OUR SERVICE
& PROGRAM
Kibera Community Slum Development Program is dedicated to enriching the lives of Silanga village community members in the Kibera Slum area. Our staff works extra hard all year long in order to keep things interesting at Kibera Community Slum Development Program! There are a variety of programs and activities available for people of all ages to engage in, and we’re happy to offer our community a wide range of options for them to enjoy.
KICOSDEP FEEDING PROGRAM
(Plate Of Hope)
Ever went to school or work with an empty stomach? Then surely you can remember the difficulties you had while trying to concentrate on the tasks given to you. Your attention gets drawn to that empty feeling inside your body, the cry for food. Who can stand there and see it happen and still do nothing.., just standing there and let those things happen without feeling pity for those people?
More than half of the children in Kibera go to school with little or no food for breakfast, getting in class with an empty stomach surely is not the right start for a day at school; concentration is lacking, attention is drawn to that gnawing feeling inside. Those children don’t have the energy; fall sick more often as their resistance is undermined by under-nourishment and drop out more easily from school.
What would you do if you saw it happening? Would you just be the bystander or the one that would take action? Surely it is impossible to help the whole world but this doesn’t mean that we don’t have the obligation to help, even with just the little bits we can share.
FEED
them well
KICOSDEP Feeding Program has continued to be a foundation in attracting and retaining children in school so that they may have opportunity to change and improve their future through education.
We provide two nutritional meals daily to over 250 kids throughout the year. It’s not a big meal with lots of varieties every day; but it is nutritious and healthy meal with all the basic elements in it. You can be part of this program by donating 1USD per day per child and give a plate of hope to one of these little ones or you can sponsor a plate of Hope at USD 30 Per month.
KICOSDEP SCHOOL
NCOC Academy
KICOSDEP opened its doors as a school was in the year 2006 as the Nairobi Christian Outreach Centre Academy – NCOC Academy in Silanga Village in Kibera slums. We are a non- formal school engaged in providing free basic education to the orphan and vulnerable children from Silanga Village and its environs in the Kibera slums Nairobi.
Recognizing the transformative power of education, we work to provide every orphan and vulnerable child from Silanga village in Kibera slums with the best academic foundation possible in line with the previous Kenyan government ministry of Education recommended 8:4:4 syllabus and now the Competency Based Curriculum syllabus famously know as (CBC).
Our school has been ranked as the best managed and performing non-formal school in in Silanga Village and its environs in the Kibera slum Community and Nairobi despite our lean budget, inadequate infrastructure and the fact that our learners come from disadvantaged backgrounds and have endured the loss of parents and the ravaging poverty in the slums. Many of our graduates and sponsored learners have gone through high school and universities respectively with some of our oldest alumni now giving back to the community as educators and non-profit workers with two of our old boys now playing professional tennis at a university in Florida while one is now a professional tennis coach at one of the top clubs in the country while another working as graduate High school teacher employed by the Kenyan Teachers Service Commission while others are still pursuing different courses at different learning institutions.
We believe that the only gift you can give a child is best education and we are always determined to see our kids get good education that can withstand the time and heaviness of the future.
You can be part of this program by donating 1USD per day per child and give a future to one of these little ones through education or you can sponsor a child at USD 30 Per month.
SHORT
TERM GOALS
LONG
TERM GOAL
We also have a bible club for children of different ages that meets every Saturday and Sunday evening with a membership of 300 children. This serves a great purpose for this community; we not only minister to the basic needs of these kids, but also spiritual needs. This is one way of reaching and evangelism since kids forms the major population of Kibera slum. Through bible club we’ve have been able to set up community adult church and we are looking forward to set up community bible library, where people can come to read and borrow bible.
We are also having 1 million bibles for Kibera community project, which aims to source for 1 million bibles and place at least 1 bible in the hands of each and every family in Kibera. Bible is an important book, but it is very rare in Kibera since the little most resident’s gets which is less than a dollar a day, food comes first. Therefore it will be of great benefit if we train the kids and also offer them the important book (bible) for reference and spiritual growth.
KIBERA KIDS’
BIBLE CLUB
VITAL GIRLS’
EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM
As girls approach adolescence, they face the start of a narrow bridge. As they move through adolescence they must cross this bridge, emerging at the end as adult young women. However, the bridge through adolescence is a risky one for girls. They are significantly more vulnerable than their male counterparts and are more likely to fall off the bridge.
In many African countries it is common for adolescent girls to have relationships with older men that involve some transactional dependence. The older man may help her to pay school fees or do her school shopping, or he may provide her with gifts of clothing or food.
A girl may know that unprotected sex puts her at risk of HIV, STIs or pregnancy, but it is hard for a teenage girl to negotiate safer sex because she needs the money that the man will give her for having a sexual relationship with him – and he may not want to practice safer sex.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a total of 378,397 girls in Kenya aged between 10 and 19 years became pregnant between July 2016 and June 2018.
In Kenya, at least 449 girls were reported to have missed their national exams due to pregnancy related complications – The number is feared to be higher as many other cases could be going unreported. Several others have taken their exams in maternity wards and the recurrent trend seems to be on an upward trajectory.
Elizabeth Muiruri, regional communications and media manager for Save the Children in East and Southern Africa says Kenya is losing a generation by not actively addressing teenage pregnancy. “If the young people who should be going to school and strengthening the economy are taking care of children, then we may not achieve our development goals,” she says.
With tough economic times, parents are overwhelmed with the search for the basic needs forgetting their parental roles and leaving these roles to teachers who on the contrary have not done much due to the restricting Education Policies. The teenage girls have been left on their own with no one to protect, train and mentor them. The consequences are glaring.
The situation in Kibera Slum, the largest urban slum in Africa, is even worse with most families living below the poverty line, with the erosion of moral values, with no professionals to act as role models as most people are casual labourers (if at all employed), with high rates of unemployment and school drop outs, with high illiteracy levels, with high levels of drug peddling and abuse among other pertinent issues.
Whereas other parents may provide the basic needs for their girls save for the parental guidance, a Kibera parent literally struggles to put food on the table and thus the Kibera teenage girl is in double tragedy lacking both basic needs and the parental guidance. This makes them twice as vulnerable as compared to other girls elsewhere. Some of them are forced into transactional sex to fend for their basic needs including sanitary pads.
While Kenya has made giant strides in providing sanitary aid to girls in the country, disturbing reports from a UNICEF research recently found that 65% of females in the Kibera slum in Kenya, have at one point traded sex for sanitary products. The girls are forced to have sex with older men because it is the only way they can access sanitary products due to poverty and the stigma surrounding menstruation. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/kenya-girls-sex-sanitary-products-pads-period-poverty-a8533081.html)
Teens from Kibera are driven into early sexual Experiences and consequently motherhood. Childbirth and the risk of being infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are exacerbated by the cycle of poverty.
( https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2000086849/teenage-pregnancies-hold-young-mothers-in-lifelong-bondage)
These teenage girls in Kibera are faced with si many giants in life including unsafe abortions, crimes, drug peddling and abuse, school dropout, lack of reproductive health education, neglect by parents and abuse by adults. All these resulting from poverty.
With proper mentorship and empowerment programme in place, this vicious circle of poverty would be broken and the girls would not only change their lives, but will also be able to positively impact on others lives.
It is against this backdrop that VITAL GIRLS EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM was born with an aim of transforming these vulnerable girls’ lives through mentorship and empowerment oriented programs.
VITAL stands for Visionary Independent Teachable Action-oriented Lifelong leaner
Visionary- Someone that thinks about the future or advancements in a creative and imaginative way, A person who is ahead of his time and who has a powerful plan for change in the future.
Independent-Means being able to take care of your own needs and to make and assume responsibility for your decisions while considering both the people around you and your environment.
Teachable- It is the desire to listen, learn, and apply. It is the hunger to discover and grow. It is the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I love the way legendary basketball coach John Wooden states it: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. “When I teach and mentor leaders, I remind them that if they stop learning, they stop leading. But if they remain teachable and keep learning, they will be able to keep making an impact as leaders. Whatever your talent happens to be – whether it’s leadership, craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, or something else – you will expand it if you keep expecting and striving to learn. John Maxwell
Action-Oriented- It means willing or likely to take practical action to deal with a problem or situation or involving practical action to deal with a problem or situation. If you are highly action-oriented, you’re the type of person who gets thing done, whether on your own or through other people.
Lifelong Learner– Someone who keeps acquiring new skills and capabilities well past their formal education years. It involves not only studying new topics but also developing an open-minded, positive attitude about the dynamic nature of the world. Personal development continues alongside professional development. A lifelong learner looks for opportunities to expand their knowledge and understanding. While qualifications help with a career, curiosity and a growth mindset invites future possibilities.
Purpose….. To help girls become the next generation of leaders & world changers.
To help girls build healthy, empowered, successful lives.
To help girls build a path for their dreams and education.
To help girls ignite their greatness and know their worth.
To help girls know they are brilliant, beautiful & bold as they are.
