Will you help mothers turn waste into a better future?
Women like Elizabeth working in Kenya's dumpsites face dangerous conditions and difficult choices - like choosing between food or clean water for their children.
It’s not fair. But with your help, it CAN change.
With training from VSO expert volunteers, women waste pickers can nearly double their income by gaining the skills to earn a fair price for their hard work. Your gift could help them provide both food and clean water for their children.
Donate today to help mothers turn waste into food and a better future. Be a changemaker.
Will you help ensure women’s futures aren’t thrown away?
Dandora, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, is home to 140,000 people and receives up to 2,000 tonnes of waste daily from across the city. Among the dangerous, filthy waste, women like Elizabeth work tirelessly, collecting recycling to sell and feed their families.
Without protective equipment, they face cuts, infections, and disease. Living nearby in cramped slums with waste spilling into their homes, many women have no choice but to bring their children with them to the dumpsites, where they risk tragic accidents amidst heavy machinery. Despite their essential work, women are exploited, often viewed as “dirty” and given unfairly low prices for their hard efforts.
Elizabeth has two children. They live in an unsafe neighbourhood near a railway line with unreliable electricity and contaminated water. She works hard every day to support her family, but she barely earns enough for food.
With the help of VSO volunteers, Elizabeth is now learning how to sort waste more efficiently so she can increase her income and afford food and clean water. She dreams of a better life for her children, and now she’s getting closer to achieving that goal.
With your help, we can reach more women like Elizabeth with life-changing resources. With your support, expert VSO volunteers can help women:
- Work safely (everyone is provided with protective clothing).
- Live safely in an area where there are high levels of crime and drug and alcohol abuse.
- Sort waste, which will enable them to get a better price.
- Prioritise items that have a higher value.
- Use a buyback centre that will give them a fair price for the waste they pick.
- Keep children safe. By building affordable childcare centres near the dumpsites, giving mothers a safe place to leave their children while they work, and allowing them to focus on their jobs without fear for their children's safety.
- VSO has an ambitious plan to help 3,900 waste pickers to improve their livelihoods and for 6,000 tonnes of waste to be collected. Will you help?
Please, donate today, and help make sure women’s futures aren’t thrown away.
Here is how every £1 is spent
We value every gift that you give, and will always put it straight to work as quickly as we can. In 2023-24, 85p of every £1 you gave went directly towards tackling poverty worldwide.15p was spent on the day-to-day running of the charity and raising the next £1 so that we can help even more people this year.
Our promise to you
It's important to us that you feel completely confident and comfortable in supporting VSO. As part of our promise to you:
- We will always treat your personal information with the strictest confidence.
- We will be transparent with how your donations are spent.
- We will always be in control of your support