into a densely populated slum with very high levels of unemployment. Dandora holds the largest dumpsite in Eastern and Central Africa, comprising 30 acre Dandora Municipal Dumping Site. 

Majority of people residing in Dandora slums depends on working in the dumpsite, petty trade, hawking food stuffs, while others are also involved in informal sector jobs (Jua kali) and tailoring. It is estimated that over 10,000 people work and scavenge in the Dandora dumpsite, 55% of this are women and children of between the ages of 4-18 years of age

The main source of income is characterized by low pay and hazardous working conditions and involves collecting and selling recyclable and reusable material at the dumpsite which includes plastic, scrap metal, tins, polythene bags, glass, milk cartons, gunny bags and pig food. This low level of income is a key driver to poverty, food insecurity and vulnerability to shocks.

DADREG support youth and women working in the Dandora dumpsite and those living in Mbita Sub County access vocational & entrepreneurship skills while also training them in modern farming techniques to make them become self reliant and food secure. These people have traditionally been left behind  in development leading them to work in the dumpsite and engage in anti-social activities leading to high rate of HIV/AIDS infections in the slums and Mbita Sub County. Despite forming majority working in farms at 80% & 72% depending on farms, women own only 5% of land leading to high rate of poverty.

As a child, I grew up in abject poverty in the slums. I grew up in a single family of 7 children headed by my mother. I saw my mother struggling to provide for our needs. I am the only one who made it to high schools as my mother was too poor to afford us education let alone food.

After finishing high school, I couldn't continue with education. In 1996, I helped found a youth organisation called SIDAREC. As SIDAREC grow, we realized we could do more to improve the living standards of our people. We understand their issues that we had gown through as children & youth. 

In 2012, I left SIDAREC & founded DADREG to champion the rights of children, women & youth living & working in the dumpsite. I have since been championing children education, skills for youth and women to make them competitive in the job market and create wealth. DADREG also came up with agribusiness program where women and youth are trained in agribusiness skills to grow food in small spaces to fight hunger in the slums and the rural areas. These activities are as a result of what we went through our childhoods.  

I grew up in poverty and I know what it means not to have food on the table, not to have someone to pay for your school fees or simply put, not to meet your basic needs. 

I am very passionate about addressing women and youth empowerment. Women and youth form the majority who have been affected so much by the COVID-19 pandemic with job and businesses loses. The effect of this has brought in poverty even to the households that were doing well by taking care of their children's upkeep. If these families are not supported, the effect it will have on the children will be catastrophic. Already most families are going without food while others have been forced to look for cheaper houses to fit their budget. Addressing women & youth unemployment, education and food insecurity are so important to me because I feel what these families and especially the children are going through adjusting to the life of hopelessness brought about by COVID-19 pandemic. My belief is that if women could be empowered to provide for themselves and their families, then we would be able in our small ways bridge the social & economic divide. 

I do not only have a passion for my work, but the skills required to take project I initiate to the next level. I holds Diploma in Information Technology from Inoorero University, Nairobi- Kenya; Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies and Certificate in Executive Development from Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania. 

I have helped in implementing programs that empower women and young people both in the rural and urban slums. I have delivered programs that empower women and youth with technical, vocational and life skills that enables them to be self-reliant. I understand that majority of people out of work or scavenging in the dumpsite are doing so because that is the only place that they could work in. Through my efforts, I have helped set up a community revolving fund enabling women who could not access loans from the bank to tap in the fund to start businesses. Since 2013, my organisation has trained over 2,000 women and young people in vocational, entrepreneurship and life skills enabling them to become competitive in the job market and creators of wealth. I have helped construct one of the largest community vocational centre allowing 600 people to access training each year, while also training women and youth in rural areas modern farming techniques to fight hunger and poverty. The result of our work has seen my organisation winning awards for our work, a recognition of the work we do to empower our community.

When I first gathered young people to founded Slums Information Development & Resource Centres (SIDAREC) in 1996, many people told us how we intend to do that if so many people have tried and failed, more so we lacked resources to build the organisation. They gave us only 3 months to fold the organisation. Several years later, the organisation is still growing strong.

When I left SIDAREC in 2012 to start DADREG, I had nothing with me. But I had faith and hope that things would just be alright. This is the second time I was starting an organization from the scratch and with nothing. Unlike in 1996, I now have the family and the pressure was too much as I also need to support my young family. Despite this, I persevered through those challenges and built one of the largest institution within eight years of the organisation's existence. I believe in the mantra "dont move, improve" but improve where you were brought up. Despite coming from a very humble background, I have helped set up a primary school, vocational training Centre and supporting women to do farming and own land. I have never allowed my background dictate my future.

I grew up in the slums of Nairobi. Growing up here is like your fate was determined. The high rate of poverty forced children & youth to quit school to engaging in anti-social activities. I had a choice to join gangs or chart my on course. Here, the only role models were gangsters that every child yearn to emulate. I chose to scavenge for scrap metals that I would sell to pay for my school fees. I would continuously be sent away to clear my fees arrears, but would do the same work until I finished high school. I never allowed my background to determine my future. In 1996, I founded a youth group called Slums Information Development & Resource Centres (SIDAREC). No one gave us a chance that we shall ever make it. Today, SIDAREC owns a radio station & library.  

I left SIDAREC in 2012 to DADREG. In 8 years I have sent to school 1,600 children rehabilitated from the dumpsite, 28 of them are in universities; constructed education and training facilities; trained 1,200 women & youth in vocational &  in modern farming techniques and constructed shelter for 340 families who used to live in the dumpsite.

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I believe that the only way to reduce poverty and unemployment among women and young people is by empowering them with skills and capital. I also believe that in order for people holding jobs to continue doing so and move to the next level, they need to have those skills so that they continue to become competitive in their places of work. This is what my organisation has done. I have set up training facilities in partnerships with the Embassies of German, Ireland and Japan and Kenya Commercial Bank through "Jiajiri" (Self-employment) program to allow women and youth access skills & capital for gainful employment. The trainees are also connected with other companies to learn through on job-training to provide with confidence and experience needed to join the workforce or create your own job.

My innovation is thus innovative in the sense that it empowers women and young people to be come entrepreneurs and supporting young entrepreneurs in Dandora with sustainable income through targeted support my organisation provides them with. My organisation has been giving support and creating opportunities for these young people change-makers, helping them to become self-reliant. These women and young people no-longer depends from the handouts given by politicians.

I am also empowering women not only to learn modern farming techniques, but also to own land and engage in farming. Through this, food security has improved. The innovation has also created employment to women and youth involved in selling farm produce

DADREG's theory of change is hinged on the fact that if women and young people are empowered with skills and resources, then they will be able to not only become competitive in the job market, but will become change agents within the society. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that people with low skills or no skills at all have been the most affected by jobs lay offs and whose businesses have been affected because they cannot adapt from the challenges brought about by changes in doing businesses. These businesses are 90% owned by youth and women. Markets & supply chains have been disrupted, business closed or scaled back their operations. The lock-down that the government here in Kenya instituted to mitigate the spread of the virus have affected millions affected in small businesses. 

In Kenya, women and youth comprise 70% of low wage earners (UNDP April 2020). Most are employed in informal sector or run micro and small enterprises. This sector is characterized by daily wages, limited social protection measures and savings, making them particularly vulnerable during health pandemics. 

It is against this background that DADREG's project intends to empower women and young people to access skills and with resources. People with no skills work in low wage jobs with no social protection and are always the first people to get sacked when companies are not making profits or during the pandemic like the one we have now because they dont have the required skills needed to compete with others they work with. DADREG therefore believes that for youth and women to weather such 

DADREG is currently having four projects on going. The most recent one is the support for women and young people affected by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in our economy. 

a. We provide retraining 720 youth and women laid off from their work with employable to fit in their job places as the country readies to open up the economy.

b. Training 1,500 women and young people involved in small & micro enterprises in Dandora.

c. Have supported 40 groups of young entrepreneurs in Dandora to make them get back on their feet again & be self-reliant. 

e. Provided relief food to 2,400 families for the past 3 months to cushion them from the current situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through this project, the following beneficiaries are expected to benefit:

a. 2,500 youth and women entrepreneurs will benefit from revolving fund to enable them restart their businesses in the next 4 years.

b. 800 women and youth involved in small businesses will be trained in value addition to benefit more from their produce.

c. 500 women supported to engage in farming through training & access to land.

d. 4,200 women & youth trained in vocation skills in the next 3 years, through expanded space.

e. Reducing food loss and waste on food prices and farm incomes by 70% as a result of storage facility and access to market through transportation system in the next 2 years. 

The post-COVID-19 pandemic will bring with it challenges of unemployment and food insecurity. These challenges will likely affects women, children and the youth. To deal with these challenges, each country will place its hope on its youth and women who form the bulk of work in the informal sectors. To deal with unemployment and food insecurity, DADREG has set in motion programs that support small & micro enterprises run by youth and women; training women in modern farming techniques, support them access to land to engage in farming and resources to buy farm inputs and create a Centre of excellence both in Dandora slums and rural areas in Mbita enabling young people access skills for gainful employment. DADREG believes that empowering women and youth with skills for gainful employment and resources to boost their small & micro enterprises could help in alleviating social problems.

