Posted in August 2015

Kiambiu Informal Settlement is located in the eastern side of Nairobi. This is a relatively new informal settlement with population of about 60,000. Kiambiu is composed of four wards in fabric of several ethnic groups. Many people suffer from unemployment and poverty. This causes addiction to alcohol/drugs and crimes such as mugging and robbery, sometimes with use of small firearms. Distrust between different ethnic groups triggers violence, which was most significant in the post-election violence in late 2007 to early 2008.
Crimes and violence tend to target women and girls. Constant number of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) cases such as rape, sexual assault, defilement and domestic violence have been reported.

 

Against the backdrop, this project builds capacity of people in struggle to improve security in their community. Through the early warning early response approach, trained community people will identify seeds of conflict and mediate between conflicting parties in collaboration with the police and local administration. Other trained people will provide psychosocial support through counseling and referral. These two approaches will contribute to containment of emerging conflicts and to healing trauma of violence survivors (and also some perpetrators), which is expected to reduce violence. Robust awareness raising is also planned. Based on these approaches, this project focuses on protection of women and girls through gender-sensitive methodologies.