Mission:
Aim:
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
- Holding weekly trainings/meetings done every Saturday during school holidays to engage the girls, empower, nurture them and keep them busy. In these meetings they are taught on Reproductive health, Self-Identity/awareness, Assertiveness and self-esteem, Self-reliance, Career choices and development, Entrepreneurship and financial coaching, Healthy relationships and smart social networking among other topics.
During the meetings, the girls are provided with snacks.
- Provision of sanitary towels to the vital girls who are needy yet cannot access this vital necessity to protect them from men who take advantage of these vulnerable girls by providing them at a cost of paying with their bodies.
- Doing a back to school shopping of the most basic needs for the girls who can’t afford.
- Organizing talent shows to help identify and develop the girls’ talents. This can in turn be harnessed and used as a source of income.
- Offering life skills and vocational trainings such as tailoring, cookery/catering, hair dressing and beauty, music among others. They can then earn some income to cater for their basic needs through this.
- Offering academic and career counselling in order to achieve academic excellence and produce professionals out of these vulnerable girls.
- Holding team building activities to bond the vital girls and make them feel the warmth of a family e.g. through holiday camps and picnics.
- Hold meetings with the parents thrice a year to create awareness and sensitize them on the needs and plight of these girls in the society as well as their roles and involvement in the success of the girls. The progress of these girls would also be monitored through the feedback given by their parents during these meetings and any necessary amendments made for the success of the programme.
Vital Core Values
- Trustworthiness
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Fairness
- Compassion
- Commitment
- Resilience
Frequent fire disasters are identified as one of the impediments to development in the Kibera slum, leading to devastating effects on the residents, including deaths and loss of property.
Fire tragedies are common in Kibera slums where residents face a serious challenge of poor network, hampering rescue services. As they say “Fire destruction is one man’s job, fire prevention is every body’s job”, the level of fire incidents preparedness in Kenya calls for urgent measures for the national government, county governments, Fire safety stakeholders and well-wishers to team up and address this issue as the continuous slum fire incidents are alarming.
When houses burn in the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, anyone can become a firefighter and at some point the residents engage in very risky response activities.
There is no fire station, and there are no hydrants. So residents battle the blaze with buckets of water and desperate determination.
Even though the fire departments are called in most of the cases, the firefighters are unable to get through the narrow, crowded streets. That’s just the way it is in Kibera slums where a week does not end without a reported fire incident.
Sometimes the fire engines reach early before the worsening of the situation and complete burning of structures and destruction of business, but the challenge is how to access the houses on fire which are usually constructed using very combustible materials like wood, polythyne or plastic papers, cartons etc. So we cannot say it is anyone’s fault, but it is poverty that has made things worse.
Besides the poor response, Kibera slum is so densely populated and because of unplanned settlement, leading to lack of proper roads that can provide access in times of such emergencies.
The ZIMAMOTO MITAANI RELIEF AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM was initiated in the year 2017, Situated in Silanga Village in Kibera slums of Nairobi, to mitigate the fire hazards and the effects of the frequent fire outbreaks in response to the need to build the capacity of the community members through training on fire outbreak preparedness and prevention, firefighting and rescue operations.
Community response teams formed with members drawn from the Kibera villages. The teams went through training and were tasked with community mobilisation, evacuation and rescue, community members training, firefighting, and creating access roads for the fire brigade.
We have distributed several fire extinguishers to the Kibera property owners and tenants within the villages for emergencies before the arrival of the community response team. There are plans to establish a water tower an elevated tank with provision for a clip-on ladder and connection with a horse pipe for use during firefighting. We also intended to utilise the oneness of the Kibera slum residents to enhance a collective community approach to responding to fire outbreaks. The success of this project means a mitigation of fire disasters and their effects, translating to the safety of the residents and their economic stability.
The major challenges facing Fire response in the Kibera slums are:-
1. Lack of enough firefighting equipment
2. Negative attitude/perception of the community towards the fire fighters
3. Lack of a direct and toll free emergency lines
4. Poor accessibility- narrow and crowded streets
5. Inadequate information and education concerning the fire in terms of the cause, location, magnitude and access routes.
6. Traffic jam and drivers attitude.
7. Lack of basic firefighting skills amongst the community leading to the problem of lack of early access and control to the fire.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education puts an emphasis on preparing future generations to be successful in their careers. The skills gained from STEM education extend beyond those needed to be successful in STEM fields, preparing children with varied interests who move into any industry to have valuable skill sets that allow them to be successful.
STEM-based education teaches children more than science and mathematics concepts. The focus on hands-on learning with real-world applications helps develop a variety of skill sets, including creativity and 21st-century skills that includes media and technology literacy, productivity, social skills, communication, flexibility and initiative.
Other skills attained through STEM education include problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, decision making, leadership, entrepreneurship, acceptance of failure and more. Regardless of the future career path considered by these children, these skill sets go a long way to preparing them to be innovative.
The ability to think critically and challenge standards is the basis of innovation. According to the Equality of Opportunity Project (EOP), innovation is a critical component of economic growth. Innovative thinkers are the movers and shakers that have the potential to change the world. Check out the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) Inductees, some of the top innovators and inventors in U.S. history, who have made our world the place it is today.
Preparing today’s children to become the innovators and inventors of tomorrow begins with STEM education programs. Summer camps, after school programs and makerspaces provide opportunities to take traditional learning and pivot it to prioritize the hands-on experience and real-world application necessary for developing an innovative mind. Learn about the STEM-based education programs inspired by NIHF Inductees to take the first step in preparing children for a lifetime of success.
We at KICOSDEP also believe the same and that is why we offer community based STEM training for Children any youths from Silanga Village and its environs in the Kibera slums in Nairobi Kenya as a way of empowering them with the necessary skills needed to make this community and the world a better place for the coming generations.
We believe the long-term solution to breaking the cycle of poverty in the Kibera must come from within the Kibera itself, one child at a time. Therefore, we work with the community and in the community, to provide local and culturally appropriate solutions. By empowering the community with the resources needed to improve their education, health, and overall quality of life. Kibera may be the most entrepreneurial place on the planet. The key to making it in Kibera is access to capital.
A market of one million potential customers crowds in on entrepreneurs but raising the money to start a business is hard. Most banks won’t lend to Kiberan’s because they have no collateral, perhaps not even a fixed address. Those who manage to borrow through online lenders face high interest rates. We believe that when one can raise a capital he/she will be able to open and run a profitable business. Saving and Credit schemes encourages people to save as little as Kshs. 20 (Twenty Shillings) daily towards doing business.
Founded in the year 2001, by pastor Amos Kagwetha through the children bible club, the Nairobi Christian Outreach Centre Church and ministry have been serving the people of Silanga Village and its environs in the Kibera slum by offering them a holistic spiritual, physical and emotional and support through the preaching and teaching of the undiluted true and pure gospel and making disciples as was commanded by our Lord Jesus in the gospel of Matthew 28:19-20.
We are committed to “Raising a people of Difference” in the Kibera slum in Nairobi Kenya who will in turn make disciples who will make disciples who will make disciples.
The NCOC, recognizes the inherent power of the word of God to change the world by changing the people, to holistically transform the man and to reach the masses by building one embraced multiple strategies
(tailored to the unique and special challenges in the area) including open-air crusades, strategic ministries focusing on specific special cohorts like children, women, youth, men as well as sports and recreation ministries.
The NCOC leadership, guided by the recognition that in NCOC everybody is a very important person, seeks to build the individual to impact the masses, by identifying, nurturing and unleashing the special gifts/potentiality of the individuals to flourish in building up the body of Christ. This has seen the NCOC grow from what was initially perceived as a small village children’s bible club to a community church with vibrant children, youth, women and men’s empowerment ministry.
Our Vision
To positively impact and influence our village, community, city, nation and the world with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ so as to fulfill the great commission beginning with the Silanga Village and its environs in the Kibera slums in Nairobi Kenya.
Our Mission
Promote the love of Christ through preaching and practical demonstration of the gospel, beginning with Kibera slums as our launching pad into other parts of Kenya into Africa and into the rest of the world.
This mission is anchored upon great commission which exist to harness the Productive energies and synergies to help eradicate; dependency, apathy, poverty, ignorance and diseases and to secure dignified lifestyle for the marginalized children and the Poor grassroots Communities in Kenya beginning with Kibera Slums in Nairobi Kenya.
Our Values
- Godliness- God is the center of everything. He and His Church will be the focal point and physical center of Kenya Haven of Hope.
- Compassion – We are passionate about loving and meeting the needs of the underprivileged children of Kenya in the name of Jesus Christ.
- Integrity & Accountability – We are committed to integrity and accountability in all we do.
- Communication- we believe that effective communication is our backbone that helps in sending signals to every part of this organization.
- Teamwork- We believe that teamwork is the only way of achieving our goals.
- Life Preparation – We are committed to preparing children for greater success in life through education
Children Service
Intercessory Prayers
Family Service
Home Cell Meeting
Midweek Bible Study
Prayer Service
Sunday 8:00am-9:30 am
Sunday 9:30am-10:30am
Sunday 10:30 am-1:00pm
Monday 7:00pm-8:00pm
Wednesday 7:00pm-8:00pm
Saturday 6:30pm-8:00pm