To achieve these, DADREG has set up the following goals:

a. Train women in value addition, modern farming techniques and helping women access resources to lease land and buy farm in puts. DADREG intends to push women land ownership from current 5% to 25% in the next 5 years to be able to produce more food to fight hunger and poverty.

b. To set up a community fund to enable small micro enterprises run by youth access funds to boost their small businesses.

c. To create a technological hub to allow youth access skills of their choices for gainful employment. 

DADREG is currently facing financial, technical and marketing barriers in our efforts to accomplish our goals. In the rural areas in Mbita where DADREG has trained and supported women to engage in farming, women face problems with storage and transportation of their produce. There is food loss and waste in farms especially for products like vegetables, onion, tomatoes and fruits that need storage and market in the shortest period possible. In the next one to five years, DADREG hopes to set up a warehouse and buy van that will help transport the produce to marketing points, enabling them maximize on their profits. Lack of finance also means that women could not engage in value addition for their products to give them more income from their products. With availability of finance, we would buy equipment to allow women to produce products from their farms giving them more income from their produce.

DADREG also faces financial barriers in expanding revolving fund that could allow youth and women who are left out from traditional borrowing to access. Even though the Embassy of Japan in Nairobi supported DADREG to expand its Community Vocational Training Centre, the challenges brought in by COVID-19 posses another challenge that we shall be forced to reduce class attendants from 45 to 15 to meet social distancing requirements. This will impact on the organisation's revenue and sustainability as this will require additional classrooms to mitigate those challenges.

a. Warehouse for holding farm produce and transportation of farm produce to market places.

DADREG has set up a makeshift warehouse to provide temporary storage for farm produce before they are taken to the market. This has helped reduce food loss by 20%. With The Elevate Prize, DADREG will be able to do a modern warehouse to store more farm produce. This will help reduce food from going to wastage. The Prize will also help in buying machines to allow women engage in production of value addition for their farm produce.

On transport, women farmers to hire vans to transport the farm produce to the local markets. The van is not enough though, but it has helped women maximizing their profit. Through The Elevate Prize, DADREG will buy a bigger van instead of hiring which is not sustainable. The van will help transport the produce to the towns and cities that women stands to gain more profits as opposed now when much of their produce are bought by middlemen.  

b. Community Training Centre. Through the Embassy of German, Japan and Ireland, DADREG has been able to set up training centre in Dandora that provides training to 700 youth each year. With COVID-19, the number is likely to reduce to about 350. The Elevate Prize will help in expanding the training facilities post-COVID-19.

c. Community Revolving Fund. DADREG has set up a revolving fund amounting to US$15,000.  The Elevate Prize will enable DADREG to elevate the fund from $15,000 to $100,000.

DADREG is currently partnering with the following organizations that has made our work possible.

a. Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND). AGFUND is supporting the training of women to engage in modern farming techniques in Mbita Sub County.

b. The Embassy of Japan in Nairobi is supporting the expansion of DADREG Community Training Centre.

c. The Embassy of German and Ireland, both in Nairobi- Kenya and Tools to Work have provided DADREG with training equipment, materials that are currently being used to train youth at the Centre.

d. PADEM and ViiV Healthcare UK Ltd supporting training of youth and women in vocational and entrepreneurship skills.

DADREG's business model is based on social enterprise. We work in an environment where people are too poor to afford fees to access training. This is why majority of youth and women are either working or scavenging in the dumpsite or are doing odd jobs just to make ends meet. As a result of this, DADREG has depended on donations to keep on training women and youth in vocational and enterprise skills. DADREG provides women and young people to access skills for gainful employment. Those who finished training could either seek employment or supported to engage in businesses based on the skills they gained or interest they shown in starting businesses. We provide targeted support through DADREG revolving fund to young people and women who have shown promise of become entrepreneur. 

In Homa Bay, women and young people are not only trained in modern farming techniques, but supported with funds to lease land to farm for themselves; to buy quality seeds and manure. They are also trained in value addition to benefit more from the farm produce which is a cornerstone of food security and family sustainability. The use of irrigation system using solar energy to pump water from the lake to the farms has enabled our beneficiaries to engage in farming throughout the year. This in tern has improved food security, malnutrition, unemployment and the spread of HIV among women and young girls. 

