FANYA MAMBO FOUNDATION 2012

Much greetings,

I hope this finds you well and with the best of health. Just want to keep you on the loop and to let you in on Fanya Mambo future plans.

Its been 15 months since the inception of Fanya Mambo and it has certainly proved to be an eventful time. Against a background of major setbacks with our organization that included, delay in getting our certificate,one of us being involved in a major car crash and major catastrophic occurrences in Kenya like the worst drought to hit the horn of Africa in 50 years that resulted in three million Kenyans facing starvation, emergence of Al-Shabaab in Kenya, and major flooding displacing thousands,killing others and triggering fears of worse times to come due to food shortage caused by maize rotting in farms after the prolonged rains, we have as an organization, experienced serious capacity strains. During this trying times, the realization the millions of those who failed, failed because they gave up just when they were about to succeed and knowing that only a child wants what he cant have are what kept us going as an organization. It must be acknowledged then that it is during this period that we managed to evolve from being a program into being a fully registered non-profit foundation on our own.

As a guy known as Will Rodgers famously said, " Even if you are on the right track, you will be ran over if you just sit there!". Our primary focus this year therefore should be broadening our focus areas to be able to maximize our potential. Additionally, we need to initiate a number of programs focusing highly on enhancing our sustainability levels. We also need to enhance community participation in our operation areas through ideas like community clean-up exercise while implementing our future projects therefore enabling them get educated on benefits of proper recycling habits.

Gearing Fanya Mambo towards proper sustainability and on our quest to broaden our focus areas, we built using Eco-blocks and opened a small eatery that is currently operational and is slowly picking up in Buruburu, Fanya Mambo is set to benefit as part of the profits will be pumped back to our projects. After finally getting our registration certificate that enables us to initiate community development projects anywhere in the country as opposed to being limited to working in Nairobi only as used to be the case, we recently acquired a six acre piece of land in Nyanza Province that has several clean drinking water springs and a permanent stream. The land is set to be transformed into an Integrated Fish Farm and Appropriate Technologies Center.

Like the African proverb goes..."Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must ran faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. it doesn't matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion. When the sun comes up you better start running!" This is exactly what we are doing, running, running and running. Mid next month, work is set to begin on the creation of the proposed integrated Fish Farm and Appropriate Technologies Center. The first phase of the construction work will include clearing of the property and fencing.

All through the construction period that is set to last for at least 15 months, we will be initiating Eco-friendly construction and farming methods for the betterment of our planet and its future inhabitants. We will construct using the Earth-bag technique,Ferro-cement and Stabilized Soil Blocks building structures like composting toilets, farm ponds, guest houses among others.

We intend to keep you posted on the developments and that's why i take this opportunity to invite you and your friends too to follow us on this blog as we run through this year.

I leave you with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, certainly one of the more quotable people who ever passed through this planet. Here is the quotation "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... to leave the world a better place.... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!". I share this today because we made it through the past and are in the beginning of the future and we definitely need inspiration as we run hard into the future.

Happy New year and stay blessed~~~~~

The Fanya Mambo " Old Trafford"Eating Place

As one of our income generating activities, we have embarked on the construction of a unique eatery in Nairobi's Buruburu Estate Phase two. In line with our commitment to green construction methods,Parts of the wall and the furniture in this structure are to be made out of Eco-blocks. Not to mention that we will strive to avoid using charcoal and other unsustainable sources of energy once we are up and running!!

In the meantime we have already constructed the steel framework of the structure and also, the roof is already up. We are now collecting used plastic bottles and trash for making Eco-blocks that are to build the furnitures and parts of the wall. Hopefully in six weeks time, we shall be done with the construction part of the project and will be ready to open our doors to the public.

So keep your heads up and pass the word around!>>>> we will keep on keeping you posted as we keep going!!

Fanya Mambo Program realizes that in one moment within the development humanity, we broke the circle of life and left the respect for nature behind and without thinking we have contaminated all what we need to survive>>water, air and soil. Now we need to understand the consequences this contamination brings to the human being and the universe at large.

