Instead of “going big or going home”, why not do both? That appears to have been the thinking behind the Jamii Bora Housing project called Kaputiei New Town. This partially completed project involves the construction of 2,000 new dwellings, sports fields, schools, commercial areas and the infrastructure to support them… basically an entirely new town 50km from Nairobi. These houses are to be made available to members of Jamii Bora whoa re currently living in some of the world’s largest slums: Kibera and Mathane.

This is the group that the AIC is looking to partner with in their effort to establish a micro-finance project. A bit more information about Jamii Bora might be helpful:

Jamii Bora

Jamii Bora was established in 1999 at the initiative of 50 street mamas in the slums with the help of a Scandanavian women, Ingrid Munroe. Their micro-finance program has grown to 180,000 members as of April 2008 and opertes out of 72 branches and 140 outlets, with loans totalling about 2.2 billion ksh.

You can visit their website here…

Kaputiei New Town

This project is a testament to thinking big. While Jamii Bora is a larger organization now, when this housing project was concieved they only had 5 staff and operated out a residential home. Now they have raised about 1.2 billion ksh in capital and are in the process of constructing an entire town from nothing! The project employs 700 people from the local area (as can be seen in the picture) and they make all their own building materials, such as bricks, roofing tiles, windows, etc.

This “start from scratch” approach has allowed them to incorporate other, more experimental ideas (such as a wetlands santiation system that hopes to recycle 70% of all used water) into their community. There are definitely difficulties, including logistics as they are about 50km away from the city and connecting to the ntional power grid, but everyne involved has been infused with a huge sense of pride and hope for the future.

A lesson to us all … how many of us in the West, with all of our resources and infrastructure, would ever be able to envision getting together with 4-5 friends and planning a new city costing 1.2 billion dollars?

Dream Big…

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 2:59 am