DADREG has relied heavily on donor contribution. We understand that donor funding is not for ever and at some point, it will dry up. To make sure that we keep on with our work beyond the donor funding, we came up with the following activities:

a. Setting up demonstration farms in Homa Bay County. While we use farms for training women and youth in this area at no cost, people come from outside Homa Bay County will pay a small fees for training.  

b. Partnership with the Government and Private Sector: DADREG intends to tap in to Government programs of supporting TVET institution. The government is currently offering TVET institutions US$3,000 per individual every semester to train youth in vocational and entrepreneurship skills. The same with Private Sectors like Kenya Commercial Bank that offers US$1,000 to train an individual per semester. 

c. DADREG used to send trainees to be trained in other training institutions. In 2017, DADREG constructed it vocational training centre, allowing us to train more people, and become self-reliant. We no-longer pay others to train our youth.

d. Setting aside 30% of training spaces at DADREG Vocational Training Centre to be occupied by people who would afford the fees. It costs US$4,200 to train one person per year. The cost will share to cater for trainer's emolument, & running costs.

e. DADREG has Centre is operated using green energy (solar). We no-longer depend on electricity which is high cost to power the Centre. 

f. Community Revolving Fund

DADREG has received funding from the following institutions for my innovations:

a. Embassy of German - US$15,000 to purchase vocational training equipment.

b. Embassy of Ireland-US$6,000 to purchase vocational training equipment.

c. Embassy of Japan- US$96,800 for the expansion of vocational training Centre, setting up of catering & pastries for practical lessons; purchase of chairs, tables and training equipment.

d. Tools to Work: Shipment of training equipment worth US$84,000

e. PADEM: US$8,400 Scholarship for women and youth to attend training

f. Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND): US$300,000- Prince Talal International Prize awarded for DADREG's Project: "Addressing Food Insecurity Through Modern Farming Techniques". 

g. ViiV Healthcare UK Limited: US$64,870. This grant supports education, skills young girls and women in Mbita Sub County to help them gain self-confidence in themselves and to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in this place with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the whole country. 

DADREG is seeking to raise funds to enable us expand the community Community Revolving Fund ($100,000); Support women & youth who lost jobs to re-enter in job place through on-job training and life skills support ($45,000); Training women and youth in vocational/ entrepreneurship & agribusiness skills ($150,000); Support women farmers in Mbita Sub County set up warehouse to store products & transport to enable them market their goods instead of going to waste in the farms ($180,000) and expanding DADREG Community Training Centre ($80,000).

The expanded community revolving fund will see more women & youth group access funds for their businesses; women & youth retrained to have required job skills & expanded Training Centre to accommodate more beneficiaries to meet the COVID-19 guidelines of social distancing.

The women farmers have problems keeping perishable goods during harvesting. They also lack local market during harvesting period yet in towns, their products are in high demands. During harvesting time, middlemen come to from them at their own price knowing that they've no means to take their produce into the cities. They are thus forced to sell at other people's prices and their own terms, yet DADREG came up with such project to empower women and increase food security among the poor households in the rural areas.  DADREG believes that having funds to set up a warehouse, provide transport and come up with value addition chain is going to improve the lives of women and their families, helping to fight hunger and poverty. 

DADREG is estimating our expenses for 2020 to be US$555,000

These estimates are based on the following:

a. Community Revolving Fund that will support small & micro enterprises run by women & youth get back to work ($100,000).

b. Life skills & on-job training to youth & women who lost their jobs ($45,000)

c. Training women and youth in vocational/ entrepreneurship & agribusiness skills ($150,000)

d. Setting up warehouse to store  for farm produce, transport system to transport produce from the farms to the market to avoid waste and being underpaid by middlemen and support more women engage in farming ($180,000)

e. Expanding DADREG Community Training Centre ($80,000). This will help in having more people attend the training as the COVID-19 guidelines will require less children in the classrooms. With this, DADREG will be able to expand training facility enabling students to practice social distancing.

I am applying for The Elevate Prize to share my work that I do in empowering women and young change-makers in the slums and rural areas and also to seek for more funding for my innovation. The people that depends on my work has been left behind in every aspect of development. The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on small & micro enterprises managed youth and women and those employed in informal sector has heightened their vulnerabilities during this crisis. It's going to take long for businesses that collapsed to open up, more so those that were being operated by young people and women who had no savings or whose savings have been wiped out the pandemic. It'd also going to take long to re-hire people back again, and even so, those laid off might never get employed without skills. 

The loss of income means that these people will need capital to restart their businesses, training in businesses skills to adapt, retrain those who lost their jobs to be able to become competitive in their places of work or create their own businesses; train youth and women in skills that makes them become competitive and self-reliant.

 in farming face serious obstacles during harvesting season. The lose of harvest due to lack of space means that they will sell at a throw away price to the middlemen who benefits more from their hard-work. These are people who have been left behind in development and who needs support to benefit from their labour. 

DADREG's partnership goal with The Prize Elevate Prize is to allow us elevate our work to reach more people in need to become self-reliant. The COVID-19 has made many people, especially youth and women who are mostly employed in the informal sector lose their jobs and their sources of livelihoods. Through this partnership, many women and young people will be empowered to engage in gainful employment to become self-reliant.  

At the moment, we already have partners we would have liked to partner with if we would have never got them. The partners we have are  already supporting our training to the youth and women, and connecting our trainees with companies to help them learn from the jobs while n internship.