To make our life quality better and save our planet, we need to change our attitude and live in harmony with nature. Let’s take care of our trash! Let’s create a recycling culture! We need all the ideas which can help to repair and recycle our broken circle. Only then can we ensure a good life quality for all future generations!

The Eco-brick is the fundamental innovation of FANYA MAMBO in search of simple and realizeable solutions for depositing plastic trash in a more effecient way, thus converting highly contaminating waste into ecological and local construction material with low cost and high qualities.

The importance of putting value towards individual responsibilities of our own waste managements is becoming a worldwide goal, promoting a life without contamination,better life quality and respect for nature.For the urban slums, the Eco-bricks represents the only way of managing household plastic trash in an ecological consious way. The Eco-bricks combines the two major groups of household waste. Plastic PET bottles from water or soft drinks acts as the deposit for loose, clean and dry household plastic trash which gets compacted with a rod or stick and then sealed with its screw cap lid.This way trash gets separated and recyced in each home.

We have already embarked on educating school going children on the importance of recycling used plastic trash at home hence sharing the knowledge they have acquired through our program with their adult family members who don't attend school.In the pipelines, are plans to organize community clean-up exercises aimed at educating the public at large on the importance of recycling used plastic trash. While we strive to make a change, you too are free to join us in this noble effort and as always remember to invite all your friends too!!!

You can also follow Fanya Mambo's progress through our facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fanya-Mambo-Program/145021535539408 - or visit our website - http://www.solaceinternational.org/ for a more comprehensive understanding of the program.

Thanks>>>>

KEEPING ON KEEPING ON!!

As the year draws to an end, we the Fanya Mambo team, is very pleased with the progress of this program. When we first hit the ground with this idea, the neighborhood of Maringo Estate in Nairobi was in a very sorry state. You could see trash of all kinds littered almost everywhere but thanks to our initiative the local authorities now seems to be doing something. Recently i was shocked to notice them cleaning up a pile of garbage that we have been trying to wipe out but could not since we only recycle used plastic bottles and plastic bags, which in most cases turn out to be almost 50% of the pile. That means that even if we wipe out the plastics completely, the remaining garbage which is mainly organic also needs to be taken care of.

Its not only the local authority that is acting, i noticed another group that is also in this fight with us but from a different angle.Theirs is a much needed effort also, they are pressuring some of the major Supermarkets to look for alternative wrapping bags which are not made out of plastic. Going by the recent events, i can easily say that most of the affected parties have realized that "There is a time to joke around and there is a time to swallow a bone". Those my friends, are not my words but a proverb amongst my people.And as Chinua Achebe so famously observed, proverbs are the palm wine with which words are eaten.

Checkout the attached photos of our work so far!!

Project Manager: Benjamin Odea

Goals

1. Change behavior (littering)

2. Teach a vocational building skill (education)

3. Inform participants about the environment

Benefits

• Produces affordable building material

• Low overhead

• Easy to teach

• Creates finished works that can sustain moderate to

heavy use

• Recycles plastic bottles: a leading component of urban trash

• Is suited for community participation

• Seems to sell itself

Fanya Mambo means ”do things” in Swahili. It is the brainchild of Solace field director, Benjamin (Banze) Odera. Just returned from nine months in Guatemala overseeing the development of Casa del Niño childrens’ home, Odea has implemented The Fanya Mambo Program. This program seeks to address problems associated with a lack of jobs and job skills training, and the degradation of the urban landscape in Kenya and other cities across Africa.

One of the more successful green construction methods in Guatemala was the use of empty plastic bottles to create nearly free “eco-bricks”. This method lends itself to non-load bearing projects like interior walls, exterior walls or benches.

The program starts at the school level with students encouraged to bring in plastic bottles found locally. The bottles are then stuffed with plastic bags or small debris and capped to make “eco-bricks”. These eco-bricks are secured inside a structure of chicken wire or held fast by other means. A layer of ferro cement is placed over the top, and the structure is left to dry.

Banze has worked with Solace marketing consultant, Marcus Stanfill, to develop presentation materials for the Kenyan business and government leaders. The project is being entered into two US-based competitions for projects in international development.