VSO’s funding has been reducing for a number of years, but now VSO – and other international charities – are facing unprecedented pressures. Our vital work with people facing extreme poverty is at risk. In solidarity and with hope, will you keep changing lives?
VSO has worked hard to adapt to the pressures of recent years. Difficult decisions have been made, while staying true to our core belief in the unique power of volunteering. But the commitments we have made to work with communities around the world to achieve long-term change are being put at risk.
Events are moving fast and people like Beth, who have the least, are facing the greatest hardships. Can you help?
We do not want to turn away volunteers or leave communities behind, like those in Dandora, Kenya. In Dandora, 2,000 tonnes of waste piles up in the enormous dump every day.1 The waste dump is East Africa’s biggest landfill site and is encroaching on people’s homes.
Women waste pickers are working every day to clean up their communities by picking through waste and taking it to recycling centres to sell. They earn little for their essential work, and face abuse from residents who see their job as ‘dirty.’
A day in the life of Beth – an essential waste picker
Beth and her three young children, aged nine, six and three, are among around the 140,000 people living in these extremely challenging conditions in the Dandora slum.2
The roof on their house leaks and there is no running water. Their home is next to a river, ridden with harmful diseases and is not a safe place for her children to be near. Beth struggled to provide her children with daily meals and could not afford to buy their school uniforms.
Beth experienced discrimination within her community and found it difficult to find work as many jobs are male dominated such as in construction and manufacturing. Every day, Beth has no choice but to join other women on the rubbish dump.
She works in dangerous and unhygienic conditions. Beth does not own any protective equipment or clothing so she must pick waste with her bare hands where sharp objects like razers or broken glass could cut her.
Unable to afford childcare, Beth faces an impossible decision. She must either leave her young children at home unattended or bring them to the rubbish dump. At home, they are at danger of playing with dirty river water and getting sick or drowning. At the rubbish dump, they are at risk of injury or worse. But Beth has no other option.
Sadly, after an exhausting day picking through waste to haul to the recycling centre to sell, did not get a fair price for her work. Beth’s work was disrespected and underpaid, as the big recycling centres only care about making big profit margins. She barely made enough to feed her children each day.
During this critical time, will you send a gift to keep changing lives of more women like Beth?
Your support today could help change the lives of women like Beth
In solidarity and with hope, your support means VSO can be there for more women waste pickers like Beth.
Thanks to VSO supporters, Beth goes to work knowing she will be safe. She says, “The protective clothing [VSO supplied] has made my job so much easier. With boots, I can waste pick in trickier areas and with gloves, I can sort waste without being cut.”
Beth now attends training led by expert VSO volunteers helping her to earn a vital income. She has her dignity back and holds her head high, knowing she is doing a vital job for the community. Beth has learnt how to sort and prioritise different types of waste so she can unlock the value of the waste she collects.
She now knows to remove labelling and prepare the rubbish so recycling centres will pay more money. VSO also put Beth in touch with a reliable buyback centre, who pays women waste pickers nearly double the amount they were previously earning.
Before VSO worked with Beth, she previously struggled to provide one meal a day for her children. Now, she can give them three meals.
VSO volunteers are also training Beth on financial literacy to enable her to budget and save money. She has also learnt vital life skills including family planning and how to maintain peace at home.
Beth says, “VSO taught us a lot about entrepreneurship. I hope to set up a small business so I can provide my children with the best possible start in life.”
In solidarity and with hope, together we can help more women like Beth build brighter futures
Women like Beth have been supported by the incredible training given by VSO volunteers, but there are so many others facing the same daily challenges.
By donating today, you could help ensure that more women like Beth get access to protective equipment and clothing, and training so they can earn enough money to build a brighter future ahead for themselves and their children, breaking the cycling of poverty.
We must keep our commitments to supporting women like Beth to enable them to lift themselves free of poverty. I know you believe in the power of volunteering to change lives for good.
In solidarity and with hope, will you stand with us? Please donate whatever you can today to help VSO create lasting change.
In solidarity. With hope. Will you keep changing lives?
Read more
Keeping our commitments to communities, including women waste pickers
VSO’s funding has been reducing for a number of years, but now we are facing unprecedented pressures. In solidarity and with hope, your support means VSO can be there for more women waste pickers like Beth.
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