Support Composting by Women in Kibera, Kenya

This report is going to 30 friends who have donated $1,796 to our appeal on behalf of composters in the informal settlements of Nairobi. Our thanks to you all!

Building on your donations, we have been able to raise another $20,000 this year. This has enabled us take our composting model into two schools and reach ten new households, with more to follow. This represents important progress!

Background

Let me provide some context and background. Shield of Faith (SOF) is a women led-owned social enterprise that started in January 2020 from a table banking group and later registered as a community-based organization (CBO) in Kibera in April 2021.

Building on the success achieved in the last four years, SOF has launched the “Community Hubs For Change” to engage the communities where we live. Our goal is to address problems of food insecurity, waste management, equitable economic empowerment and environmental sustainability.

Our current program areas include Kibera, Mathare, Kayole, Huruma, Kawangware, Kangemi, Githurai (some sections), Mukuru. Kibera is the largest settlement and home to more than 500’000 people.

The Problem

As of 2025, Kenya’s urban population is estimated at 17.8 million - 31.5% of the national total. Over 55% of these urban residents live in informal settlements. Nairobi, home to over 5.8 million people, has more than two million residents living in about 200 informal settlements. These cover just 6% of the city’s land.

Major settlements include Kibera, Mathare, Mukuru, Githurai, Kawangware among others. Kibera, the largest, houses over 500,000 people and produces up to 250 tons of waste daily, but lacks proper sanitation and waste services.

Across these settlements, organic waste makes up 70–80% of all waste, but only ten percent is properly managed, Most ends up in open dumpsites, posing serious health and environmental risks.

Our Approach - Community Hubs For Change

Building on lessons learned last year, we have established a series of local learning spaces, led by Shield Of Faith members who have demonstrated strong leadership and a deep understanding of environmental stewardship.

Each hub is located in a central, accessible space such as schools, local administration compounds, or private neighbourhood plots, where community members can visit, learn, and adopt sustainable practices. This model fosters local ownership and knowledge transfer. It also produces visible results within the communities we serve.

Schools

We are making a big push this year to launch composting and kitchen gardening in schools, which generate large amounts of organic waste and are ALWAS looking for new ways to improve the nutrition of their students.

This is a big step for us, and will help us to take our composting beyond individual households. We are fortunate to have developed a partnership with the 4K Clubs of Kenya, a Government initiative for aspiring young would-be farmers in schools.

Our plan is to work in five schools this year, and we are already busy at two – Our Lady of Mercy boarding school for girls, and the Highway Boys Secondary School, an all-boy’s public boarding school with almost 1,200 students.

Our Lady of Mercy Girls Secondary School

Situated in the neighborhood of South B, Nairobi, this government-supported Catholic boarding school serves over 700 girls and 30+ teaching staff. Since joining our program in late 2024, the school has embraced hands-on learning in composting and sustainable gardening.

Several composters from Shield of Faith have been busy at the school over the past three months. Working with teachers and students, we have:

* Built a second composting unit. This is now maintained by thirty (Form 3) agriculture students who are preparing for national exams.

* Installed two vertical tower gardens to grow vegetables. These offer new learning spaces and produce fresh food.

* Prepared two demonstration plots where we plan to introduce water-efficient, climate-smart gardens (Keyhole and Hugel-Mound models).

As well as producing clear and measurable benefits in the form of nutrition and waste management, these activities are all building practical skills among students (“environmental ambassadors”) and demonstrating the benefits of environmental stewardship to the entire school community.

Project outputs this quarter

Over the past three months we have:

* Composted 1,962 kg of organic waste composted (close to two tons)

* Produced 12 liters of organic liquid fertilizer (Lishe Grow) from worm castings

* Saved at least 50,000 Kenyan shillings in farm inputs.

With your support, we look forward to scaling our program during the remainder of this year, by enrolling four more schools and admitting ten new vulnerable households that are led by women.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of The Foundation for Systemic Change, which is funding our work this year; and Julia from The Advocacy Project, a Peace Fellow who has spent the last five weeks in Nairobi helping me to set things up in the two schools. Please check out Julia's excellent blogs here!

We could not do this difficult work without friends and benefactors like yourselves! 

In gratitude

Stella and the Shield of Faith association, Nairobi.

Links:

• Peace Fellow Julia blogs about her visit to Irene's shamba