Eradication of poverty Ministry
Poverty is a sign, a symptom of something very wrong in human society that perpetuates an unacceptable situation. Pope Paul VI in his 1967 Progress of Peoples said: "Development is the movement from less human conditions to more human conditions." Poverty is a sign that development has not occurred. If people in the slums are not enjoying the basic human conditions owed to them by the fact of being God's image, it means that we as Christians we have to work together to obtain better conditions of life and of development for all. This is the basis of the Ministry of Eradication of poverty. .

Poverty blocks development and prevents people from working toward these human conditions, marginalising them in the process of empowerment and thus bringing about more inhumane conditions. Yes, the poor are in our midst, and indeed in great numbers!

Jesus said very strongly, echoing Isaiah, that his mission was to "bring good news to the poor," overturning their unjust structures and systems by means such as setting prisoners free, opening eyes of the blind, lifting up the oppressed and proclaiming and establishing the Jubilee rule of freeing slaves, redistributing land and cancelling debts. Following Christ we want to be present among the empoverished of our society, empowering them so that they are able to come out of that situation.

Poverty eradication is the challenge of restructuring society so that the impoverished disappear, the immense absolute numbers of poor decrease to minimal exceptional cases. The social teaching of the Church invites all Christians to work for a more just society, giving a response to social issues - like care for the poor and eradication of poverty. Pope John Paul II called the Catholic Social Teaching an integral part of evangelisation.

Christ the King Parish - Kibera – Employment
Employment in Kibera
Unemployment is the number one problem facing the people of Kibera. As the economy has gradually collapsed over the last several years, the industrial sector has shrunk, government retrenchments have increased and jobs in the formal sector have evaporated. Currently, only about 15 % of the Kibera population is employed in the formal sector. And the wages for these workers are far too low. On average, a person employed full-time in the industrial area makes around 4,000 shillings per month (about $50.00).

The vast majority of people living in Kibera are forced to employ themselves in the informal sector. That means most people are working as casual laborers as welders, painters, carpenters, barbers and house girls. Many are also selling vegetables, charcoal, water, cooked food and used clothes. These workers are known as kibarua (daily workers) and Jua kali (working under the sun) workers. On average, they can earn 100 to 150 shillings a day, less than $2 per day.
Because of the high level of unemployment and underemployment, people here are living in very serious poverty. Most families have just enough money to pay for food d school fees. An unexpected illness or emergency can send a family into complete destitution.

HENK (Help Employment Need in Kibera).
In response to this situation, the Parish started HENK (Help Employment Need in Kibera). The aim of HENK is to enable people to find employment and to work responsibly so that they can better maintain and sustain their lives. HENK undertakes training courses in how to find and keep a job, improve self-confidence and to set up savings and credit schemes. It also acts as a liaison in finding companies to employ the people of Kibera.

The Kibera Education and empowerment Program (KEEP) is a self-help group for girls. They receive a formation on how to do different products to sell and thus earn their living. They make soap, tomato sauce and print of t-shirts.

Machine operators. Women but also men, learn how to operate industrial sewing machines, in order to search for a job in the industrial area.

Re-education of street children. Recently the Consolata sisters have started a program for the re-education of the street children.

St. John - Korogocho -
Groups working towards self-reliance and empowerment

• Boma Rescue Centre: Day center for the recuperation and reeducation of a hundred street children working in the dumpsite.
• Korogocho Street Children Programme (KSCP): Work in the streets and in the small centre for other 40 street children that sniff glue.
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): Support to the alcoholics to be able to abandon the dependance from alcohol.
• Kibiko Centre of Rehabilitation : A new structure on Ngong Hills, 40 km outside the slum, for the rehabilitation of alcoholics and street children who have a dependance from drugs.
• Bega Kwa Bega: women's Cooperative producing handcraft articles . Visit the website: www.begakwabega.com
• Mukuru Recycling Centre: Cooperative of 40 people recycling materials from the Dandora dumpsite and from the rubish collection in town.

• Holy Cross Dandora Parish and the alleviation of poverty
  Alleviation of poverty

  The parish has a revolving loan scheme to enable the poor to develop their plots and to encourage small scale business, so that they may earn their living.

  Through the Small Christian communities, the parish assists the residents of the Gitare-Marigo slums, a very poor area in the parish by providing food and clothing to the most needy slum dwellers.

  There is a program for the elderly who live alone "Holy Cross Help Age Project". As the conditions of the houses of some elderly persons is miserable, the project helps some of the needy members to construct dwelling units wherever previous ones are swept away by rain.

  Our parish has attempted to arrest the deteriorating situation by identifying a few of the most vulnerable residents, - particularly the aged, through the Sponsor a Grant-Parent Programme, Thanks to HelpAge International of London. This is in addition to our Assistance to the poor Programme mentioned above.
  Although the residents' response to our efforts is encouraging, our limited resources, once again, are our main constrain.
  Much as the parish would wish to help, on this, because of limited resources, represents "a drop in the ocean".

  The parish has also a social welfare program for the refugees and most destitutes..
  There is also a family life education and counseling services at the parish.

  The Jesuit Hakimani Center (JHC)
  The Center works towards the eradication of poverty by realizing research on the reality of poverty in Nairobi slums, where live more than have the population of Nairobi, Kenya.

  Every term Hakimani Center realizes a survey of the Nairobi Basic Needs Basket, based in 14 slums. The survey tries to answer the question: How much does a household living in an informal settlement in Nairobi spend in a month?

  They also gather the information of the whole year and publish the Survey with a study for the whole year. The Nairobi Basic Needs Basket survey samples 280 households in fouteen locations and captured their composition and education levels, their income and expenditure and their economic activities.

  The Center realizes also other studies on the National Budget, Debt, etc.

  • The 2006 first half-year Report on the Nairobi Basic Needs Basket
  • Kenya's National Budget 2006: A commentary by Mugo Phares Kirii