Empowering Kariobangi through Education, Innovation and Solar Cooking
Education is the cornerstone of community development and poverty alleviation. In Kariobangi—a neighborhood on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya—over 100,000 residents live without access to basic services.
Surrounded by multiple informal settlements and facing a severe shortage of public schools, children growing up here face a high risk of generational poverty.
To break this cycle, Asulma Centre Self Help Group (Asulma), a local grassroots organization, has partnered with Engineers Without Borders Sweden (EWB-SWE). Together, we are dedicated to providing children with safe, affordable, high-quality education while simultaneously pioneering sustainable energy solutions.
A Unified, Sustainable Facility
Currently, Asulma operates across multiple scattered, rented facilities—an arrangement that is financially draining, logistically impractical, and unsafe for students.
Our solution is to build a unified, purpose-built facility that houses both the school and the Integrated Solar Cooking business under one roof. This initiative serves as a pilot project for EWB-SWE to pioneer large-scale, modular construction in East Africa.
By utilizing refurbished shipping containers as the primary load-bearing structures, the design will:
Enhance Safety: Minimize construction time at heights, eliminating major on-site hazards.
Lower Carbon Footprint: Drastically reduce the need for high-emission materials like traditional cement and concrete.
Milestone Update & Next Steps
We have achieved a major milestone: the purchase of the land has been successfully completed with the guidance of a local solicitor.
With the foundation now in place, our next critical step is securing funding for the construction phase. The success of this facility will not only transform Kariobangi but also serve as a scalable model for empowering underserved communities across East Africa.
The Solar Cooking Initiative
Many families in Kariobangi cook with charcoal and firewood. This contributes to deforestation and exposes people to harmful smoke, which can cause serious respiratory illnesses.
To address these challenges, the Asulma compound is launching an Integrated Solar Cooking (ISC) enterprise. This initiative will provide a clean, environmentally friendly way to cook, reduce the use of charcoal and firewood, and create valuable local jobs.
Images from the project
Location:
Kairobangi, Nairobi, Kenya
Number of people served:
+ 500
Contributing to the UN SDGs:
